Nuruosmaniye Mosque

This guide to Nuruosmaniye Mosque in Istanbul follows Sultan Mahmud I's unprecedented 1748 decision to hire Simeon Kalfa, a Greek Christian master builder, to design an imperial Ottoman mosque. It traces how Kalfa broke two centuries of tradition with a curved horseshoe courtyard and Baroque details borrowed from Europe, and how Mahmud died before seeing it finished. The guide also follows the mosque's long relationship with the Grand Bazaar just beyond its western gate.