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Dick Osseman | all galleries >> Special: Sinan mosques >> Sinan outside Istanbul >> Lala Mustafa Paşa Camii – Erzurum > Erzurum june 2011 8558.jpg
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30-JUN-2011

Erzurum june 2011 8558.jpg

The Lala Mustafa Paşa was built in 1562. It was the first Ottoman mosque of the town; its architect was Mimar Sinan.
The mosque was commissioned by Lala Kara Mustafa Paşa (1500-1580), who had been a tutor (‘Lala’) to the future Selim II. He made a long political and military career, first as Ottoman governor of Egypte, of Erzurum and of Damascus; he led the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus (1570) and the campaign against Georgia and Persia (1578). He rose to Fifth Vizier, and became Grand Vizier at the very end of his life.

On the picture: The interior.
From left to right: A wooden ‘vaaz kürsüsü’ (small pulpit), the ‘mihrab’ (prayer niche), the white marble ‘minber’ (large pulpit) and the ‘Müezzin Mahfili’ /platform for the muezzin (the man who recites the call to prayer. Apart from calling the congregation to prayer, in some mosques the muezzin stands during the worship service on his special platform and gives responses during the imam's sermon).

‘Minber’ and ‘vaaz kürsüsü’ are both pulpits, from where sermons are given. The difference is that the minber is obligatory for the ‘Friday sermon’, held during the most important common prayer of Islamic week. All other sermons can be held from the smaller ‘kürsü’.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen.
Sources: ‘Türkiye Tarihi Yerler Kılavuzu’ – M.Orhan Bayrak, Inkılâp Kitabevi, Istanbul, 1994 & Vikipedia/Wikipedia.

Nikon D3
1/40s f/8.0 at 14.0mm iso3200 full exif

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