Üç Şerefeli Cami

The Üç Şerefeli Mosque, built by Murad II in the centre of Edirne, is regarded as one of the turning points of Ottoman architectural history. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam and an article published at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University give its construction dates as 1437 to 1447. The Culture Portal, however, writes 1433 for the start, so the safest statement is that the building was begun in the late 1430s and finished in 1447. The name Muslihuddin is mentioned as its architect, but the article reminds readers that no master's name appears in the inscriptions and that there is no firm information on this point. The mosque is the centre of a small complex made up of a madrasa with a clock, a school, a public fountain, a drinking fountain and a graveyard. The building's importance lies in its plan. In the middle of the transversely rectangular prayer hall rises a great dome a little over 24 metres in diameter. According to the TDV, this dome rests on six supports and is flanked on each side by two smaller domes 10.50 metres across. The triangular spaces between the main dome and the side domes are closed by four small domelets. The Culture Portal describes this arrangement as a plan seen for the first time in Ottoman building and adds that Mimar Sinan applied the same idea in more developed form in his Istanbul mosques. The TDV likewise treats the building as the first example of the centrally planned Ottoman mosque. The second innovation is the courtyard. According to the Culture Portal, the arcaded courtyard was used for the first time in Ottoman architecture in this mosque. The courtyard measures 60.70 by 35.50 metres and is surrounded by twenty-two domed bays. The columns of the arcades are of marble, granite and green Euboean stone. The western gate of the courtyard is of white marble and the most elaborate, reached by steps because of the sloping ground, and it shows the relationship the building had with the bazaar. That the painted decoration of the arcade domes is among the oldest surviving examples in Ottoman mosques, according to the Culture Portal, is a good reason to look up as you walk through the courtyard. The mosque takes its name from the three-balconied minaret at the northwest corner of the courtyard. The TDV gives the height of this minaret as 67.75 metres, or 76 metres including its cap, and notes that it was the tallest minaret of its time. Its balconies are reached by three separate stairways, an idea that reappears more than a century later at the Selimiye. The shaft is decorated with zigzags of red stone. Each of the four minarets is decorated differently. The lozenge-patterned minaret to the northeast was built under Mehmed the Conqueror, while the twisted minaret with its spiral mouldings was added during repairs in the 18th century. The fourth minaret is known as the fluted minaret because of its vertical grooves. The mosque has been repaired several times. In the great earthquake of the mid-18th century its minarets and some of its domes were damaged, and the building was restored in 1763-64 under Mustafa III. According to the article, it was repaired again between 1893 and 1895 and in the Republican period, and it then underwent a comprehensive restoration that began in 1991 and was completed in 2019. In this last campaign most of the later baroque decoration was removed and the older patterns beneath were renewed. Two madrasas stand to the east of the mosque. The madrasa with a clock built by Murad II and the Peykler Madrasa built by Mehmed the Conqueror consist of domed rooms arranged around arcaded courtyards. In the graveyard on the mihrab side, 194 gravestones dating from the 17th century to the early 20th century have been recorded. Set into the graveyard wall are the public fountain of the chief physician Yusuf Efendi, dated 1694-95, and the public fountain of Filibeli Çelebi Ağa, dated 1801. On your visit, first enter the courtyard by the western gate and walk beneath the arcades, then compare the different patterns of the minarets from the middle of the courtyard. As the mosque is open for worship, choose suitable clothing when you go inside and stay quiet during prayer times. The Sokullu Mehmed Paşa Bath opposite is also, according to the TDV, a work of Mimar Sinan. A few minutes' walk from the Selimiye and the Old Mosque, the mosque is also a good starting point for walks down to the banks of the Tunca.