Address : Sidi Ben Ziad Street

At the beginning of the 17th century, the Turks, whose political position was stabilized, wanted to have their own mosque of rite hanéfite. It was the souverrain Youssef Dey (1610-1637), which made it build in 1616.

This prince who had succeeded Othman Dey inherited an organized country that thrived and realized, during a reign of about thirty years, a considerable work in the architectural and urban field.

The mosque which bears its name is placed in the middle of the network of the Turkish souks, in which are built: Souk El Trouk (reserved to the Turkish tailors), Souk El Birka (for the slaves) and Souk El Béchamkia (for the manufacturers of “Bichmak”: Turkish slippers).

This mosque assembeled the Turkish craftsmen for the prayer; its room of prayer is hypostyled, its columns and its capitals are from different sources, with however a prevalence of the hafside type. The groined vaults and the cupola preceding the mihrab are current modes of cover. The originality of this mosque lies in the replacement of the “minbar” (pulpit to be preached) of wood by the minbar in masonry, the presence of a “sedda” (high platform) for the khoujas (readers of Co ran), and by the shape of the minaret and the addition of the tomb of the founder in the court. These two elements skirt the street Sidi Ben Ziad and enrich the Medina with a beautiful prospect.

On the North-eastern angle of the mosque, rises, on a square basis, the minaret. It is the first model of the octagonal type in Tunis, it inspired all the minarets of the posterior Turkish mosques. This octagonal tower ends in a circular balcony, from where the muezzins, protected from the bad weather by a hood out of wooden, call with the prayer.

A lantern with pyramidal roof covered with tiles crowns the unit.

It shelters the grave of Youssef Dey and those from the members of his family.

It is really considered, like a peace of art. Of square plan, it presents on each face a large flanked central blind arcade of two floors of breaking up in flat-bottomed niches, the columns, angles posed on the two levels, reduce its silhouette considerably.