Et'hem Bey Mosque

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North side with entrance - to the left of the mosque the clock tower, to the right the Skanderbeg Square

The Et'hem Bey Mosque ( Albanian  Xhamia e Et'hem Beut ) is an Ottoman sacred building. The mosque is located in the center of the Albanian capital Tirana on the later Skanderbeg Square . The construction of the prayer house began in 1794 by Mullah Bey , a descendant of the town's founder and builder of the Old Mosque , Sulejman Pasha Bargjini . It was completed in 1821 by his son Ethem Pascha ( Haxhi Ethem Bey ). A little later the neighboring clock tower ( Albanian  Kulla e Sahatit ) was built.

Mihrab and minbar

The building is a typical example of a single dome mosque : a square room less than ten meters long is covered by a single dome. At the northwest corner is the 40 meter high minaret with a pencil tip . The spacious, open vestibule is not only in front of the entrance, but also spans the building on the east side, where it has its own qibla with a prayer niche. The pillars supporting the roof have capitals decorated with plants. The interior walls, the dome, the mihrab and the vestibule are richly painted with frescoes . Mostly plant ornaments, flowers and trees are depicted, but there is also a depiction of Istanbul as well as waterfalls and bridges. Still lifes are rare in Islamic art .

The minaret was damaged in World War II , but was later restored.
The mosque survived Enver Hoxha's campaign, which declared Albania an atheist state and in the course of which mosques, but also churches and monasteries, were misappropriated or even destroyed as a cultural building document under monument protection . In the past, the graves of the founder and his wife stood on both sides of the entrance.
From 1967 the mosque was closed during the communist dictatorship in Albania. After the ban on religion was lifted in December 1990, the Et'hem Bey Mosque was reopened as one of the first mosques in the country: the door was opened on January 18, 1991 without permission from the authorities and several thousand people visited the place of worship. This popular demonstration in the middle of the capital - just over a month before the neighboring Enver Hoxha monument was razed - was a clear sign of the religious rebirth in Albania.

The mosque is open for tours outside of prayer times. The hodja takes visitors to the minaret for a fee. In the summer of 2018, the mosque was closed for restoration work financed by the Turkish Presidium for International Cooperation and Coordination (TİKA) .

photos

  • The mosque in 1943

  • View from the west

  • Frescoes inside

  • Frescoed porch and entrance

annotation

  1. ↑ The apostrophe indicates that it is not around the word in this th-sound , is also in the Albanian  used Digraph .

literature

  • Léon Rey, Hasan Ceka : La Mosqué de Etéhem Bey . In: Albania. Cahiers d'archéologie, d'histoire et d'art en Albanie et dans les Balkans . No. 5 . Librairie Ernest Leroux, Paris 1935, p. 65–70 and plates XIX – XXVII .

Web links

Commons : Et'hem Bey Mosque  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Gëzim Hoxha, Bashkim Lahi: Islamic Art and Architecture . In: Werner Daum (Ed.): Albania - between cross and crescent . Pinguin Verlag, Innsbruck 1998, ISBN 3-7016-2461-5 , p. 146 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Guntram Koch: DuMont art travel guide Albania . DuMont, Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-7701-2079-5 .
  3. ↑ Kthim ne Kullen e Sahatit. In: Klan Magazin. Archived from the original on January 22, 2013 ; Retrieved December 26, 2010 (Albanian).
  4. ^ Andrea Bulleri: Tirana - Contemporaneità sospesa / Suspended Contemporaneity . Quodlibet, Macerata 2012, ISBN 978-88-7462-420-1 , pp. 98 .
  5. ↑ a b Renate Ndarurinze: Discovering Albania . Trescher Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-89794-091-4 .
  6. ↑ Tony Wheeler: Tony Wheeler's bad lands . Lonely Planet , London 2007, ISBN 978-1-74179-186-0 , pp. 49 ( online in Google Book Search).
  7. ^ Robert Elsie: A Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology, and Folk Culture . C. Hurst & Co., London 2001, ISBN 1-85065-570-7 , pp. 125 .
  8. ↑ Ramiz Zekaj: Zhvillimi i Kulturës Islame te Shqiptarët gjatë Shekullit XX . ( DOC, 995 kB ).
  9. ↑ Photo të rralla, si u fal e premtja e parë pas komunizmit në Shqipëri. In: Lapsi.al. January 21, 2015, accessed April 9, 2018 (Albanian).
  10. ^ Adela Alla: Xhamia e Et'hem Beut në "Rrugët e Besimit", 1 ndër 6 canted e restaurimit. In: Agjencia Telegrafike Shqiptare. July 26, 2018, accessed November 15, 2018 (Albanian).


Coordinates: 41 ° 19 ′ 40 ″  N , 19 ° 49 ′ 9.6 ″  E