The Haci Özbek mosque, according to the inscriptive plaque (kitabe) above a window, was built by Haci Özbek bin Muhammed in 734 A.H., three years following the conquest of Iznik by Orhan I. It is a single-unit mosque composed of a square hall crowned with a dome eight meters in diameter. The drum of the dome is dodecagonal and adorned with band of triangular planes on the interior. The three-bay portico preceding the hall to the west was torn down in 1940 to allow for road expansion. Carried on columns with Byzantine capitals, this portico was roofed with a barrel vault to the south and a mirror vault on the north. In its place, an enclosed portico was added to the northern side of the building in 1959. A minaret was never built. Ornamental details of the interior have been lost under layers of plaster. The construction of the mosque is brick and rubble stone, with saw-toothed brick cornices at the top of walls and terra-cotta tiles on the brick dome.
Sources:
Iznik. Tarih ve Müze Komitesi Yayini, Kenan Matbaasi: Istanbul, 1943
Türkiye'de Vakif Abideler ve Eski Eserler. (Volume IV) Vakiflar Genel Müdürlügü Yayinlari: Ankara, 1972.
Ayverdi, Ekrem Hakki. Osmanli mi'marisinin ilk devri : Ertugrul, Osman, Orhan Gaaziler, Hüdavendigar ve Yildirim Bayezid 630-805 (1230-1402) : I. Baha Matbaasi: Istanbul, 1966.
Eyice, Semavi. Iznik: Tarihçesi ve Eski Eserleri (Nicaea: The History and the Monuments). Sanat Tarihi Arastirmalari Dergisi Yayinlari: Istanbul, 1988.
Kuran, Aptullah. The mosque in early Ottoman architecture. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1968.
Yalman, Bedri. Iznik (Nicaea). Governorship of Bursa, Provincial Directorate of Tourism: Bursa, 1999.
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