Mosques are places of worship for Muslims. Praying five times a day with special services on Fridays and religious festivals the congregation gathers in the mosque. As well as being places of worship the mosques fulfill social and educational needs. Playing an important part in the life ol an Islamic city, the mosque is also a place to discuss problems, to meet and where religious men give lectures and Quranic lessons. Believers encouraged and praised by Islam to build mosques adorned the cities with mosques of varying style and design. Mosques with their graceful minarets rising skyward are the most important feature of the Islamic city's skyline. In Istanbul, built by state leaders, wealthy benefactors and the people, mosques are olten a central part of an Islamic complex
The 'Külliye' is the complex of buildings around a mosque made up of school and library, a hospice, fountains providing clean water, shelters for the needy, Turkish baths and soup kitchen for the poor. Shops which bring income to the complex, structures calculating prayer times along with the graveyard make up the complex. And this architectural style is quite uniuqe to Istanbul.
It is not obligatory that all these structures are present in a complex.

Studying the Fatih, Bayezid, Şehzade, Süleymaniye and Sultan Ahmed Mosques built by the Sultans we see most ol these structures present, providing for the special needs of the people m the area.

Smaller complexes are lound in neighborhoods containing only-some of the above facilities. Although lound in some other towns, the complexes are very much a city planning feature uniuque to Istanbul.

The large complexes were built in the central pan ol the old city with the city proper developing gradually around these complexes which gave the city much ol its character. We will list some of the Istanbul's mosques below. (s2)