[1] Located on Sarıgüzel Street in İskenderpaşa neighborhood of Fatih, it was endowed in 1505–06 by İskender Pasha, who lived at the time of Mehmed the Conqueror (1432–1481) and served as a vizier of Bayezid II (reigned 1481–1512).

The mosque takes its other name "Terkim Masjid" from the Janissary barracks situated in the vicinity in the past.

The entrance of the mosque is enclosed in a rectangular frame and decorated with a marble muqarnas on its top.

In the center of the dome ceiling, Quran ayah inscriptions are painted, which are enclosed in hand-carved ornaments.

[1] Mehmet Zahit Kotku (1897–1980), notable Sheikh of a Naqshbandi tariqa, a major Sunni Islam spiritual order of Sufism, served as the mosque's imam.

[3][4] Among Kotku's followers were many prominent Islamist politicians including Recai Kutan (born 1930), Necmettin Erbakan (1926–2011), Turgut Özal (1927–1993), Süleyman Demirel (1924–2015) and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 1954), who later became political party leaders and served as prime minister and president.

[5][6] Kotku supported Erbakan in 1969 as he co-founded the National Order Party (Turkish: Milli Nizam Partisi, MNP).

[4] Under Kotku's leadership, the Naqshbandi order had an important role in Turkish political life.

The MNP was banned after the 1971 Turkish military memorandum on the grounds that it violated the articles of the Constitution of Turkey dealing with secularism.

They invest in such places, and for this reason the rental and sale prices of homes in the neighborhood of İskender Pasha Mosque are extraordinarily high.