IMPERIAL MOSQUE

This mosque (Xhamia e Madhe, Carska džamija) was erected in 1460 or 1461 by order of Sultan Mehmet II. Despite its modest dimensions compared to the prestigious Ottoman mosques of Istanbul, it is the largest of its kind in the former Yugoslavia.

Names. Taker of Constantinople, in 1453, Mehmet II was considered the greatest Ottoman sultan and even took the habit to be called "emperor" as his Byzantine predecessors or, more simply, "the Victorious"(Fatih in Turkish). Thus, all the mosques built by Mehmet II are called imperial, great or victorious. This one is no exception and accumulates all possible names. In Albanian, if it is officially called Sultan-Mehmet-II-the-Victorious mosque(xhamia e Sulltan Mehmet Fatihut II), locally, it is mostly known as the Great Mosque(xhamia e Madhe). But it is also known as the King's Mosque(xhamia e Mbretit), the Victorious Mosque(xhamia Fatihut) or the Imperial Mosque(xhamia e Hynqarite in Albanian, Carska džamija in Serbo-Croat).

History. It was an architect from Bursa (today in Turkey), the Ottoman capital before the capture of Constantinople, who came to erect the building in Pristina. His name is not known, but he was inspired by the Great Mosque of Bursa (1395), whose dimensions and number of minarets he reduced to one. In 1683, Pristina briefly passed into the hands of the Habsburg Empire. The mosque was then transformed into a Catholic church. Entrusted to the Jesuits, it was dedicated to St. Francis Xavier and served as the burial place of Pjetër Bogdani, a native of Albania and author of the first prose book written in part in Albanian, Cuneus Prophetarum(The Cohort of Prophets, 1685). But when the Ottomans returned in 1690, the body of the Catholic writer was removed and the place became a mosque. It was redesigned in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It lost its minaret in an earthquake in 1955 and the building had to undergo extensive work in the 1960s. More recent additions include the mosque's garden, which has a wudu (ablution basin) dating from 1996. Next door, the modern pastel-colored building is the headquarters of the Sunni community of Pristina.

Building. It corresponds to the standard plan of small Ottoman mosques in the Balkans. But this one is slightly oversized here. On the outside, the prayer room forms a cube of 17.70 m on each side. It is preceded by a porch of 5.90 m deep surmounted by three domes. The three arches of the porch are asymmetrical: the one in the center is slightly narrower than the ones around it. And the dome in the center of the porch is raised. The minaret, rebuilt in 1967, is placed at the southwest corner. It rises to a height of 38 m, served by a staircase of 120 steps. But, above all, it is the walls that make the difference here with almost 2 m thick. Thanks to them and to four interior pillars, the building supports the largest dome with which a mosque in ex-Yugoslavia is equipped. Measuring 13.5 m in diameter, it is itself placed on a drum according to the model of the Basilica of Saint Sophia in Constantinople, reference of Ottoman architects after 1453.

Decoration. Since 2013, the four domes are surmounted by an alem ("banner" in Turkish), a finial decorated with a crescent moon, a motif without religious connotation adopted by the Ottomans from the seventeenth century. Above the entrance door, a high carved niche is topped by a painting representing the mosque. The niche itself houses a marble plaque with an inscription in Ottoman Turkish (Turkish written in Arabic characters) which states that the mosque was erected by "Mehmet II Fatih, father of the conquests, in the year 865". This date of the Hegira falls between the years 1460 and 1461 of the Gregorian calendar. This is the only document that allows us to date the construction of the building. On either side of the door, the lintels of the two windows are decorated with Arabic calligraphy reproducing verses from the Qur'an. The three domes of the porch are adorned with paintings with floral motifs dating from the 19th century and restored in 2013. Inside, the beautiful paintings on the walls and ceilings have undergone the same process. Indeed, not much remains of the original 15th century interior decoration. The chandelier and the mahvil (a wooden platform on which the women sit during the collective prayer) are of recent construction. On the other hand, thanks to the 2013 restoration, two fundamental elements have regained their original appearance: the mirhab (niche indicating the direction of Mecca) and the minbar (lectern at the top of a staircase used for preaching). Both had been covered with stucco and painted. Their beautiful structure in finely chiseled stone now appears.

Sharia. The mosque was the center of a sharia, a complex mixing sacred and profane. Three elements of this district remain. Just opposite, to the west, the white building is the former large hammam. Dating from the 15th century, it covers 800^m2 and retains its fifteen domes. Pending work, it is closed to the public. Behind it stands the clock tower. Finally, by taking Agim Deva Street which descends between the mosque and the hammam, then turning left on Iljaz Agushi Street, you will reach the "old market".