Bayezid Mosque in Bursa, built by architect Yakub Shah or Hayreddin Pasha in 1500-1506 on the orders of Sultan Bayezid II, son of Mehmed the Conqueror (reigned: 1481-1512), is an ancient, but at the same time bright and original, impressive building, which gives an idea of the Ottoman architectural style of the Middle Ages, although it is not characterised by the elegance of the Green Mosque and is not so lavishly decorated.
It is the oldest surviving Sultan mosque in the city, built in a transitional style from Early Ottoman to Classical, strongly influenced by the architecture of the Ayia Sofia Cathedral architecture. It is one of the largest in Istanbul and has two minarets decorated with brick ornamentation. It is located It is located in the old part of Istanbul in Beyazit Square (the current name of the square is Freedom Square or Hurriyet Meydana). Not far from the mosque is the gate Beyazit Grand Bazaar and the main gate of Istanbul University. The diameter diameter of the dome is 17 metres. The minarets are decorated with brick ornamentation.
The mosque reflects the fashion for building domed structures. Of particular interest is the front courtyard of rectangular shape with arches. The entrance to the mosque is decorated with gates decorated with rich and luxurious stalactite-shaped ornaments and inscriptions, which reflects the Seljuk influence in the architecture of the structure. The 25 domes rest on 20 antique columns made of red porphyry and pink granite. The diameter of the dome is 17 metres.
The architectural feature of the Bayazid Mosque is the combination of the styles of the original Bursa mosques and mosques built in the late Ottoman period. On the eastern and The eastern and western parts of the ceremonial dome have half-domes supported by four massive columns with stalactite tops in the form of elephant's feet and 2 columns of porphyry marble. During the construction of the complex were widely used columns of marble, granite, porphyry and other building elements, borrowed from the ancient (380-393 AD) Byzantine forum of Theodosius.
The first interesting feature of the mosque is the fact that the minarets are distant from each other at a distance of about a hundred metres. The second feature is that, this mosque, like most of the mosques built in the early Ottoman period, was originally designed to accommodate merchants, pilgrims and travelling dervishes.
Unlike the mosques of the Seljukid period, the pool (or as the Turks call it. Shadrivan) is moved outside the room into the courtyard. The colour harmoniousness of the arcade around the courtyard and the marble pavements are worthy of special attention. On both sides of the mosque are built in sherefe (a balcony on the minaret from which the muezzin calls for prayer), which is located at a height of 87 metres. On the minarets there are eight red stripes, which give the mosque building a special flavour.
It should be noted that the trees from the construction sites were not removed by the Turkish builders, so in the courtyard of Bayazid's mosque even nowadays there are a few cypress trees, which give a very picturesque appearance to the whole ensemble.
The plan of this building is very interesting. To the right and left of the entrance to the mosque premises you can see two wings, which form a kind of vestibule with arcades, which have sharp vaults. Standing on the extreme point of one of these vestibules you can one can admire the grandiose spectacle that is the long vaulted gallery in the form of a 25-domed portico and reminiscent of monastic refectories of medieval times. Ottoman architects roofed the domes of the mosque with lead slabs, and a golden crescent moon was built on the spire. Despite the fact that the mosque is a funerary mosque, the tomb or "türbe" is located behind the mosque.
Four small domes were placed on each of the side aisles, which were divided by columns. Around all the domes and half-domes were depicted ornaments resembling patterns on fabrics, similar to the motifs of patterns painted on the tents of the nomadic Jurüks, the ancestors of the Ottomans. The elevation of Mahfil Hunkar, intended for the ruler Hunkar was executed in a very elegant manner. In the mausoleum, which is an octagonal turba made of rough, unhewn stone, behind the mosque, next to the tomb of Sultan Bayazid, rests Seljuk Khatun. In the third turba in 1857, a very famous person of the Tanzimat period, the Great Reshid Pasha, was buried.
The complex, located in Bayazid Square to the west of Kapala Çarşı, includes the Bayazid Mosque itself, the imaret (a canteen where the servants, students, the sick and the indigent were fed, sick and indigent), a hospital, a school, a madrasa, a hamam (Turkish bath) and a caravanserai.
The caravanserai and imaret, considered a charitable institution in the Ottoman Empire, now belong to the city library, and the madrasa, which lies to the west of the mosque, now houses a museum of calligraphy. Among the several mausoleums located on the south side of the mosque are the Mausoleum of the founder of the mosque, Sultan Bayezid II.
Bayezid Mosque now houses a medical museum of the same name. To the north of the Bayezid Mosque is the complex of the old university, which became the first Turkish university of higher education in the late 19th century to become Turkey's first institution of higher education.
