Ishak Behlülzade

The first structure was build At the beginning of the 7th century by Princess Sopatra (daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Maurikios), and her friend Eustolia

During the Latin domination after the Fourth Crusade, the monastery disappeared.

It was rebuild as we can see it today In 1281 by Maria Palaiologina, illegitimate daughter of Emperor Michael VIII and widow of Abaqa, Khan of the Mongolian Il-Khanate, returned to Constantinople after an absence of 15 years. Since that time, the nunnery and the church got the appellation of Mouchliōtissa ("of the Mongols" in Greek).

Tradition holds that Sultan Mehmed II endowed the church to the mother of Christodoulos, the Greek architect of the mosque of Fatih, in acknowledgment of his work. The grant was confirmed by Bayazid II, in recognition of the services of the nephew of Christodoulos.

Saint Mary of the Mongols is one among the few Byzantine churches of Istanbul whose ancient dedication was never forgotten.

Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn‎; ca. 20 September 835 – 10 May 884) was the founder of the Tulunid dynasty that ruled Egypt and Syria between 868 and 905. Originally a Turkic slave-soldier, in 868 Ibn Tulun was sent to Egypt as governor by the Abbasid caliph. Within four years Ibn Tulun had established himself as a virtually independent ruler by evicting the caliphal fiscal agent, Ibn al-Mudabbir, taking over control of Egypt’s finances, and establishing a large military force personally loyal to himself. This process was facilitated by the volatile political situation in the Abbasid court and the preoccupation of the Abbasid regent, al-Muwaffaq, with the wars against the Saffarids and the Zanj Rebellion. Ibn Tulun also took care to establish an efficient administration in Egypt. After reforms to the tax system, repairs to the irrigation system, and other measures, the annual tax yield grew markedly. As a symbol of his new regime, he built a new capital, al-Qata’i, north of the old capital Fustat.

After 875/6 he entered into open conflict with al-Muwaffaq, who tried unsuccessfully to unseat him. In 878, with the support of al-Muwaffaq’s brother, Caliph al-Mu’tamid, Ibn Tulun took over the governance of Syria as well as the frontier districts with the Byzantine Empire, although control of Tarsus in particular proved tenuous. During his absence in Syria, his eldest son and deputy, Abbas, tried to usurp power in Egypt, leading to the imprisonment of Abbas and the nomination of Ibn Tulun’s second son, Khumarawayh, as his heir. The defection in 882 of a senior commander, Lu’lu’, to al-Muwaffaq, and the defection of Tarsus, forced Ibn Tulun to return to Syria. Now virtually powerless, al-Mu’tamid tried to escape from his brother’s control to Ibn Tulun’s domains but was captured by al-Muwaffaq’s agents, and Ibn Tulun convened an assembly of jurists at Damascus to denounce al-Muwaffaq as a usurper. His attempt in autumn 883 to bring Tarsus to heel failed, and he fell sick. Returning to Egypt, he died in May 884 and was succeeded by Khumarawayh.

Sultan al-Muayyad Shaykh was a Burgi or Circassian Mamluk who served as sultan between 1412 and 1421. Al-Maqrizi relates that during the reign of Farag ibn Barquq, al-Mu'ayyad, a great intriguer during a time of great intrigues, was captured and thrown into the prison on this site. He suffered terribly from the lice and the fleas, and vowed then that if he ever came to power he would transform the infested prison into a "saintly place for the education of scholars." Once he became sultan, he soon fulfilled his promise, spending some 40,000 dinars on its construction. "Marble was taken from everywhere", relates the 15th century historian al-Taghribirdi, "even from (private) houses and palaces ... The prize of marble in Egypt soon rose to astronomical height for the vast demand and the big dimensions of the mosque. Thus, what regards decoration and the use of marbles, this mosque became the most beautiful ever to be built in Cairo".
Numerous donkeys were occupied for days carrying away loads of bones of the dead found in the prison. Due to the Sultan's lavish endowments, the madrasa became one of the most prominent academic institutions of the 15th century. A large library was collected, and the most eminent scholars of the day filled professorial chairs. the most famous specialist in Quranic exegesis in Egypt, Ibn Hagar al-'Asqalani, was installed as lecturer in Shafi'i jurisprudence.
Finally, there was a great ceremony for its opening, when al-Mu'ayyad and his Mamluk entourage came down from the Citadel. According to reports, the water basin in the middle of the vast courtyard was filled with liquefied sugar and sweets were offered, along with lectures and much ceremony.

Salahuddin al Ayyubi participated in the struggle to save Egypt from the threat of Crusader invasion.

He brought Egypt into the unity of the Islamic world.

Before the conquest of Jerusalem in 1187, he destroyed the integrated army of the Crusaders in the Battle of Hattin.

He saved Jerusalem and an important part of the Eastern Mediterranean from the Crusader occupation.

Although he is known in history with this symbolic victory, his greater victory was achieved against the Crusaders 3rd invasion, in which the German, French, Sicilian, Italian Crusaders and all the settled Crusaders participated.  He won against the Crusade. With this victory, he was recorded as one of the greatest leaders in history.  It dealt a great blow to the determination of European kings to come to the East.  At the same time, he initiated a major development move in Egypt and Syria.  He brought about a great scientific awakening in the Islamic world with the military structure he developed and the madrasas he founded.  He became the symbol of the great liberation and development movement in the Islamic world, which started with Nûreddin and ended with the Ottoman Empire.

The Mamluks who grew up in his footsteps saved the Islamic world from the Mongol invasion.

Under the guidance of the ulama educated in the madrasahs opened during the reign of Nur al-Din and Selahaddin, the Ottoman Empire kept the Islamic world at the forefront as the world's greatest power for centuries.

His activities shook Catholic Europe and marked a turning point in the formation of modern Europe.  Likewise, with his and Nûreddin's activities, Ismailia came to the point of being erased from history, while Imamiye came to the fore, thus laying the groundwork for the Safavid State.  For this reason, Selâhaddîn-i Ayyubî is undoubtedly among the greatest names that changed world history.

Everybody visiting İstanbul knows this tower but do you know that the first flight in history was made from this tower. On 1632 Hazarfen Çelebi an Ottoman genius invented the formula for aerodynamics and made himself wings and flew from the tower to the Asian side over the bosphorus 3.358 meters to Üsküdar area.