Rum Mehmed Pasha Mosque

The Rum Mehmed Pasha Mosque (Turkish: Rum Mehmet Paşa Camii) is an old Ottoman mosque located in a large and densely populated district of Üsküdar, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Rum Mehmed Pasha Mosque is located close to the Bosphorus waterfront and Şemsi Pasha, Yeni Valide and Mihrimah Sultan historical mosques located in the Üsküdar district. It is the first mosque to be built on the Asian (Anatolian) side of Istanbul following its takeover and collapse of the Eastern Roman Empire.

History

The mosque was built in 1471 for the Grand Vizier Rum Mehmed Pasha, who was of Greek origin, and as such his epithet “Rum” meaning Roman, since the Greeks of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire referred to themselves as “Romans”. The mosque combines architectural elements of Ottoman and Byzantine styles, built of stone and brick. It was restored in 1953.