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Dick Osseman | all galleries >> Bursa >> Bursa small mosques > Bursa Hacılar Cami 2006 3061.jpg
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17-DEC-2006

Bursa Hacılar Cami 2006 3061.jpg

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These pictures are the result of a stroll I made, starting at the Ulu Camii, than along the main street onto the square where there is the city museum and the usual Atatürk on horseback (I think this square, like the one in Ankara, is called heykel, for "statue"), then uphill through some very ordinary neighbourhoods, crossing a rivelet, descending again.

This is the Hacılar Cami from 1467, not far from the museum, going uphill.

The present state of the mosque is the result of a restoration in 1953. The previous repairs, after the 1855 earthquake, were clumsy and had greatly altered the original features of the building; that was rectified in 1953. The mosque has a square prayer hall (9 x 9 m), which is preceded on the north side by a porch, 9 m wide and 4½ m deep. The building is covered by a dome.

It is reported that the mosque was built with money given by muslims from Bursa, who had gathered the financial means to go on pilgrimage to Mecca, but had to cancel their ‘haç’ for some reason. Hence the name of ‘Hacılar Camii’ = Mosque of the (almost) Pilgrims.

On the picture: The prayer hall, with (from left to right) the ‘mihrab’, the ‘minber’ and the platform were women take place if they want to participate in the common prayer.

Mihrab = a semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca and hence the direction that Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a mihrab appears is the "qibla wall."
Minber = a pulpit in the mosque where the imam (prayer leader) stands to deliver sermons

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen.
Sources: ‘Vakıf Abideler ve eski Eserler (volume III)’ - Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü, Ankara 1983 & Wikipedia

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