Göğceli Mosque: A Seljuk Wooden Mosque in Çarşamba, Turkey
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Turkey
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Ottoman, Seljuk
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Mosque
On this page9 sections
History
Seljuk foundation
Göğceli Mosque is a wooden Sunni mosque in Çarşamba, Turkey, built during the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in the early thirteenth century. It is generally dated to 1206, during the second reign of Kaykhusraw I, who ruled the Seljuk state of Rum from 1205 to 1211. The Seljuks governed much of Anatolia during the medieval period, and the mosque belongs to that historical setting.
The date has not always been certain. Earlier records placed construction in 1191 or 1195, while research on the timber conducted in 1990 used dendrochronology, the dating of wood through its annual growth rings, to establish the 1206 date. During repairs in 2007, an Arabic numeral corresponding to 1195 was found on a structural member, but its meaning remains unresolved. The mosque has no known construction or repair inscription.
A local tradition attributes the building to Kaykhusraw I and says that shipwrights constructed it while building vessels for a campaign toward Trabzon. The tradition relates this association to the mosque’s timber technique, which resembles methods used in ship construction. The name Göğceli, also written Gökçeli, has several proposed explanations. One connects it with an old expression for people who have departed the world and therefore with the cemetery around the mosque. Another links it to the long, heavy trees used in the building.
Later history and conservation
The mosque’s entrance arcade was added or repaired in 1335. It continued as a place of worship, and the surrounding burial ground became known as the “cemetery of strangers.” The building was registered as an immovable cultural property by a decision dated 16 May 1986. Extensive repairs followed in 2007, and Göğceli Mosque remains in active religious use.
Remains
Timber plan and structure
Göğceli Mosque is a single-storey rectangular log building raised about 60 to 70 centimetres above the ground on large stones. Its outside dimensions are approximately 17.50 to 17.75 metres by 21.15 to 22.20 metres. The footprint is given as about 392 square metres, while the covered interior area is approximately 254 square metres, with a stated capacity of 300 people. The open space beneath the floor allows air to circulate and helps protect the timber from dampness and decay. Wooden wedges beneath the structure also contribute to its resistance to earthquakes, and the building has been described as capable of being moved from one place to another.
The walls consist of large, single-piece wooden planks, principally chestnut. Elm and ash appear in other elements, including the columns, capitals, joists, rafters, and framing at the roof ridge. Reported plank thicknesses range from about 15 to 18 centimetres, widths from 50 to 70 centimetres, and lengths from approximately 10 to 20 metres. The planks are stacked and interlocked without ordinary nails or other added materials. Double-notch joints secure their edges, while a distinctive interlocking corner joint joins the walls. Forged iron nails occur in some connections between column capitals and beams, as well as in additions to rafters extending toward the porticoes.
Prayer hall
The enclosed prayer hall, or harim, measures approximately 12.60 by 13.70 metres. A single-leaf door centered in the north wall provides entry. The space has no separate ceiling, because the roof is carried by two east-to-west rows of columns arranged in groups of three. Two central columns stand on the axis between the entrance and the mihrab, the prayer niche indicating the direction of prayer. A principal beam on this axis rests on two columns, while two parallel east-to-west beams rest on the grouped rows. Above the principal beam, a central upright and stacked wooden framing blocks support the roof ridge.
The harim walls are made from solid wooden panels about 40 to 70 centimetres wide. The panels extend about 12.60 metres along the south wall and about 13.70 metres along the east and west walls. Interlocking joints connect them at the corners, while mortise-and-tenon joints, in which a projecting piece fits into a matching recess, join them vertically. Two windows open in each of the east and west walls, with the windows nearer the mihrab wall smaller than the others. Six ventilation openings form two rows on the mihrab wall, and iron grilles protect the lower openings. The limited openings leave the mihrab area dimly lit.
Congregation area
North of the harim, a congregation area measures approximately 6.60 metres in width. Three columns arranged as a triangle at the center support its roof. Thinner stacked wooden panels enclose the space on three sides. A single-leaf door in the middle of the northern entrance arcade leads into the area, while a second door on the same axis connects it to the harim.
A later imam’s room occupies the northwest corner of the congregation area. Because the mosque has no minaret, the possibility has been suggested that a minaret may once have stood at this location.
Porticoes and roof
Single-row porticoes, meaning roofed galleries supported by columns, surround the mosque on the north, east, and west sides. The northern entrance portico is supported by eight columns arranged in an unusual outward-curving arc. It is about 1.80 metres wide at the corners and 2.43 metres wide at the center. The east and west porticoes each rest on ten evenly spaced columns. The northern arcade belongs to the later phase associated with 1335.
The roof has a three-shouldered, hipped form with a slightly curved northern section. Wooden walls, struts, beams, and internal rows of columns carry its weight. It was formerly thought to have been covered with wooden shingles or split timber, but it is now covered with grooved clay tiles.
Painted and carved ornament
The interior contains hand-painted ornament made with vegetal pigments. Nearly every board has its own motif or composition rather than a repeated design. The decoration includes rumi forms, stylized vegetal motifs common in Islamic art, together with palmettes, which are symmetrical palm-leaf-shaped forms, branches with C-shaped and S-shaped curves, and flowers.
Ochre-painted serpentine branches and diamond-like forms decorate the rafters. These designs are less finely executed than much of the other ornament. Some column capitals and brackets also carry rough wood carving and colored painted details. The interior decoration is considered later than the building itself and is generally associated with the early or classical Ottoman period, the era of the Ottoman Empire after the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum.
