"Hodja Taşkın" Mosque

This mosque was built by a person called Tashkin Sufi who lived during the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror (1451-1481).

Tashkin Sufi (died 1492) was a disciple of Molla Husrev. As he was skilled in Islamic mysticism (“tasavvuf”), he settled down in this neighbourhood near Holy Emir Sultan, and built this mosque where he started to preach. Although Hodja Tashkin was buried next to the mosque, today, there is no tombstone preserved. Today, the tomb situated at the mosque’s south, is the tomb of a person called Hadji Huseyin bin Abdullah (died 1574).

This mosque is built using hewn sedimentary stones and brick materials. Its main prayer hall, together with its portico for latecomers, is built with a rectangular ground plan. The visitor accesses the main prayer hall by passing through a door built with a drop arch. The mosque’s main prayer hall is built with a square plan, measuring ca. 9.20 x 10.30 m, and is covered with a single dome. The transition to this dome, which sits on an octagonal tambour, is provided by pendentives. The portico for latecomers in the structure’s entrance section measures 3.60 x 10.00 m. It is built with three chords with pointed arches, the central one of which being narrower than the others. By means of placing one “Bursa” arch within the central one of the drop pointed arches, a second arc was created. The mosque’s entrance is accentuated by means of a gable wall, an element frequently seen with the Bursa mosques. Its mihrab is built with seven rows of stalactite work. It has the shape of a niche with five edges, and has lateral outer corner stones with colonnettes.

The mosque’s minaret is bonded to the main prayer hall’s northwest corner. It is masoned using rubble stones, with two rows of bricks. It has an octagonal plinth block, and its body is brick-built.

This mosque was renovated in the second half of the 19th century, and in the 1950s. The initial construction was a domed mosque, but due to various reasons, it later on was covered with a wooden roof and with roofing tiles. Lastly, during the extensive renovation made in 2002, however, it anew was covered with a lead-plated dome, according to the original shape.

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