Mosque-madrasa of Muradi of Hudavendigar

This building which has been largely restored was constructed during the reign of Murad I, to whom the Ottoman dynasty owes its expansion into Europe. It was during his reign that Edirne replaced Bursa as the new capital of the Empire (1366).The mosque-madrasa constitutes one of the most remarkable elements of the complex which encompasses public latrines, a fountain for ritual ablutions, the tomb of the sultan[1] and an imaret. This first example of a kulliye (complex) in Ottoman architecture was organised in a relatively haphazard manner like other complexes in Bursa. The building serves several functions brought together in a single site which is exceptional in Ottoman architecture; it includes a mosque and a zaviye[2] on the ground floor and a madrasa on the first floor.

The exterior facing is varied alternating between stone and brick; this recalls Byzantine architecture which was firmly established in Anatolia. The similarity of the building to European forms is emphasised by the presence of a main façade on two levels each with five arcades resting on pillars[3]. The openings on the upper level, on the sides of the lower level and the sides of the two storey portico are filled with gemelled bays resting on columns with Byzantine capitals. The bases of certain columns are made from Byzantine capitals, a practice attested in Islamic architecture from its beginnings. The blind cornices of varying sizes which animate the upper part of the building also find echoes in Western architecture. The circular projection formed on the south façade by a niche containing the mihrab confers the aspect of an apse on this part of the building. All these elements indicate that the architect, if not Western, at least had a profound knowledge of the architectural idiom adopted in a Christian context.

The brick minaret, in the north-west corner, was probably added later[4].

Entry is through the portico with five domed bays. A vestibule leads to two flights of stairs which reaches the floor above and two side rooms, probably kiosks.

Along the axis of the vestibule on the ground floor is a small room to the north which opens onto the central domed space with an oculus. This space is extended to the south by a large open room raised by four steps and pierced in its south wall by a niche containing a highly restored mihrab. The central space, intended for teaching dervishes, is flanked by two side iwan and two halls which possibly accommodated the dervishes and which can also be reached by the north iwan. The arrangement around the central domed space with an oculus is typical of Anatolian architecture from the Seljuk period (such as khans and madrasa[5]). The succession of two halls, the second of which is raised, is typical of early Ottoman architecture[6]. The arrangement of the ground floor recalls Seljuk Iranian architectural plans for four iwans[7].

The madrasa on the first floor, just behind the portico between two staircases, contains a meeting room (darshane) for the ulama. On both sides of this zone are two sets of two elongated halls. A ‘C’-shaped corridor opens onto the central zone, and leads to two sets of six cells at the side intended to accommodate students, each with a fireplace. A narrow passage penetrated with windows leads to a small domed hall set above the mihrab on the ground floor. It is perhaps, as Goodwin suggests, a royal lodge such as the one in the Green Mosque of Bursa (1413-1421).

[2] Place for instruction of dervishes.

[3] The façade has been compared to that of the church of Saint Sophie of Ochride (ex-Yugoslavia), 1313-1314, a town conquered by the Ottomans in 1385.

[4] It possibly replaces an earlier minaret, destroyed during a karamanid attack in 1417.

[5] Madrasa Karatay, Konya, Turkey 1251-1252.

[6] Great Mosque of Okhan, Bursa, Turkey, 1339.

[7] Mosque at Zavareh, Iran, 1136.