Lal Aga Mosque stands at the center of Mut, a small town on the Karaman-Silifke road and was built between 1356 and 1390 by the Karaman Emirate. It was repaired in the eighteenth century by Çelik Mehmet Pasa and restored by the General Directorate of Religious Endowments (Vakiflar Genel Müdürlügü) in the second half of the twentieth century. It still serves as a mosque today.
The mosque is composed of a rectangular prayer hall preceded by a five-bay portico to the north, and has a single minaret. The east end of the portico is enclosed with the base of the minaret while the west end is opened up with a window. The five domes of the portico are carried on pointed arches linked with iron ties. Its side bays are raised thirty centimeters above the central bay forming platforms for prayer. The simple portal is centered on the portico façade and flanked by two arched windows.
Inside, the central domed space of the prayer hall is extended with vaulted wings to the east and west. The dome measures ten meters in diameter and rises to a height of about eight and a half meters on an octagonal drum. The transition to the dome is achieved with pendentives that rest on the north and south walls, and on grand arches that separate the wings form the central space. Capped at seventy centimeters below the dome, the wing vaults enlarge the central hall by four meters on either side while providing additional support to the dome. This innovative structural solution would lay dormant until its reuse by court architect Sinan hundred years later at the Muradiye Mosque of Manisa.
The interior is lit by two tiers of arched windows; two lower casements topped by two small windows on each façade. A small side entrance adjoins the lower windows on the west façade. Covered with white plaster, the interior walls are unadorned except for the neo-baroque arabesques painted around windows. The muqarnas mihrab and the minbar are carved of stone.
The Lal Aga mosque is made entirely of cut stone blocks, which are arranged in alternating layers of wide and narrow stones. Its dome and the vaults are made of brick and covered with cut stone panels on the exterior. Made of a different kind of stone, the minaret with its single balcony is thought to have been rebuilt at a later date. Its spiral steps are accessed with a narrow passage at the eastern end of the portico. The domes of the portico have been covered with concrete during restoration.
Sources:
Akurgal, Ekrem, and Léo Hilber. The Art and architecture of Turkey, 120-121. New York: Rizzoli, 1980.
Kiziltan, Ali. Anadolu beyliklerinde cami ve mescitler, 20-23. Istanbul: Istanbul Teknik Üniversitesi Mimarlik Fakültesi, 1958.