Gazanfer Ağa Medresesi

Gazanfer Ağa and his brother Cafer Ağa were taken prisoner during the campaign of Hungary, and later entered the service of Şehzade Selim by converting into Islam. Şehzade Selim, before he ascended to the throne in 1566, invited Gazanfer Ağa and his brother Cafer Ağa to the palace to join his household, which they could do only as eunuch. Cafer died during surgery, but Gazanfer worked in senior positions for 30 year, before being executed by fatwa in the rebellion in 1603. Gazanfer Ağa was the Head of the White Eunuchs had been captured when he was a boy; he became a servant of the future Sultan Selim II who convinced him to become an eunuch. With the favour of Nurbanu and Safiye Sultan he became one of the most influential persons in the government. Gazanfer Ağa built a small medrese and his own turbe near the Aqueduct of Valens and at a short distance from a small hammam designed by Mimar Sinan. Built in 1599, the Gazanfer Ağa Complex contained a medrese (religious school), sabil (water fountain) and a turbe (cemetary). The contrast in the typically Ottoman architecture, with its multiple domes and small turrets, is amplified by the shadowing Roman aqueduct next door.