Guide
The tomb of Pertev Paşa stands on Beybaba Sokağı in Eyüpsultan, on the Golden Horn side of the Eyüp Mosque. Pertev Paşa, a vizier under Süleyman the Magnificent and Selim II, had it built by Mimar Sinan before his death.
The tomb is rectangular in plan. Evliya Çelebi records that it had an ornamented dome; whether the wooden dome pulled down in the 1930s was the one he described is not known, and the tomb has stood open to the sky ever since. It has classical iron-grilled windows and a small prayer niche on the qibla side.
Over the arched door is a marble inscription of six couplets written in four lines in the sülüs hand. Composed by the poet Nihâdî, it gives the details of Pertev Paşa's death on 9 October 1572, and in that respect the inscription has the character of a document.
Fifteen graves stand within the building, accepted as dating from between 1570 and 1600 and thought to belong to Pertev Paşa's children and other members of his family. The cenotaphs are worked with relief rosettes and carvings of plants and flowers; the marble feet of some are finely carved, and the turban stones are worked so well that they recall sculpture.
