Nizamiye Masjid, Ottoman mosque in Midrand, South Africa

The Nizamiye Masjid is a Sunni mosque in Midrand, Gauteng, built to 80% of the scale of Edirne's Selimiye Mosque. Its main dome rises 31 metres and spans 24 metres, covered in 49 tonnes of lead, with four half-domes and 21 smaller domes. Four minarets stand 55 metres high, each with stairs to three platforms, and 232 stained glass windows light the interior.

The building was constructed between 2009 and 2012 following the vision of a Turkish businessman who wanted a mosque designed according to Ottoman principles. The project merged modern construction techniques with classical architectural forms to create a prayer house that was new to the region.

The name comes from the Nizamiyyas, 11th-century colleges founded by Nizam al-Mulk in the Seljuk Empire, not from an Indian dynasty. The complex also holds a bazaar with 11 shops whose revenue partly covers mosque expenses, and a private cemetery where Mehmet Remzi Efendi, an Ottoman diplomat who died in British custody in 1916, was the first burial.

The mosque stands on a 10-hectare site in Midrand, north of Johannesburg, with the prayer hall occupying under two-thirds of a hectare. Five wudhu facilities are grouped in one of the courtyards. The cemetery lies at a corner of the mosque and can be viewed from inside; the grave of diplomat Mehmet Remzi Efendi, who died in 1916, was the first there.

The mosque is a scaled copy of Edirne's Selimiye Mosque, built at 80% of the original's size. Its cemetery holds Mehmet Remzi Efendi, an Ottoman diplomat posted to South Africa in April 1914 who died under British arrest in 1916 and became the first person buried there.