Green Mosque, Bursa

The Green Mosque ( Turkish: ''Yeşil Camii''), also known as the Mosque of Mehmed I, is a part of a larger complex (Turkish: külliye) on the east side of Bursa, Turkey, the former capital of the Ottoman Turks before they captured Constantinople in 1453. The complex consists of a mosque, türbe, madrasah, kitchen and bath. The name Green Mosque comes from its green and blue interior tile decorations.

History

The Green Mosque is often seen as the culmination of the early Ottoman architectural style, mainly due to the level of aesthetic and technical mastery displayed within the mosque.

The Green Mosque was commissioned in 1412 by Sultan Mehmed I Çelebi, who ruled from 1413 to 1421, after a fight against his brothers to reunite the Ottoman Empire. Mehmed I was buried in a mausoleum, called the Green Tomb, commissioned by his son and successor, Murad II, which resides in the complex. The Green Mosque's exact completion date is uncertain, but it was built between 1419 and 1424. Decorative work continued on the mosque after Mehmed I's death.

The construction of the Green Mosque was supervised by architect and patron of the arts vizier Hacı İvaz Pasha, who had been a commander under Mehmed I. A calligraphic inscription identifies Nakkas (the Artist) Ali bin Ilyas Ali as the supervisor of the interior tile decorations. Ali bin Ilyas Ali is believed to have brought a diverse group of craftsmen called the “Masters of Tabriz” to assist him. The "Masters of Tabriz" are referenced in a Persian inscription above the mosque's mihrab. Tabriz, a prominent artistic and cultural center in western Iran, was a particularly important channel through which Timurid influence arrived at the Green Mosque, as it was invaded by the Timurids throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Hacı İvaz Pasha was also reported to have “brought masters and men of skill from foreign lands” to help with the mosque's construction, according to 15th-century historian Aşıkpaşazade. A Persian inscription inside the royal loge identifies Mehmet el-Mecnun as the artist who decorated the ceramics of the mosque.

The Green Mosque is now a popular tourist destination in Bursa. Since 2014 it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site designated around historic Bursa.

Architecture

Layout

The Green Mosque is based on an inverted T-plan and is a two-story, cube-shaped building with an extension on the south side. The mosque has a vestibule at the entrance leading up a short staircase to a central prayer hall. This stairway has four marble cubby-holes (Turkish: ) on each side for slippers. These architectural inclusions point to the court being paved previously, although it is now carpeted.

The central hall, which runs from north to south, is flanked by iwans (Turkish: ) on the east and west. Both are domed and two stories high. There are two doors, smaller iwans, connecting to corner rooms on the first floor that are similar to those on the north side of the building, each containing a fireplace. The central hallway running north–south is intersected by a longer hallway running east–west.

Within the central hallway, the main hall contains an octagonal, white marble fountain with a pool beneath the central dome—the highest dome in the mosque—which is illuminated by a lantern overhead. On either side of the pool, two further iwans lead to rooms for traveling dervishes, while a higher raised iwan directly behind the water (when seen from the central hall's entrance) leads to the prayer hall itself. In this iwan, there is a mihrab niche on the south (qibla) side of the mosque, as well as two sets of four windows.

Immediately past the entrance of the Green Mosque lies a foyer. From here, wide corridors, framed by Byzantine columns, extend in both directions, ending in staircases leading to the royal chambers. These corner rooms overlook the interior court, and connect to yet another small room leading to the royal box, which effectively functions as another iwan. These chambers contain the winding stairways leading up to the lofts. Between these corner rooms, a passage opens to the balconies on the northern façade where the minaret steps begin. The two minarets opposite from each other on the north facade were later additions. A porch was designed but never built.

Exterior

Marble panels, a majority of which were replaced in the nineteenth century, overlay the mosque's edifice of hewn sandstone. The door is crowned by a half-dome with a cascade of muqarnas, whose face is covered with arabesques and Rumi inscriptions. Above the niches on each side of the entrance door is an inscription dedicated to Hacı İvaz Pasha, the mosque's designer. Between the inscription and the muqarnas is a small window that illuminates the path to the sultan's box.

The domes on top of the building were originally covered by blue and green tiles but are now clad in lead. There are windows pierced into drums in the domes and on the exterior walls. An oculus above the ablution basin in the central hall was enclosed with a lantern at the time of restoration.

The two minarets were fitted with stone spires, carved in the baroque manner, at the time of renovation. They can only be accessed through the sultan's apartments and by climbing up the winding stairs to the attics.

Decorations

Tiles

Overview

The Green Mosque employs a distinctively diverse range of tile techniques (including black-line tiles (often mistaken for, yet technically separate from cuerda seca

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