Ahi Yusuf Mosque
| Name of the Structure | Ahi Yusuf Mosque |
| Category | Mosque |
| Dönemi | Seljuk |
| Current Condition | It currently functions as a mosque. |
| Construction Date | The building was probably built as a bastion during the Seljuk Period and was repaired by Ahi Yusuf before it was transformed into its current layout in the third quarter of the 15th century. |
| Built by | Ahi Yusuf |
| Location / Address | Kılınçarslan, Mermerli Sk. No:25, 07100 Muratpaşa/Antalya |
The square building was probably converted from a Seljuk Period bastion into a mosque by Ahi Yusuf in the 15th century. The mihrab and pulpit on the south wall are made of wood. The mosque does not have a minaret.
The mosque and the tomb are accessible through a door with a rounded brick arch on the courtyard wall in front of the north façade. The mosque has a square plan built with cut and rough-cut stones. In the center of the north façade is a rectangular, double-winged door with a flat lintel and a blind niche that is deeper above the door. On either side of the door is a rectangular window with iron gratings and a blind niche above each. There are similar rectangular windows with iron gratings on all façades of the building, three in the east, two in the south, and one in the west. The place of worship is covered with a dome supported by triangular pendentives. Its semicircular, niche-shaped mihrab is in the same direction as the door. The mihrab was made of wood, and a wooden pulpit was added during later restorations.
There is an exterior fountain attached to the east side of the building. There is a heavily damaged Seljuk inscription thought to belong to a bastion on the vertically placed ornamental slab of the fountain. There is a 15-line inscription in Arabic on a two-piece marble block with a turban-shaped top in the burial area to the south of the mosque. The Ayet-el Kürsi (“Throne Verse”) is written in the first 13 lines and a construction inscription in the last two. It is uncertain whether the inscription belongs to the mosque, so the date 1249/1250 might not be its construction date.
Referans
K. Turfan, 1955 Yılı Antalya Merkez Eski Eser Fişleri. Antalya 1955, no. 49 ve 49b-c.
Türkiye’de Vakıf Abideler ve Eski Eserler (I), Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü Yayınları, 1983, 541-543.
L. Yılmaz, Antalya: Bir Ortaçağ Türk Şehrinin Mimarlık Mirası ve Şehir Dokusunun Gelişimi (16. Yüzyılın Sonuna Kadar), Ankara 2002,16-20.
T.C. Antalya Valiliği, Antalya Kültür Envanteri (Merkez), Antalya 2003, 41.
Y. Kalafat, “Ahi Türbeleri Etrafında Oluşan Halk İnançları (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı Arşiv Kayıtlarına Göre),” TÜBAR XIV, 2003, 180.
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L. Yılmaz – K. Tuzcu, Antalya’da Türk Dönemi Kitabeleri, Haarlem 2010, 180-185.
M. A. Budak, “İbn Battuta ve El-Ömeri’nin Anlatımıyla Geç Ortaçağ’da Antalya ile Alanya,” Cedrus IV, 2016, 365.
O. Kunduracı, Ahi Yusuf Camii, Ahilik Ansiklopedisi, Cilt I, 216.
R. E. Gültekin – A. Uçar, “Antalya Kaleiçi Bölgesi Tarihi Sokak Çeşmeleri ve Koruma Sorunları,” Antalya Kitabı 1: Selçukludan Cumhuriyete Sosyal Bilimlerde Antalya, 2018, 617-618.