Ali Neccar designed and built the mosque, which Sultan Bayezid I ordered to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Nicopolis. Groundbreaking was in 1396 and completion in 1399, though the minbar's inscription says 1400. The article calls the style early Ottoman, evolved from Seljuk architecture.
The rectangular building measures 180 by 226 feet (55 by 69 m), with three entrances, the north the most monumental. Twenty domes in four rows of five rest on twelve columns. There are two minarets: the western one is attached and dates to Bayezid's time, while the eastern one is detached. A şadırvan, a fountain over an eighteen-cornered basin, has a dome that was open to the sky and is now glazed.
The article counts 192 monumental inscriptions in 87 compositions by 41 calligraphers, mostly from 1778 to 1938, and calls the mosque a calligraphy museum. Tradition says Timur burned it in 1402, which the article leaves uncertain.
Comments