film storage. In 2021 it reopened for worship after extensive restoration. Architecture Exterior This small mosque was built on a high terrace over a complex of vaulted shops, whose rents were intended to financially support the mosque complex. Its elevation makes it a more visible component of the Istanbul skyline. Narrow, twisting interior flights of steps in the corners give access to a spacious courtyard. The mosque has a double porch with five domed bays, from which projects a deep and low roof supported by a row of columns. Interior The building is basically an octagon inscribed in a rectangle. The main dome rests on four semi-domes; not on the axes but in the diagonals of the building. The arches of the dome spring from four octagonal pillars— two on the north, two on the south— and from piers projecting from the east and west walls. To the north and south are galleries supported by pillars and by small marble columns between them. İznik Tiling Sinan’s architecture is known for emphasizing the structure of the buildings over the internal decoration. The Rüstem Pasha Mosque marked a substantial deviation from his typical style (and traditional Ottoman architecture) as it relied heavily on İznik tiling instead of favouring a more sparse interior. The Anatolian town of İznik was the heart of the Ottoman ceramics industry, which became a central component of the empire’s artistic production after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. While it has been theorized that the tiling may have been inspired by Sinan’s wife Mihrimah, it could also be that Rüstem Pasha himself requested the tiling for economic reasons and to support a court artist specializing in floral designs. The Rüstem Pasha Mosque is famous for its large quantities of İznik tiles in a very wide variety of floral and geometric designs, which cover not only the façade of the porch but also the mihrab, minbar and walls. There are approximately 2300 tiles arranged in around 80 different patterns. These tiles exhibit the early use of Armenian bole, a tomato-red pigment that would become characteristic of İznik pottery. While this red hue is applied more thinly on most of the tiles, it was applied heavily on the tiles near the qibla wall and appeared scarlet in colour. The bright emerald green colour is only used in a panel added above an exterior doorway at a later date, and a