Hacı Arap Masjid

The Hacı Arap Masjid, also known to local residents as the Helvacı Mescidi, stands at the junction of Uzunyayla and Ilıcık streets in Ankara's historic Samanpazarı quarter. It is thought to date from the early fifteenth century and is traditionally attributed to Hacı İvaz Paşa, a statesman and architect active under the Ottoman rulers Çelebi Sultan Mehmed and Murad II, who is also credited with building the Green Mosque complex in Bursa and the Çelebi Sultan Mehmed Mosque in Didymoteicho. Compared with those grander commissions, the Ankara masjid is a modest neighborhood place of worship, built with brick walls on a stone foundation and originally roofed in tile-covered timber. It underwent repairs in 1963, during which its present wooden minaret was added. The building remains one of the smaller surviving examples of early Ottoman religious architecture in the old quarters clustered around Ankara Castle.