Ismihan Sultan Madrasa Roots Live On in Fatih School

A middle school in Istanbul’s Fatih district stands on the site of a 16th-century Ottoman madrasa. According to TRT Haber, the building behind Fethiye Imam Hatip Middle School traces back to the Ismihan Sultan Madrasa, founded in 1573 by an Ottoman princess. Today it teaches about 500 students.

The school sits inside the same historic complex as the Fethiye Mosque. Its story shows how one building can serve as a religious school, a shelter and a primary school over several centuries.

From Ismihan Sultan Madrasa to Fethiye Madrasa

A madrasa is a traditional Ottoman school for religious and, later, wider education. The source says Ismihan Sultan, daughter of Sultan Selim II and wife of Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, had the first madrasa built in 1573.

In 1590, Sinan Pasha, a grand vizier under Murad III, had a madrasa built under his own name on the same site. People called it the Fethiye Madrasa. It was built in the courtyard of the Fethiye Mosque, a former church that Murad III ordered converted into a mosque.

That church was the Byzantine Pammakaristos Church. Reference works such as Archnet date its conversion to 1591.

Rebuilt in the late Ottoman era

According to the report, the current building began teaching as a madrasa in 1903. Between 1911 and 1915 it was rebuilt in honour of Musa Kazım Efendi, a late Ottoman shaykh al-Islam (the empire’s chief religious authority) and acting head of the Evkaf Nezareti, the Ministry of Pious Foundations. The new structure followed the plan of the earlier madrasa.

During the Second Constitutional Era, reforms opened the institution to students who wanted to study modern sciences alongside religious subjects.

How a madrasa became a public school

The Tevhid-i Tedrisat Law, adopted on 3 March 1924, unified education and closed the madrasas. Their students moved to other institutions. The empty building first housed people who had lost their homes in fires.

Education returned the same year. Asım Özel, the director of Çandarlı Kara Halil Numune School, was looking for a sturdy replacement for his school’s old wooden building. His efforts led to the madrasa being vacated. Workers removed walls between small rooms, and the school moved in during 1924.

The institution then changed names several times:

• It served as the 6th Primary School for a time.
• It became Fethiye Primary School in the 1948-1949 school year.
• It split into two primary schools in 1953, and the second closed in 1959.
• It became Fethiye Elementary School in 1995-1996.
• It was converted to Fethiye Imam Hatip Middle School in 2012-2013.

Daily life in a historic Fatih building

Principal Mehmet Ok told Anadolu Agency that the school has about 500 students and teaches in two shifts across eight classrooms. He has worked there for two years.

Ok said the arched windows and the porches under the roof give the building a historic feel. He called working there a privilege and said the building must be carefully protected. He thanked the state and Fatih Municipality for their efforts to preserve it.

The account of the building’s phases comes from TRT Haber’s report. It is a useful reminder that many Istanbul landmarks have layered histories, from Byzantine church to Ottoman complex to modern school.

Source: TRT Haber
Featured image: Brad Hostetler / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0