Ibni Neccar Camii
Kastamonu, Türkiye
Ibni Neccar Mosque is the oldest mosque remaining from the Turkish Candar Emirate (Candarogullari or Isfandiyar Ogullari), who ruled the western Black Sea Coast from 1292 to 1462. It is located to the east of the city of Kastamonu, below the castle. According to an inscription to the right of entry facade, the mosque was commissioned by Haci Nusret, son of Ibni Neccar, and was completed in 1353. A restoration project was undertaken by General Directorate of Religious Endowments in 1967.

The mosque is composed of a prayer hall preceded by a three bay portico and a walled courtyard to the north, all aligned with qibla and a neighborhood street to the west. The courtyard is entered primarily through the western portal and has a fountain on the northwestern corner. The portico is surmounted by three domes, which sit on pointed arches carried on four columns. The domes are covered with an octagonal tile roof. The west wall of the portico opens onto the street with three windows. The portico was demolished in the 1943 earthquake.

The prayer hall is entered through the central portico, through a doorway shifted about thirty centimeters to the west of center. The plan of the prayer hall is a slightly asymmetrical square with sides measuring approximately eight and a half meters. Its space is surmounted by a dome nine and a half meters in diameter dome, which is covered with a shallow octagonal pitched roof, covered with tiles on the exterior, raised on an octagonal drum. Unadorned squinches help transition from the dome to the rectangular walls. There is the two meter wide muezzin's platform (muezzin mahfili) over the entrance accessed with a staircase embedded in the north wall of the mosque. A door in the northwestern corner of the prayer hall leads to the minaret steps. The minaret has a single balcony and is embedded in the body of the building.

A total of twelve lower windows and four upper windows illuminate the prayer hall aided by four smaller windows on the octagonal drum of the dome. The east and west facades are designed symmetrically with three lower windows, whereas the qibla wall has four lower windows, two on each side of the mihrab. The north wall features two lower windows, one on each side of the entrance door. The upper windows are placed at the center of each facade.

The mosque is made of cut stone, with bricks tiles used to cover the roofs. Inside the prayer hall, the minbar is made of wood and the mihrab niche is carved from plaster. The prayer hall has wooden floors and the floor of the portico is paved with stone. The mosque is famous for its wooden door panes, which are seventy centimeters wide and six centimeters thick, carved by Abdullah, son of Ankarali Mahmut, in 1356. These door panes are carved with floral motifs shaped into discs and teardrops at the center and topped by carved inscriptions embedded in a floral frame. They are now kept in the Kastamonu Museum. Among the other few decorative elements are rosettes, on the courtyard door and the motifs outside the qibla wall. There are small niches for birds on the walls. Inside the prayer hall, painted arabesques decorate the rim of the dome and frame the windows.


Sources:

Bayrak, M. Orhan. Türkiye Tarihi Yerler Kilavuzu, 415-416. Istanbul: Inkilap Kitabevi, 1994.

Çifci, Fazil. Kastamonu camileri-türbeleri ve diger tarihi eserler, 100-103. Ankara: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfi Kastamonu Subesi, 1995.

Kiziltan, Ali. Anadolu beyliklerinde cami ve mescitler, 51-52. Istanbul: Istanbul Teknik Üniversitesi Mimarlik Fakültesi, 1958.
Location
Ibni Neccar Neighbourhood, Kastamonu, Türkiye
Images & Videos
Events
1353/753-754 AH, restored 1967/1387 AH
Style Periods
Variant Names
Ibni Neccar Mosque
Variant
Ibnineccar Camii
Variant
Building Usages
religious