Şakirin Mosque

Mosque · ÜsküdarIstanbul, Turkey

Şakirin Mosque did something no Turkish mosque had done before: its interior was designed by a woman. Opened in 2009 at the edge of Üsküdar's vast Karacaahmet cemetery, it was raised by the Semiha Şakir Foundation in memory of İbrahim and Semiha Şakir — its name is a play on the family's, Arabic for "the thankful ones". The classical architect Hüsrev Tayla shaped the outer shell; inside, designer Zeynep Fadıllıoğlu set Ottoman convention aside for an aluminium dome, glazed walls on three sides, and a prayer hall that reads almost as sculpture. Step in and the eye is pulled two ways. Overhead hangs an asymmetrical chandelier of glass drops, hung low like rain caught mid-fall, each bead scattering light across the worshippers below. Ahead, the mihrab curves in turquoise, a sculptural shell rather than the usual flat niche. The minbar is moulded acrylic worked with leaves and carnations, and gold calligraphy is written across the tall windows, so you read the verses against the daylight coming through the glass. It remains a working neighbourhood mosque, its doors open between prayers to visitors who come as much for the design as for the calm.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The chandelier was aimed upstairs — Fadıllıoğlu laid out the women's gallery around a clear, unobstructed view of it, so the balcony, not the floor, holds the intended vantage.
The pulpit is a modern hand — artist Tayfun Erdoğmuş swapped the carved marble or walnut of a classical minbar for a softer moulded form; look closely for the flowers pressed into its surface.
The dome repeats in the courtyard — William Pye's domed water sculpture echoes the aluminium dome above it; wait for the water to settle and the mosque bends across its wet curve.
The empty hall is the point — slip in between prayer times, when the room clears and its quiet, modern space can actually be felt rather than crossed.

Things to do

1
Stand beneath the falling light
Walk to the centre of the prayer hall and look straight up. From directly under the glass-drop chandelier the beads align into a single shimmering column. Stay still a moment and watch the light shift across them as people cross the room and daylight changes through the surrounding glazed walls.
2
Catch the mihrab glowing
Step back toward the entrance and face the turquoise mihrab across the hall. Watch how its surface shifts with the hour — even and flat at midday, warming as the sun drops and light slants through the calligraphy windows. Give it a minute; the colour is never quite the same twice.
3
Cross into the old cemetery
Leave by the courtyard and step into neighbouring Karacaahmet, one of Istanbul's oldest and largest burial grounds. Walk its shaded cypress lanes among centuries of carved headstones. The jump from a glass-and-aluminium mosque into this ancient forest of graves is the sharpest contrast in the whole neighbourhood.