Malkocs Bej Mosque

Malkocs Bey Mosque or Malkocs Bey Jami is one of the surviving Hungarian monuments of Ottoman architecture from the period of subjugation, a 16th‑century Jami located in Siklós, Baranya County.

History

According to the 17th‑century report of Evlija Cselebi, the patron of the Jami, Malkocs Bey (Malkoç Bey), could have been the Kilisi (Klisszai) sanjak‑bey, sometime between 1543 and 1565. When Siklós was recaptured in 1686, the mosque was still intact, but in the following centuries its minaret and entrance hall (sahn) were destroyed, and the building underwent several alterations. The Ottoman architectural character, evident in the lower‑town building standing near the market and inns, was largely lost by the mid‑19th century. From that period is known the engraving by Lajos Rohbock, which shows the square‑plan building crowned with a dome covered by a tent‑shaped roof, the octagonal dome drum being pierced by a series of newer window openings. The building, used as a residence, underwent further alterations in the second half of the 19th century, the original window openings partially disappeared, and in 1901—when it was merged with several neighboring houses—its dome and part of its walls were also demolished.

The archaeological and monument excavation of the mosque, which stood in the courtyard of the then Siklósi cultural house and was thought to be practically destroyed, began in 1969 under the leadership of Győző Gerő and Ferenc Mendele. The monument restoration took place in the first half of the 1990s, and although the works were completed only in 1994, the building received the Europa Nostra award in 1993. For the reconstruction of the interior, the organizers received great assistance from the Ankara Ethnographic Museum, which provided contemporary sacred objects for the Siklósi mosque. Today the restored, reconstructed interior building can be visited for an entrance fee and serves as a prayer place for the small Islamic community that settled in Siklósi and its surroundings during the Yugoslav wars.

Architectural description

The renovated mosque with a square floor plan has its foundation walls built of stone and brick; on its southeast façade the partly original plastered panels are complemented by modern plaster. Size: 12.2 metres x 12.2 metres. Originally the façade was also broken by three rows of window openings, of which the once stone-framed ground‑floor windows have straight closures with a donkey‑arch mirror. The upper‑floor windows have blunt pointed closures. The minaret with an entrance opening into the interior of the building stood at the western corner of the building, and only fragmentary remains of its base have survived. The entrance is located on the northwest façade; it was once protected by a double vestibule (szahn) with a half‑dormer, the foundations of which were uncovered during archaeological excavations. The entrance gate is framed by monumental brick, and the doorway was presumably once bordered by a decorative stone frame.

Inside, on the southeast wall facing the qibla toward Mecca, stands the prayer niche, the mihrab, in the middle of the wall. It has a twelve‑sided closure (five imaginary planes of which fall below the floor level), and its upper part is covered by a richly decorated stalactite vault. The former framing of the mihrab was probably also made of carved brick. The interior walls are further divided by additional wall niches of varied shapes. According to the excavations, the stone‑based pulpit, the minbar, stood on the right side of the mihrab, and the staircase running on the side toward the entrance led to the women's gallery and to the minaret. This was also reconstructed. The inscriptions decorating the wall and the original interior plaster have not survived.