Gülbahar Hatun Mosque: An Early Ottoman Mosque in Trabzon
Site at a Glance
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- Country
- Turkey
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Ottoman
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Mosque
On this page8 sections
History
Gülbahar Hatun Mosque, also known as the Büyük Imaret Mosque and Hatuniye Mosque, is an Ottoman mosque in Trabzon, Türkiye, commissioned by Sultan Selim I at the request of his mother, Gülbahar Hatun. Traditionally dated to around 1505–1506 and completed in 1514, it belongs to the early Ottoman architectural period and is regarded as Trabzon’s oldest mosque.
Foundation under Selim I
The mosque has no foundation inscription, so its early date is traditionally linked to the inscription on Gülbahar Hatun’s mausoleum. Selim I, also called Yavuz Sultan Selim, ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. The epithet Yavuz means “the Strict” or “the Stern.” Gülbahar Hatun is identified as the presumed Dulkadir princess Ayşe Hatun, the wife of Sultan Bayezid II. Known for charitable activity, she received the name Gülbahar, meaning “spring rose.”
The mosque became the center of a külliye, an Ottoman religious and charitable complex organized around a mosque. Gülbahar Hatun established the endowment during the sixteenth century, financing it through properties that included Trabzon’s Covered Bazaar. Its buildings served religious, educational, and welfare purposes, including a religious school, an imaret or charitable kitchen, a general school, a Quran school, baths, a fountain, and the founder’s mausoleum.
Endowment and later changes
The principal additional building was the two-storey Sultaniye Madrasa north of the mosque. A madrasa was a religious school. Although renovated in 1883, the building was demolished after 1927 because of its neglected condition. The complex continued to exist until the beginning of the twentieth century, after which the mosque, minaret, mausoleum, and fountain formed the surviving core of the foundation.
An inscription above the entrance records repairs to the mosque in 1885. The interior decorative painting is also thought to date from this intervention. Restoration in the 1970s renewed the decorations, including those on the narthex domes, and repainted the borders of the prayer niche. The mosque stands in the southern part of Atapark, west of the citadel and near Yavuz Selim Boulevard. It is associated with the surrounding Trabzon neighborhood and remains a local gathering place.
Remains
Prayer hall and entrance portico
The mosque has an inverted-T plan associated with early Ottoman architecture. Its central prayer hall is flanked by two large side rooms known as zaviyas, religious retreats or lodges. A five-bay portico forms the entrance front. Five small domes rest on six marble columns with curved pendentives, structural elements that carry a dome over a square or polygonal space. Alternating red and white stone shapes frame the arches, while the column capitals carry stylized lozenge designs. A broad projecting roof shelters the portico.
The covered entrance hall, or narthex, has a central doorway leading to the prayer hall and two side doorways opening into the zaviyas. Its floor is divided by the central entrance and forms a bench. On either side of the portal are a prayer-niche-shaped recess and two windows. Tiered muqarnas, a three-dimensional decoration made of small recessed cells, mark the portal and the transition into the central dome. A stairway beside the main entrance rises to the gallery above it and to the women’s prayer area.
Interior spaces and furnishings
The main hall measures approximately 12 by 12 metres and is covered by a large dome carried externally on a twelve-sided drum, the raised structure on which a dome rests. Four drum windows illuminate the interior, with two facing the front and one on each side. Each domed zaviya measures approximately 4.50 by 5.45 metres and receives light through a side window.
The marble mihrab, the prayer niche indicating the direction of Mecca, has vegetal Rumi decoration formed from symmetrical curling stems and leaves. It is crowned by a muqarnas vault. The marble minbar, the pulpit used for sermons, is simply worked and includes small friezes.
Minaret and mausoleum
The minaret adjoins the mosque’s west wall. Its masonry alternates white and red stone courses. An octagonal gallery rises above the shaft, and its balcony is decorated with muqarnas.
Gülbahar Hatun’s mausoleum stands east of the mosque as an octagonal-prism structure beneath a slightly pointed, lead-covered dome. An octagonal drum rises above a short roof section, and the lead covering continues across the dome. The projecting lower roof line and sloping transition reduce the apparent mass of the masonry while defining the building’s wall lines and profile.
Inside, curved transitional sections connect the dome to the walls. Windows open on three façades, while the north façade has none. Pointed arches made from black-and-white stone blocks emphasize the door and windows above blind niches. Relief medallions containing colored stones and ornamental designs decorate the window arches. The southeast doorway faces Mecca. Above it is a construction inscription, while two basmalas, Islamic invocations beginning “In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful,” appear within the surrounding Rumi decoration.
Fountain and educational buildings
A fountain stood in front of the mosque as part of the complex. The Quran school was a single-domed building with two vestibules. Its dome stood at the same height as the madrasa’s dome, and the building served Quran reading, Arabic instruction, recitation, and memorization.
