Cornucopia Magazine

Cihangir Mosque

Pürtelaş Hasan Efendi Mh., Cihangir

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This small mosque was originally built in wood in 1559 for the hunchbacked son of Roxelana and Süleiman the Magnificent, who died of grief after his brother Şehzade Mehmed’s early death at the age of 22. The current mosque dates from 1889 and, unfortunately, is no longer wooden.

The mosque’s position allows it to have one of the best views of the Bosphorus and it is rumoured that its midday call to prayer inspired a poem by the English poet and gardener Vita Sackville-West who lived in Cihangir in 1911. The Turkish journalist Aslı Aydıntaşbaş pieces together Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson’s life in the city in Cornucopia 21.