Yeni Mosque

This guide to Istanbul's Yeni Mosque follows two Ottoman queen mothers separated by sixty-six years: Safiye Sultan, who began the mosque beside the Golden Horn in 1597 after clearing a Jewish commercial quarter, then lost everything the day her son the sultan died. It traces the decades the half-built shell stood exposed to the weather, and the 1660 fire that changed its fate. You'll meet Hatice Turhan Sultan, the second queen mother who saw an opportunity in the ruins.