İskender Baba Lodge

İskender Baba Tekke or Kaymakçı Tekke, a historic tekke from the Ottoman Period located in Ahmediye Neighborhood of Üsküdar district in Istanbul. It was commissioned by Mehmet Efendi, a Janissary aga. Construction of the tekke began in 1544 and it was opened for worship in the same year.

Originally built as a mosque, the building was converted into a tekke in 1752 by Kaymakçızade Sheikh Hacı Mehmet Efendi. The structure, repaired in 1800 by Safaizade Hacı Mehmet Efendi, was abandoned during the Republican period and demolished in the middle of 1945. The remaining brick-built İskender Baba Tomb and its cemetery have survived.

Between 2011 and 2013, through an organization arranged by the Üsküdar Municipality, İskender Baba Tekke was rebuilt in accordance with its original form.

In the original plan it was built as a mosque. Later its cemetery and the Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha Fountain were constructed in 1728. The area where the tekke stands is a square. Until the 2008 regulations, the area where the tekke is located was called Kefçe Dede Neighborhood. The mosque is very close to Malatyalı İsmail Ağa Mosque. The tomb of the tekke’s founder Mehmet Efendi is in the cemetery.