Sultan Ahmed I commissioned this mosque after the Peace of Zsitvatorok, a treaty seen as a blow to Ottoman prestige. Built from 1609 to 1617, it was the last great mosque of the classical Ottoman period. Its architect, Sedefkar Mehmed Agha, was a pupil of the master Mimar Sinan. He based the plan on Sinan's Şehzade Mosque and borrowed ideas from the neighboring Hagia Sophia.
A central dome 77 feet (23.5 m) across and 141 feet (43 m) high rises over the prayer hall, surrounded by four semi-domes and four smaller domes. Six minarets frame the building. Inside, 21,043 İznik tiles in more than fifty designs line the walls, and the blue paint above them gives the mosque its popular name.
It remains an active mosque, and non-Muslim visitors usually enter through two side entrances. A restoration that began in 2018 ended with its reopening in April 2023.
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