Kazasker İvaz Efendi Mosque

A steep staircase leads to the narrow, timber-framed balcony of the Kazasker İvaz Efendi Mosque. Unlike the massive stone domes of Istanbul’s imperial mosques, this building sits tucked against a hillside, its upper story projecting outward over the street. Kazasker İvaz Efendi, a high-ranking legal official, commissioned the structure in fifteen eighty-five. Architect Sinan designed it to maximize a cramped urban plot, forcing the prayer hall upward and creating an intimate space where worshippers still gather above the bustling Ayvansaray slope.