The Sahn-ı Seman Medrese, once an important center for the study of theology, law, medicine, astronomy, physics and mathematics, formed part of the Fatih Mosque.

[1] The church was the burial place of numerous Roman emperors, including Constantine the Great.

[3] The original complex included eight medreses, a library, a hospital (darüşşifa), a dervish inn (taphane), a caravanserai,[4] a market, a hamam, a primary school (mektep) a public kitchen (imaret) for poor and a collection of 280 shops.

The original complex covered an almost square area of 325 metres (1,066 feet) extending along the Golden Horn side of Fevzi Paşa Caddesi.

Commissioned by Sultan Mustafa III, the current mosque (designed on a completely different plan) was built between 1767 and 1771[4] by the architect Mehmet Tahir Ağa.

[6] The first Fatih Mosque had one central dome supported by a single semi-dome of the same diameter on the qibla side and suspended on four arches.

[1] Only the courtyard, main entrance portal and lower portions of the minarets survive from the original construction.

The present interior of the Fatih Mosque is essentially a copy of earlier designs invented by Sinan re-used repeatedly by himself and his successors throughout Istanbul (this technique is emulative of the Hagia Sophia).

The dervish inn, outside the southeast corner of the mosque precincts, has a courtyard supported by 16 different columns of verd antique and granite, probably salvaged from the Church of the Holy Apostles.

The graveyard beside the mosque contains the tombs (türbes) of Sultan Mehmed II and his consort Gülbahar Hatun.

The graveyard also contains the last resting places of many important state officials, including field marshal Gazi Osman Pasha whose tomb was designed by Kemaleddin Bey.