In the light of archival documents, primary schools Outside the Walls of İstanbul (Rumelian side)

Since the first revelation, importance of education for the religion Islam was addressed seriously by the Prophet Muhammed and it was recommended that all Muslims, both men and women, had to get educated. Following his advice, necessary steps were taken regarding education in the following periods. Each state has built and developed its own education system and passed this on to the next generation. The first stage in education in the Ottoman Empire was the primary schools. These schools known as taş mektep, mahalle mektebi, darüttalim, muallimhane, mektephane, mekteb-i ibtidai were beginner level educational institutions where children from age 4 to 12 were taught Quran, reading-writing, a concise manual of Islamic faith, worship and ethics and simple mathematics. These primary schools providing free education were non-governmental foundations established by wealthy people. From an architectural point of view, these structures were usually a single-class, sometimes two-classes, having a rectangular or square plan, covered with vault, dome or hipped roof and built with cut stone or brick-stone mixed and were frequently two-storey schools. They were mostly built within a complex. However, there were also built separately. Considering the whole of Istanbul, it can be observed that primary schools were built mainly within the walled city. However, there were a considerable amount of schools that were built, known as outside the walls, in bilad-ı selase (Galata, Eyüp and Üsküdar). In this study, the changes and current situation of the primary school, which were located in today's 5 district, known as outside the city walls's in Rumelian side, have been revealed from an architectural point of view in line with the information gathered from library surveys and archive documents obtained from various institutions.