English: Mihrab of the mosque. Strolling Through Istanbul is rather harsh when writing “it was designed by Nikoğos Balyan, a grandson of the Kirkor whom we have already met as architect of the Nusretiye. He came at a bad period and it is only with difficulty that one can admire any of his buildings. The great cartwheel-like arches of this mosque seem particularly disagreeable; but the two very slender Corinthian minarets, one at each end of the palace-like structure that precedes the mosque, have a certain charm.” The mosque was begun by Bezmialem Valide Sultan, the wife of Sultan Mahmud II and the mother of Sultan Abdülhamid, who ordered it in 1852 but died before it was finished in 1853. It housed the Naval Museum from 1948-1961. After the museum moved to a new location the mosque was restored and reopened to worshippers in 1966.