The mosque was commissioned by Mahmud II and built between 1822 and 1826 in the Tophane neighbourhood.[1][2] Its name commemorates the "victory" which Mahmud II won by destroying the Janissaries in 1826, the year of the mosque's completion.[1][2] Mahmud II also built a new artillery barracks and parade ground near the mosque at the same time, replacing the barracks which had been built on this site by his predecessor Selim III and which had been recently destroyed by the Janissaries. This continued Tophane's association with the age of reforms initiated by Selim III.[3][1]
Sometime between 1835 and 1839 Mahmud II erected what is now the oldest clock tower in Istanbul, the Tophane Clock Tower, near the mosque. The tower was rebuilt in more monumental form by Abdulmejid in 1848 or 1849.[4][5][6]
Architecture
The mosque is the first major imperial work by Krikor Balian, from the prominent Balian family of Armenian-Ottoman architects.[1][7] It is sometimes described as belonging to the Empire style, but is considered by scholar Godfrey Goodwin and Doğan Kuban as one of the last Ottoman Baroque mosques.[1][8] Ünver Rüstem describes the style as moving away from the Baroque and towards an Ottoman interpretation of Neoclassicism.[7] Goodwin also describes it as the last in a line of late imperial mosques that started with the Nuruosmaniye Mosque in the 18th century.[1]
The mosque follows the model of Selim III's imperial mosque in Üsküdar, as seen in some of its details and in the portico and double-winged imperial pavilion fronting the mosque.[2][9][8] The mosque was innovative in other details such as the greater use of vaults and stairways, the use of wood instead of stone for elements like stairs, and in the decoration of the dome where the traditional circular Arabic inscription is replaced with a vegetal foliate motif.[10] Despite its relatively small size the mosque's tall proportions creates a sense of height, which may the culmination of a trend that began with the Ayazma Mosque.[11] From the outside, the mosque's most notable details are the extreme slenderness of its minarets[12][11] and its two Rococo-style sebils which have flamboyantly undulating surfaces.[11]
^Rüstem, Ünver (2016). "Victory in the Making: The Symbolism of Istanbul's Nusretiye Mosque". In Ohta, Alison; Rogers, Michael; Rosalind Wade, Haddon (eds.). Art, Trade and Culture in the Islamic World and Beyond: From the Fatimids to the Mughals: studies presented to Doris Behrens-Abouseif. Gingko Library. ISBN9781909942905.
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