This late Ottoman period mosque was constructed as a külliye (a complex) and consists of a tekke, a guest house, a türbe (masoleum), a fountain and a library. The mosque and the guest houses are wooden and are built in the classical architecture of the late Ottoman period. The türbe, library and the fountain are built in the Art Nouveau style. The complex was primarily built to be a guest house for the sheikhs and Islamic scholars who visit the city.

The construction of the mosque and the complex was commissioned by Sultan Abdülhamid II and finished in 1887. Named after Ertuğrul Gazi, the father of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, Osman I, it is dedicated to the Libyan Sufi leader, Sheikh Zafir, who had became Abdülhamid’s spiritual guide when he was still a prince. When Zafir passed away in 1903, his türbe was constructed next to the mosque by the Italian architect Raimondo D’Aronco between 1905 and 1906. The library and the fountain were also added around this time. The Sheikh’s two brothers replaced Zafir as the sheikhs of the tekke after his death and when they passed way, they were also buried in the same türbe.

In Cornucopia 46, Paolo Girardelli describes D’Aronco’s work in Istanbul in his article ‘D’Aronco: Architect to the New Society’.