An attempt to rebuild, as it once was, the İskilip Sheikh Yavsi Mosque

Abstract

The Sheikh Yavsi Mosque, built under the patronage of Şeyhülislâm (high Ottoman official responsible for everything related to canon law) Ebussuud Efendi, in his hometown of İskilip, in the name of his father Sheikh Yavsi, is the oldest building of İskilip. The plan of the mosque, with an inverted T shape, consists of two square spaces on the north, covered by equidimensional domes, a space with a smaller dome, attached to the previous double spaces' southern side, over the central axis and a portico. With this shape, this mosque has the characteristics of a multi-functional zaviyeli cami (mosque with diagonal axis) of the early Ottoman Fütüvvet (professional guilds with a Sufi dervish order structure) period. Nevertheless, its internal structure reflects all the changes and additions made to it during its 450-year existence. On the basis of the elements of discordance in the mosque, the criteria of Ottoman mosque architecture and the clues provided by the vakfiye (deed of trust of a pious foundation), we can form an idea concerning the process of change undergone by the mosque and thus its original plan. In this way we can state that the mosque in question was built after the death of Sheikh Yavsi in 1514, sometime in the mid 16th century, with a three unit portico and a single unit main body; that later a second unit of the same dimension was added; that the domed portico was substituted with a wooden structure and that due to the requirement to have a multifunctional mosque, a smaller unit was added over the central axis to the southern wall of the two unit building, in a way reminiscent of the zaviyeli cami.