TURKEY - BURSA - GREEN MOSQUE (YESIL CAMII)
On a large hillside above the city, Yesil Camii gets its
name from the green and blue tiles in the interior. Mehmet I made his
mark on Bursa by ordering the construction of this mosque, built entirely
of hewn stone and marble, as a monument to the victorious ending of his
10-year struggle for the throne. Although an architect's inscription
over the portal gives the completion date as 1419, the final decorations
were ordered in 1424 on the orders of Murad II, and the two minarets
were added in the 19th century.
One of the first mosques to employ an inverted T floor plan, the building
signals the dawn of a new Turkish architectural tradition. The "Turkish
pleat," an ingenious geometric corner detail allowing for the placement
of a circular dome atop a square base, is a design device original to
Turkey, while the use of multicolored ceramic tile, an influence that
arrived with Tamerlane, is intricate enough to make your head spin. The
high porcelain mihrab (a niche oriented toward Mecca) is a masterpiece
of Ottoman ceramic art, difficult to miss at an understated 10m (33 ft.)
high. In the center of the mihrab in Arabic script is the word "Allah," mounted
on the wall at a later date.
The sumptuous gold mosaics and tile of the Imperial loge were probably
an overstated attempt at one-upping the loggia that served the Byzantine
emperors; it is flanked on either side by the servants' quarters and
the harem, and a closer look is at the discretion of the caretaker.
Although Bursa's Great Mosque (Ulu Cami) is the city's largest, the Green
Mosque (Yesil Cami, YESH-sheel jah-mee) is its architectural gem, exemplifying
the movement from the Seljuk Turkish hypostyle Ulu Cami to the great domed
mosques of Edirne and Istanbul.
The Green Mosque, commissioned by Sultan
Mehmet I Çelebi and finished in 1424, is set on a promontory overlooking the valley (now urban sprawl). It takes its name from the green-blue tiles of the interior.
Its main portal, of marble richly worked, was once sheltered by a columned porch which, along with much of the mosque, was destroyed by earthquake in 1855. (The main part of the mosque was authentically rebuilt, but the porch was not.)
Above the portal, reached by a small staircase inside, is the sultan's loge (hünkâr
mahfili), decorated in gilded tiles, but usually not open to the public.
The mosque's domed central hall is flanked by rooms to left and right that
were used for both prayer and for conducting Ottoman government affairs.
The main prayer hall is the room with the 15-meter (49-foot)-high mihrab
(prayer niche), opposite the portal.
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