Uşak Grand Mosque: A Germiyanid and Ottoman-Era Mosque in Türkiye
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Turkey
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- Germiyanid, Ottoman
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Mosque
On this page9 sections
History
Uşak Grand Mosque is a historic Sunni mosque in Uşak, Türkiye, built during the fifteenth-century Germiyanid era. The Germiyanids were a Turkish principality that ruled parts of western Anatolia before those territories became part of the Ottoman state. The mosque’s exact construction year is unknown, but its architectural characteristics place its origins within this period.
Germiyanid origins
A formal Arabic calligraphic inscription above the entrance concerns a fountain rather than the mosque itself. It states that Yakup II, the Germiyanid ruler whose reign lasted from 1402 to 1429, built the fountain and brought water to it in 1419. The inscription is believed to have been transferred to the mosque during a later restoration.
Nineteenth-century transformation
The building underwent a major architectural transformation in the nineteenth century. It was redecorated in the Ottoman Imperial style, a formal approach associated with monumental domed buildings and richly articulated decoration, and a covered entrance vestibule, or narthex, was added. This intervention altered the appearance of important interior elements, including the mihrab, the prayer niche indicating the direction of Mecca.
Modern restoration
In August 2015, Uşak Grand Mosque was closed for worship for ten months while restoration work was carried out.
Remains
Uşak Grand Mosque is built from ashlar, masonry formed from regularly cut and dressed stone blocks. Its stone-paved courtyard lies lower than the adjacent road, and a graveyard extends to the east. The surviving complex combines a rectangular prayer hall, a domed entrance porch, interior furnishings, and a cylindrical minaret.
Entrance porch
The narthex has three gates and is covered by five domes resting on an octagonal base. Thick stone columns support pointed arches across the porch. A glass wall was installed later in front of these columns, modifying the entrance while leaving the earlier structural arrangement visible.
Prayer hall
The rectangular prayer hall measures 18.50 by 22 metres. Its central dome has a diameter of 10 metres and is accompanied by three smaller domes on each side. The stone-carved mihrab survives, although much of its original character was changed by the nineteenth-century Ottoman-style redecoration.
Minbar and minaret
Parts of the original minbar, the raised pulpit used for sermons, were incorporated into the replacement minbar. The cylindrical minaret rises from a base as high as the mosque’s walls and has one gallery.
Architectural relationships
The mosque’s plan has notable similarities to the Old Mosque in Edirne, the Great Mosque of Sofia, and the Dzhumaya Mosque in Plovdiv. At the same time, the building is described as unique within this group of related architectural arrangements.
