History

Bursa Ulu Mosque was built by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I upon his return from the Nicopolis Campaign . There is no inscription stating the date of construction of the mosque; however, the date 802 (1399) on the pulpit door is accepted as the construction date of the mosque. [ 1 ]

The construction of Bursa Ulu Mosque is considered both as a continuation of the state's efforts to establish itself as a political, economic and cultural entity in the world, and as a necessity of the effort to give an identity to the Ottoman society. [ 2 ] It is narrated that Somuncu Baba, one of the important Sufis of the period, read the first sermon at the opening of the mosque. [ 2 ]

The mosque was considered very prestigious by the society at the time it was built, and the teachers of other madrasahs considered it an honor to teach here. [ 2 ] In the following centuries, the unusually large-sized inscriptions decorating the interior of the mosque were one of the reasons for its social interest and prestige. [ 2 ]

Shortly after its construction, during the capture of Yıldırım Bayezid in the Battle of Ankara, Timur occupied Bursa, and during the siege of Bursa by Karamanoğlu Mehmed Bey during the Interregnum (1413), the mosque was burned down by piling wood on its exterior walls. As a result of these fires, the exterior cladding was destroyed. The resulting rubble wall texture was covered with thick plaster; this continued until the restoration in the 1950s. [ 2 ] The plaster was removed during the renovations it underwent after the northern courtyard was also burned in the 1958 Great Bazaar fire.

Kaaba Cover Bursa Ulucami

The mosque, which was reopened for worship in 1421 after the interregnum, has its first repair document from 1494. There are 23 more repair documents until 1862. The muezzin gallery was built in 1549. The Kaaba-i Sharif door cover, which was brought by Yavuz Sultan Selim in 1517 during the conquest of Egypt and the transfer of the caliphate to the Ottomans, was given to the Ulu Mosque as a gift by the sultan and hung to the left of the pulpit. [ 3 ] The stone preacher's platform opposite the muezzin gallery was built in 1815.

The mosque suffered great damage in the great earthquake of 1855. Eighteen domes of the mosque collapsed, and only the dome at the base of the western minaret and the dome in front of the mihrab remained standing. It underwent extensive repairs after the earthquake. During this period, famous calligraphers sent from Istanbul by order of Sultan Abdulmecid revised the large inscriptions in the mosque. New calligraphy was also added.

The wooden cones of the minarets were burned in a fire in 1889 and were later rebuilt in masonry.

Architectural features

The rectangular planned mosque is approximately 5,000 square meters in size and is covered with 20 domes. The domes resting on octagonal drums are arranged in five rows perpendicular to the mihrab wall. The drums are arranged lower in each row as you go towards the sides, with those on the mihrab axis being the highest. It is estimated that there are two thick minarets built of brick at both ends of the north facade and the one on the east belongs to the reign of Sultan Çelebi Mehmed . [ 4 ]

In order to lighten the massive effect of the thick main walls built with regular cut stones, blind pointed arches were built on the facades to align with each row of domes. There are two windows in two rows inside each arch. Their shapes and sizes are different on each facade.

There are two minarets built later on the northern side of the building, which does not have a narthex. Neither of the minarets sits on the main wall, but starts from the ground. The minaret on the western corner was built by Bayezid I. Its octagonal pulpit is entirely made of marble, and its body is made of brick. The square pulpit minaret on the eastern corner, said to have been built by Mehmet I , is also about 1 meter apart from the main wall of the mosque. The balconies are the same on both minarets and are decorated with brick muqarnas. When the lead-covered cones were destroyed in the fire of 1889, the present knotted stone cones were built.

The mosque, whose main door is in the north, has three doors, including those in the east and west. In addition, a door opening to the Sultan's Lodge , which was reserved for the Sultan's prayers, was later made by destroying a window; thus, the number of doors increased to four.

The pulpit

The pulpit of Bursa Ulu Mosque, made of hard walnut wood with the kundekari technique, was made by an artisan named Mehmed, son of Hacı Abdülaziz. There is not enough information in the sources about the master who made the pulpit, which is one of the important examples of the transition from Seljuk carving art to Ottoman wood carving art. The name of the master is written in carved thuluth script on the right side of the pulpit. The last word of the phrase where he wrote his name has been read in different ways; some sources state that he is from Antep; some sources state that he is from Devak village of Tabriz.

The Seljuk tradition is dominant in terms of form in the pulpit. [ 5 ] There are door wings at the entrance of the fourteen-stepped pulpit. The triangular pulpit crown is decorated with plant motifs in the perforated technique. The crown has a wavy form with Rumis coming from the edges of the triangles. The underside of the transom is divided into 12 panels. On the side transoms, the surface is divided into geometric divisions with multi-armed stars and the inside of each piece is filled with plant motifs. [ 5 ] The pulpit railing is different from each other in both directions. In the east, a geometric composition consisting of eight-armed stars and octagons in the perforated technique is placed on the railing. In the other direction, panels processed in the ground carving and perforated technique are used alternately. [ 5 ] The inscription above the pulpit door includes the construction date and the name of the benefactor.

Some mysteries have been attributed to the pulpit of the Grand Mosque. In 1980, it was claimed that the geometric composition on the east side of the pulpit symbolizes the sun and the planets around it; that the distances between them are proportional to their real extensions; and that the composition on the west side symbolizes the galaxy system. [ 6 ]

The fountain

The fountain located under the open dome in the middle of the twenty-domed structure in the interior of the mosque is one of the striking features of the Ulu Mosque. This feature, which is a continuation of the tradition of having an open top and a pool underneath, which is common in Seljuk structures, connects the mosque to the Seljuk tradition. [ 7 ] The open dome under the fountain is currently covered with glass.

HM REDOWAN
BURSA-Turkiye