Traces of Kiosk Masjid Tradition in Edirne Rustem Pasha Caravanserai
Nesrin Çiçek Akçıl HarmankayaThe Rüstem Pasha Caravanserai in Edirne and its kiosk masjid have an important place among the Ottoman period staging-post structures, with the kiosk masjid constituting the subject of this study. Rüstem Pasha Caravanserai is located in Edirne’s city center and was built by Mimar Sinan in 1560-61 by order of the Grand Vizier Rüstem Pasha. The building consists of two parts, with a large courtyard and a small courtyard, and is considered the most advanced example of a twostory caravanserais. The middle of the large courtyard in the caravanserai, was known to have had a kiosk masjid on top of the shadirvan. This kiosk masjid no longer exists, having been destroyed during the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-1878. The building, has yet to be adequately studied, and a drawing of the building in the Süheyl Ünver archive and dating from 1830 states the building to have belonged to Tosyavizade Rifat Osman and to have had particular importance in its time. The kiosk masjid, whose name encountered in the Rüstem Pasha foundation charter, was also very important an example that had been applied among the caravanserais of the Ottoman period. This study examines the historical and architectural features of the kiosk masjid and its drawing and compares it to examples of similar kiosk masjids in Anatolia. The study also evaluates the place and importance of the kiosk masjid in Mimar Sinan’s architecture. Based on the Rüstem Pasha foundation charter and archive documents, the study starts off by determining that a kiosk masjid had been built in the Rüstem Pasha Caravanserai. After the Anatolian Seljuk caravanserais and the inns of the Early Ottoman period, the tradition of the kiosk masjid was understood to have been continued by Mimar Sinan in the caravanserai architecture of the Ottoman period.
Edirne Rüstem Paşa Kervansarayında Köşk Mescit Geleneğinin İzleri
Nesrin Çiçek Akçıl HarmankayaRüstem Paşa Kervansarayı Edirne kent merkezinde yer almakta olup 1560-61 yılında Sadrazam Rüstem Paşa tarafından Mimar Sinan’a yaptırılmıştır. Büyük avlulu ve küçük avlulu olarak iki bölümden oluşan yapı iki katlı kervansarayların en gelişmiş örneği olarak kabul edilmektedir. Kervansarayın büyük avlusu ortasında şadırvan üzerinde bir köşk mescit bulunduğu bilinmektedir. Günümüzde mevcut olmayan bu köşk mescit 1877-1878 Osmanlı Rus Savaşı’nda yıkılmıştır. Süheyl Ünver arşivinde Tosyavizade Rifat Osman’a ait olduğu belirtilen 1830 tarihli bir çizimi bulunan yapı dönemi içinde özel bir öneme sahiptir ve daha önce yeterince incelenmemiştir. Rüstem Paşa vakfiyesinde de adına rastladığımız bu köşk mescit, Osmanlı dönemi kervansarayları arasında uygulanan bir örnek olması bakımından da oldukça önemlidir. Bu çalışmada, söz konusu köşk mescit ve çizimi üzerinde durularak tarihi ve mimari özellikleri incelenmiş, Anadolu’daki benzer köşk mescit örnekleri ile karşılaştırılarak bir değerlendirmesi yapılmıştır. Rüstem Paşa vakfiyesi ve arşiv belgelerinden yola çıkarak Rüstem Paşa Kervansarayında bir köşk mescit inşa edildiği tespit edilmiştir. Anadolu Selçuklu kervansarayları ve Erken Osmanlı dönemi hanlarından sonra Osmanlı dönemi kervansaray mimarisinde de Mimar Sinan tarafından köşk mescit geleneğinin devam ettirildiği anlaşılmıştır.
The subject of this study is the kiosk masjid in Edirne’s Rüstem Pasha Caravanserai, which has an important place among the Ottoman period staging-post structures. This caravanserai was built in the 16th century in Edirne, which connects Asia to Europe, and was an important destination city of the period. Rüstem Pasha Caravanserai served the caravans on the trade route to the Balkans and Anatolia and became one of the most important accommodations and trade structures of Ottoman architecture. The building is located in Edirne’s city center, and was built by Mimar Sinan by order of Grand Vizier Rüstem Pasha in 1560-61. The building continued to serve as a caravanserai until the 19th century, has been repaired many times, and is currently used as a hotel. With Edirne’s Rüstem Pasha Caravanserai, Mimar Sinan implemented a different and very important floor plan in Ottoman architecture by gathering the barn, kitchen, Turkish bath, toilet, and other service spaces in a single unit and placing the rooms among two floors around a rectangular courtyard building, with a kiosk masjid in the middle for accommodation purposes. The two-story Rüstem Pasha Caravanserai consists of two parts: a large courtyard and a small courtyard. A kiosk masjid is known to have existed on top of a shadirvan in the middle of the large courtyard of the building. This kiosk masjid was very important in terms of continuing the kiosk masjid tradition of the Anatolian Seljuk period caravanserais and was destroyed during the 1877-1878 Ottoman-Russian War. The kiosk masjid met the worship needs of pilgrims and the building officials, in particular the needs of the merchants who’d stay in the caravanserai. This masjid has yet to be adequately studied and also has very special importance for the period as well as for mosque architecture. The kiosk masjid tradition had been widely applied in the Seljuk caravanserais in Anatolia, especially in the Sultan's inns and inns of Bursa, and is seen to have occured in Edirne’s 16th-century caravanserai designed by Mimar Sinan. Masjids were also built in Rüstem Pasha’s caravanserai and inns in Galata, Edirne, and Cağaloğlu, as well as Istanbul’s open-air flea markets. However, Rüstem Pasha Caravanserai it being the first and only example with an application of a kiosk masjid makes this building exclusive. The most important document regarding the existence of this kiosk masjid, which was also known by various names such as "the Rüstem Pasha Masjid, the Şadırvan üstü Masjid [Masjid Over the Shadirvan], and Altı Şadırvan üstü Masjid" [Bottom Shadirvan Top Masjid], involves the foundation records belonging to Rüstem Pasha in the Archives of the General Directorate of Foundations. A charcoal drawing dating back to 1830 and stated to belong to Tosyavizade Rifat Osman in the Süheyl Ünver archive has also been found. This drawing introduces the “Rüstem Pasha Masjid (1830)”, and according to it, the building had an octagonal floorplan that rose on eight columns connected by round arches. It was covered with a dome that ended with a slight taper. The masjid had two windows with pointed arches and socket irons on the facade. A polygonal-shaped shadirvan was located underneath the kiosk masjid and was accessible through stairs from the side. These days, the middle of the courtyard has only square floor tiling and the polygonal shadirvan that had belonged to the kiosk masjid. The middle of the shadirvan has a column that helps the upper structure. This study addresses within its scope the kiosk masjid of Edirne’s Rüstem Pasha Caravanserai and emphasizes the records of the now-defunct Rüstem Pasha Founndation and its drawing dating from 1830. The study also attempts to reveal the place and importance of the practice of having a kiosk masjid in Seljuk and Early Ottoman caravanserais, in the inns in Ottoman architecture, and in Mimar Sinan's caravanserai architecture by making a general evaluation and comparing these with similar structures in Turkish architecture. As a result, Mimar Sinan is seen to have recreated an old tradition with a new understanding by designing the place of worship as a separate unit within a caravanserai floorplan in Edirne. This kiosk masjid was designed in the middle of the courtyard of the Rüstem Pasha Caravanserai and is the first and only example of 16th century Ottoman caravanserai architecture having architectural features such as a shadirvan with support columns in the middle, apart from the inner city inns of Bursa. This different and original interpretation was the product of a creative process unique to Mimar Sinan. The charcoal drawing of this kiosk masjid as found in the Süheyl Ünver archive and dating from 1830 was seen to clearly have belonged to the Greek painter Aleksandr Zografos and been copied by Rifat Osman. Süheyl Ünver and other later researchers were cocluded to have included it in their works by referring to it as the “Rüstem Paşa Köşk [Pasha Kiosk] Masjid, 1830”. Until some other document is obtained regarding the architecture of the masjid, this drawing will be considered to involve the destroyed Rüstem Pasha Kiosk Masjid.
