Great Mosque of Diyarbakır

The Great Mosque of Diyarbakır (Turkish: Diyarbakır Ulu Camii or Cami-i Kebîr; Kurdish: Mizgefta Mezin a Amedê) was built in the late 11th century by the Seljuk sultan Malik-Shah I over an older mosque. According to some, it is the fifth holiest site in Islam after the Great Mosque of Damascus, which influenced its design. It can accommodate up to 5,000 worshippers and hosts four different Islamic traditions.

Origins

The Great Mosque of Diyarbakir is the oldest mosque in Anatolia and possibly the oldest in Turkey. Its origins and development are complicated and still not fully understood today. A mosque was founded in this area in the 7th century after the Muslim conquest of the city in 639. Recent archeological studies have suggested that the present mosque stands over a part of what was previously the Roman forum of the city. According to traditional narratives, it also stands on the site of an earlier church built by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius in the 620s and dedicated to Saint Thomas.

A German translation of a medieval Muslim text written by Pseudo-Waqidi (so-called because it may not be al-Waqidi himself, but rather a later author), claims that when the city was conquered, its main church was partitioned to be shared between Muslims and Christians. Stories of Christian churches being partitioned in this manner are a recurring motif in Muslim narratives about the early Islamic conquests. In the case of Diyarbakir, this story has been accepted by some scholars (e.g. Creswell) and is widely repeated by locals and in popular narratives of the mosque's history.

The historicity of this story and the credibility of its text source have been questioned by some scholars due to uncertainty about the source's author, inconsistencies between its German and Arabic translations, and contradictions from other sources. Fatma Meral Halifeoğlu, Martine Assénat, and Jean-Charles Ducène have discounted the story as apocryphal. One of the contradictions from other sources is the account of medieval Muslim author Yaqut (12th–13th century), which appears to contradict Pseudo-Waqidi in stating that the first Muslim conquerors allowed the Christians of the city to keep all their churches but prevented them from building new ones. Among the other complications is the Zuqnin Chronicle, which records that the city's main church, built by Heraclius in 629, was fully restored by the Christian community in 770, long after the Muslim conquest. Another author, Theodotus (d. 698), mentions that the Muslims built a mosque after the conquest of the city. Nasir Khusraw wrote in 1045 that the city's main church was an impressive building that stood next to the mosque. These sources indicate that the church was still used by the Christian community during this time and do not mention it being shared with Muslims. One interpretation, supported by these sources, is that the original mosque was located next to the church and shared a platform with it, rather than sharing the same building, at least until the 11th century.

Construction of the present mosque

The current building dates from a Great Seljuk construction in the late 11th century and subsequent work during the 12th century. The Seljuks conquered the city in 1085. Works on the mosque are recorded by a series of inscriptions, most of which remain in situ but some of which have been moved over the years. The oldest inscription in the mosque is found on the western façade of the prayer hall; it names the Seljuk sultan Malik Shah, who commissioned the construction, and provides the date of construction as 1091–1092 CE (484 AH). The Seljuk mosque's layout is similar to and heavily influenced by that of the Great Mosque of Damascus, built in the early 8th century during the Umayyad period. This influence might be explained by the fact that Malik Shah also carried out restoration work on the Great Mosque of Damascus in 1082–1083, nine years prior to his work on the Great Mosque of Diyarbakir. Malik Shah rebuilt the Great Mosque of Diyarbakir as a means of bringing the prestige and glory from Damascus, the capital of Syria, to Diyarbakir in the south of Anatolia.

In 1115 the mosque was severely damaged by a fire caused by lightning. A second inscription on the façade of the prayer hall notes work that was done in 1155–1156. The mosque's minaret has an inscription with the date 1141, though it seems to refer to work being done on the western and eastern wings of the mosque.

The western and eastern wings of the mosque, which flank the main courtyard, are products of Inalid and Nisanid patronage in the 12th century. Both the Inalids and Nisanids were local dynasties under Seljuk suzerainty. These sections of the complex are also known as the East and West Maqsuras. The courtyard façade of the western wing contains two inscriptions: an inscription on the lower level bears the date 1117–1118, while one on the upper level contains the date 1124–1125 and names the son and grandson of Malik Shah. The eastern wing of the mosque, which also contains the main external entrance leading to the courtyard, bears an inscription dating it to 1163-1164, during the Nisanid period. The 1155–1156 inscription on the prayer hall façade also makes reference to this eastern section. The mosque's entrance portal was probably built in its current form between 1155 and 1178.

The elaborately decorated western and eastern courtyard façades are both notable for the use of spolia from older Byzantine buildings, including columns, Corinthian capitals, friezes with vine motifs, and pieces of Greek inscriptions. They appear to have been used deliberately to create a new and consistent decorative program for the courtyard. They were created under the supervision of Hibatallah of Gurgan, the only recorded architect of the mosque, who also completed the prayer hall in 1155-1156.