Guide
The tomb sits in the middle of the lower medrese courtyard of the Zal Mahmud Paşa complex in Eyüp, which Mimar Sinan built for the vizier of Murad III's reign and for his wife Şah Sultan, a daughter of Selim II. The ground here slopes, and the architect used it: the mosque and one medrese stand on the upper level, the tomb with the second medrese and the fountain on the lower. Şah Sultan's endowment deed of 1569 shows the group was first planned as medrese, tomb and fountain alone; the mosque was added to the programme after her marriage to Zal Mahmud Paşa in 1574, and building was still going on when the couple drew up a joint deed in October 1577.
The tomb is octagonal in plan with an octagonal body, covered by a double dome, and a three-bay canopy stands before its door. What makes the inside unusual is the handling of the space: four buttresses carrying the dome turn the interior into an eyvan plan, and the shallow, wide eyvans left between dome and walls are roofed with mirror vaults, which gives the small building a considerable presence. Inside lie the wooden cenotaphs of Zal Mahmud Paşa and of Şah Sultan, who by tradition died on the same day as her husband; who the third cenotaph belongs to is not known. Later burials formed a small graveyard around the building.
The complex has had a hard history. It was ruinous by the reign of Mahmud II and repaired on his orders in 1825; the earthquake of 1894 did great damage, bringing down the mosque's minaret and its vaults on the west side. Repairs begun in 1955 ended with the mosque reopening for prayer in 1963, and the buildings have been under thorough restoration since.
