Yeşil Cami

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Green Mosque

Yeşil Cami (Green Mosque), also known as Mosque of Mehmed I is a part of the larger complex (a kulliya) located in Bursa, Turkey, commissioned by Sultan Mehmed I Çelebi and completed in 1420. The mosque was built between 1391-1421 by architect vezir Hacı İvaz Paşa. Following the earthquake in 1855, the building went under an extensive renovation led by architect Parveillée.

[edit] Architecture

The architectural style known as Bursa Style begins with Yeşil Cami. The mosque is based on a reverse T-plan with a vestibule at the entrance leading to a central hall flanked by eyvans on the east and west and a larger eyvan with mihrab niche on the south. Two small eyvans flank the entryway above which the royal box (hünkar mahfili) is located. There are four rooms with fireplaces to the north and south of side eyvans accessed through the vestibule and the central hall respectively. Stairs on both sides of the vestibule lead to the upper floor where the royal lodge and two adjacent rooms for the royal women are located. Here, a passage opens to the balconies on the northern facade where the minaret steps begin. A portico was designed but never built.

[edit] Decorations

The interior of the mosque is decorated with a mosaic of blue-green tiles on the walls and ceiling of the eyvans, from which it gets its name. (The exteriors with its domes, now clad with lead, were once also adorned with blue-green tiles.) The northern eyvans, the royal lodge and the mihrab are embellished with tiles bearing polychromic flower motifs and scriptures in relief. There are many 19th century replacements among the tiles. There is also little left of the polychromic paintwork that used to embellish the rooms. The doors and window shutters are adorned with interlaced motifs carved on wood. Light reaches the dim interior through windows pierced into drums in the domes as well as through windows on exterior walls. An oculus above the ablution basin in the central hall was enclosed with a lantern at the time of restoration. A scripture in the mihrab area acknowledges "the work of Masters of Tabriz" on the tiles, and the name Nakkas Ali bin Ilyas Ali appears above the royal box as designer of the entire decorative scheme.

The mosque is built out of sandstone and clad with marble panels, a majority of which was replaced in the nineteenth century. Flower designs and scriptures carved in marble frame the entry and the windows, with a different design featured in tympana of every window. The grand entrance and the mihrab niches on the northern facade are crowned with marble stalactite half-domes. The two minarets are later additions to the building; they have been fitted with stone spires carved in the baroque manner at the time of renovation.