[1][2] Its name commemorates the "victory" which Mahmud II won by destroying the Janissaries in 1826, the year of the mosque's completion.

[1][7] It is sometimes described as belonging to the Empire style, but is considered by scholar Godfrey Goodwin and Doğan Kuban as one of the last Ottoman Baroque mosques.

[1][8] Ünver Rüstem describes the style as moving away from the Baroque and towards an Ottoman interpretation of Neoclassicism.

[2][9][8] The mosque was innovative in other details such as the greater use of vaults and stairways, the use of wood instead of stone for elements like stairs, and in the decoration of the dome where the traditional circular Arabic inscription is replaced with a vegetal foliate motif.

[11] From the outside, the mosque's most notable details are the extreme slenderness of its minarets[12][11] and its two Rococo-style sebils which have flamboyantly undulating surfaces.