Jumaya Mosque

Friday mosque in Plovdiv, early 15th century.

Old town of Plovdiv, in the middle left the Friday Mosque with its minaret

The Friday Mosque ( Bulgarian Джумая джамия Dschumaja dschamija , Turkish Ulu Cami ) or "Mosque of Murad the Ruler" ( Hüdavendigâr Murad Cami ) in Plovdiv in today's Bulgaria is the oldest surviving Friday mosque ( Cuma Cami ) of Ottoman architecture in the Balkans . At the time of the Ottoman Empire , Plovdiv, Turkish Filibe , was the capital of the Bulgarian part of Thrace and until 1455–56 the seat of the Beylerbey of Rumelia .

Building history and architecture

Because of its name, the mosque was originally attributed to Sultan Murad I (r. 1359 to 1389), whose nickname " Ḫüdāvendigār " ("Lord of the World") it bears. The Chronicle of Abdurrahman Hibri expressly attributes it to Sultan Murad II . Filibe / Plovdiv was destroyed in the summer of 1410 during the conflict between Suleyman Pasha and his brother Musa Çelebi. The surviving Christian-Greek population then left the city, which was repopulated with Muslim Turks. Around 1425 Murad II managed to consolidate his rule. Filibe was also rebuilt. A start of construction of the representative Friday mosque around 1425 seems likely. The mosque was not maintained by its own foundation ( vakıf ) , as is often the case , but was part of the Murads II Foundation in Edirne , which also financed the Muradiyye and Üç-Şerefeli mosques . According to a building inscription, the mosque was repaired in the 18th century under Sultan Abdülhamid I.

The mosque, measuring 33 x 27 m, has three wide domes over a central nave, which rest on four massive square pillars, and three wide barrel vaults over the adjacent rooms. An originally existing vestibule with five domed vestibules was destroyed in an earthquake in the 18th century and replaced by a wooden canopy. The origins of the pointed arches of the portico can still be made out in the walls of the vestibule. The mosque has a tall minaret on the northeast corner of the facade, which is decorated with an intricate pattern of diamond-shaped fields typical of the early 15th century.

Web links

Commons : Plovdiv Friday Mosque - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Ömer Lütfi Barkan: Edirne ve Civarındaki bazı imaret tesislerin yillik muhasebe bilançolari. Belgeler 1,2 (1964), pp. 235-377, here p. 372
^ ^A ^b Machiel Kiel : Ottoman Expansion into the Balkans . In: Kate Fleet (Ed.): The Cambridge History of Turkey . tape 1 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-62093-2 , pp. 175-176 .

[1] Ömer Lütfi Barkan: Edirne ve Civarındaki bazı imaret tesislerin yillik muhasebe bilançolari. Belgeler 1,2 (1964), pp. 235-377, here p. 372

[Kiel_2009_175_176-2] A ^b Machiel Kiel : Ottoman Expansion into the Balkans . In: Kate Fleet (Ed.): The Cambridge History of Turkey . tape 1 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-62093-2 , pp. 175-176 .