Atik Valide Camiisi (Atik Valide Mosque)
The Atik Valide Mosque was designed by the architect Sinan and is one of the two large mosque complexes in Istanbul.
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Address
Valide İmaret Sok., Üsküdar
Visiting Hours
Daily, except prayer times.
Muslims pray five times each day. The precise timing of prayers often vary by a few minutes each day, therefore throughout a year there is a wide range of prayer times. The reason is that Islamic prayer times were traditionally set according to the movement of the sun.
Actually Islamic prayers are fixed at the same "time" period each day -- before dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset, and evening. Because of the rotation of the earth, the latitudes of the earth’s locations, daylight savings time, etc. -- the "times" (according to the clock) for these prayers change depending on time of day and location.
The Atik Valide Mosque was designed by the architect Sinan and is one of the two largest mosque complexes in Istanbul. Though perhaps not as spectacular as the Sülemaniye Mosque, it was built along a similar plan. A külliye, madrassa, primary school, dervish lodge, caravansary, hamam and a hospital are all found within the mosque complex.
The mosque was built in 1583 upon the orders of Valide Sultan Nurbanu, the wife of Selim III and the mother of Murat II, on the highest hill in Üsküdar. The last great work of the architect Sinan, he incorporated granite, marble and tile into its construction.
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Mosque is a place of worship for Muslims. It comes from the Arabic word 'masjid' which literally means "a place for prostration". Mosques are also places where Muslims come together for different purposes such as education, social gatherings, public meetings, exhibitions, lectures etc. Although there is no specific requirement for mosques in terms of their architecture, one can see some common features inside and outside of many mosques such as minarets, domes, ablution areas, prayer niche (mihrab), pulpit (minbar) and so on.
Muslims are obliged to perform the ritual worship 5 times a day. They are not required to attend a mosque for each of these prayers however in order to interact with the community they are encouraged to pray in congregation. Friday noon is the only time in a week when Muslims must definitely join the congregational prayer in a mosque after which they can continue their work, education or other commitments.
Azan or the call for prayer is a vocal announcement that one can hear from minarets 5 times a day. The call to prayer is made live -even early in the morning- by a person called 'muazzin'. The muazzins are usually chosen from people with loud and beautiful voices and trained over years to make this announcement beautifully and invite people to worship.
From the Atatürk Airport
Take the public bus YH 1 ( Atatürk Airport– Yenikapı İdo) and get off at Yenikapı İdo Ferry Terminal
Take Marmaray and get off at Üsküdar
Take the public bus 6 (Küçük Çamlıca – Bulgurlu – Üsküdar) and get off at S.Mehmet Paşa
From Taksim
Take the public bus 40 T (İstinye Dereiçi – Taksim) and get off at Beşiktaş B. University stop,
Take the ferry to Üsküdar,
From Üsküdar Take the public bus 6 (Küçük Çamlıca – Bulgurlu – Üsküdar) and get off at S.Mehmet Paşa stop.
