Sultan Murad II built the mosque, with groundbreaking in 1438 and completion in 1447. The architect is unknown. It was originally called the New Mosque, to distinguish it from the nearby Old Mosque.
The plan is nearly square, divided into a courtyard with a central fountain and a prayer hall. The central dome has an outer diameter of 79 feet (24 m) in the infobox, while Doğan Kuban cites 89 feet (27 m). Four minarets stand at the courtyard corners, and the southwestern one, over 220 feet (67 m), was the tallest Ottoman minaret to that time. Its three balconies give the mosque its name.
It is built of cut stone, particularly Burgaz limestone. A fire in 1732 and an earthquake in 1752 damaged it, and Mahmud I ordered repairs.
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