Bayezid I Mosque

About

The Bayezid I Mosque — known in Turkish as the Yıldırım Camii or Yıldırım Bayezid Camii — stands on a low hill in the Yıldırım district of Bursa, the early Ottoman capital. It was built between 1391 and 1395 as part of a large religious-charitable complex (külliye) endowed by Sultan Bayezid I, called Yıldırım (the Thunderbolt) for the speed of his campaigns.

Both the mosque and the surrounding district carry the sultan's epithet to this day. The building suffered severely in the great Bursa earthquake of 1855 and was extensively restored in its aftermath.

In plan the mosque follows the inverted-T (zaviye) type favoured in early Ottoman Bursa. A large central hall under a great dome is flanked east and west by lower eyvāns under smaller domes, with a third domed eyvān containing the miḥrāb to the south. Four side rooms with fireplaces and storage niches lie to the north and south of these eyvāns. The northern semi-open prayer porch is divided into five domed bays. Two minarets rise at the sides.

The Yıldırım Camii is also a milestone in Ottoman architecture: it is the first building to use the so-called 'Bursa arch' — a flattened arch between the central hall and the southern eyvān that links and supports the two principal domes. Unusually for its time in Bursa, the mosque is built entirely of dimension stone, with no brick used in its fabric.