Lala Şahin Paşa ve Kirmasti (Mustafakemalpaşa) Lala Şahin Paşa Külliyesi Camisi (1348)
Sema Gündüz Küskü, Elif SoydanGünümüzde Bursa’ya bağlı bir ilçe olan Mustafakemalpaşa’nın Osmanlı dönemindeki adı Kirmasti’dir. Antik dönemden itibaren önemli bir yol güzergâhında bulunan Kirmasti 1336 yılında Orhan Gazi tarafından fethedilerek Osmanlı topraklarına katılmış ve fetihte katkıları bulunan Lala Şahin Paşa’ya mülk olarak verilmiştir. Lala Şahin Paşa’ya ait en önemli veri 1348 tarihli vakfiyesidir. Bu vakfiyeye göre Lala Şahin, Kirmasti’de cami ve zaviyeden oluşan bir külliye inşa ettirmiştir. Ölümünden sonra Paşa’nın türbesi de külliye bünyesine dahil edilir. Külliyeyi oluşturan yapılar hakkında farklı görüşler dikkat çekse de, külliye yalnız türbe ve minaresiyle ayaktadır. Bu nedenle ilk olarak, Lala Şahin Paşa hakkındaki bilgi ve belgeler toplanarak, Paşa’nın baniliği ve külliye bünyesindeki yapıları konularına açıklık getirilmeye çalışılacaktır. Külliyenin bulunduğu alanda, türbe ile minare arasında kalan kısımda Kirmasti Belediyesi tarafından 2016-2017 yıllarında bir kazı çalışması başlatılmış, bazı duvarlar ortaya çıkarılmış, fakat kazı tamamlanmamıştır. 2019 yılında alanda yapılan incelemeler sırasında büyük ölçüde otlar ve yer yer toprakla kaplanan bu duvar kalıntıları yerinde tespit edilmiş ve ölçüleri alınarak belgelenmiştir. Ortaya çıkarılan plan rölövesi, bu kalıntıların külliyenin günümüze ulaşamamış camisi hakkında önemli veriler sunduğunu göstermiştir. Bu nedenle çalışmanın diğer amacı, tespit edilen veriler doğrultusunda külliyenin günümüze ulaşamamış camisinin konumu ve planı hakkında önerilerde bulunmaktır.
Lala Şahin Pasha and Lala Şahin Pasha Mosque of 1348 in Bursa’s Mustafakemalpaşa (Kirmasti) District
Sema Gündüz Küskü, Elif SoydanThe Mustafakemalpaşa district of Bursa is one of the cities in Türkiye that have been on an important travel route since ancient times. The city was conquered in 1336, joining Ottoman lands and being given as property to Lala Şahin Pasha, who’d contributed to the conquest. The most important data regarding Lala Şahin Pasha is his waqfiya dating to 1348. According to this waqfiya, Lala Şahin Pasha also had a complex consisting of a mosque and zawiyas [lodges] built. After his death, Pasha’s tomb was also added to the complex. Although attention is drawn to the different opinions that exist about which structures made up the complex, it currently only stands with its mausoleum and minaret. Therefore, this article will first collect all information and documents about Lala Şahin Pasha and then attempt to clarify the issues regarding this Pasha’s patronage and the structures within the complex. Mustafakemalpasha Municipality started excavations in the area where the complex is located between the mausoleum and the minaret in 2015-2016 and unearthed some walls. However, the excavation was not completed. After the investigations this study performed in the area in 2019, traces of these walls, which had mostly been covered with grass and soil over time, were detected on the site and documented by taking measurements. The uncovered survey plan showed these ruins to present important data about the mosque of the complex that was unable to survive to the present. Therefore, another aim of the study is to make suggestions about the location and plan of the complex’s mosque in line with the determined data.
Lala Şahin Pasha was one of the most important political-military personalities during the reign of Orhan Gazi (1324-1360). His first official task was to be appointed lala [high ranking
man servant in charge of the sultan’s son] to Orhan Gazi’s son Murad. For this reason, he is referred to as Lala in the sources. Lala Şahin also served as vizier during this sultan’s reign and was the first person to use Pasha as a recruited title within Ottoman state administration. Sultan Murad I (1360-1389) appointed Lala Şahin Pasha to be the Rumelian Grand Seigneur after the conquest of Edirne. For this reason, Lala Şahin Pasha also was the first person to be appointed grand seigneur outside of the members of the dynasty.
No inscription about Lala Şahin Pasha are known, with only information about his wakfiya from 1348 having survived to the present day. This wakfiya is seen to have first attributed to Lala Şahin Pasha the titles of great emir and emir of the world and religion. Interestingly, inscriptions about Orhan Gazi and Murad I as the sultans of the period also referred to them
as great emirs. Albeit only in Lala’s waqfiya, this preference indicates Lala Şahin to have been an important and powerful statesman who was able to share the same title as the sultans of the period. Another special use in Pasha's wakfiya was the phrase of kumandan [commandant].Emphasizing Lala as being at the head of the armies, this phrase was similar to the title pasha and supports the idea that Lala Şahin had attained the rank of vizier before 1348. Lala Şahin was later appointed as the Lala Vizier during the Orhan period and as the Grand Seigneur Vizier during the reign of Murad I. Lala Şahin drew attention as the first person outside the dynasty to hold the most important duties of the period and has gone down in history as a strong personality who was able to declare this through his waqfiya.
Lala Şahin Pasha raised important structures during the reign of both the mentioned sultans. As pointed out in Pasha’s waqfiya with the inscription “The mosque and lodges he built within the town of Kirmasti [the previous name of Mustafakemalpasha district]”, he clearly possessed a complex consisting of a mosque and lodges that had been built in Kirmasti, which had been was given to him as property. The importance of this complex is in how it shows for the first time an Ottoman vizier’s attempt at having such buildings in a settlement that had been given as property.
However, this most significant architectural activity in this complex is not what points to Lala Şahin Pasha’s unique position during the period. Lala Şahin Pasha also raised two structures in the capital Bursa, the first being the Lala Şahin Madrasa in the castle. Şahin Pasha had built when he was the Lala Vizier. Although only part of the building has survived to the present day, four of the other six madrasahs from before 1348 had been built by Sultan Orhan and the other two by his son Süleyman Pasha. Therefore, Lala Şahin Pasha was the first person to build a madrasah from outside the dynasty in the Ottoman Empire. Pasha’s second structure in the capital of Bursa was an inn. Known as the Bezir [Demir] Inn, the existence of this structure could be learned from registry records. No definite information is found about under which sultan’s reign the inn had been built, though it is located in the commercial center of Bursa that Sultan Orhan had created. The first of the three inns here was from Orhan Gazi, and the second was from Sultan Murad I. The third belonged to Lala Şahin Pasha, who again appears to have been the first person to build an inn in Bursa apart from the sultans. The fact that strong viziers would build inns in this region in the following periods apart from the sultans makes one think that Lala Şahin Pasha had pioneered the tradition. In this case, Lala Şahin Pasha’s construction of madrasahs and inns in the capital Bursa alongside the sultans of the period, while also at points being able to be called Sultani, can be considered concrete indicators of his political power. When considering Lala Şahin Pasha’s positions at the state level, he can be accepted to have raised his madrasah at the peak of his power after reaching the position of Lala Vizier, while the inn was constructed during his duty as Grand Seigneur Vizier.
Only the minaret and shrine have survived from Lala Şahin Pasha’s complex in Mustafakemalpaşa. Mustafakemalpasha Municipality began excavation work in the area where these two structures are located in 2015-2017 and unearthed some walls, but the excavation was not completed. After this study performed investigations in 2019, it detected the 50-60 cm high walls that had largely been covered with grass and soil over time on the site and documented them while taking measurements. The survey plan showed the remains to present important data about the mosque of the complex, which hadn’t survived to the present. The walls unearthed in the excavation site, which are shown in red on the survey plan, established a direct connection between the tomb and the minaret in the first stage. According to these walls, the mosque is located between the tomb and the minaret and adjacent to these two structures; it was positioned so as to expand toward the river. Moreover, these walls are the clearest data regarding the building plan that this study believes to be a mosque. In line with these data, a rectangular harim is understood to have existed in the north-south direction, with the mosque having a three-section portico arrangement in the east. It was probably covered with a flat wooden ceiling placed on the rectangular harim walls, which measured 13 x 10 m. The east section of the harim had a portico arrangement with wooden ceilings and a broken sloped roof. The southern unit of the portico was designed as an entrance to the shrine, with the other two units opening outward with arches. In this case, the arched facade design on the
eastern facade of the tomb is understood to have continued along the eastern facade of the last congregation place. However, the arches on the tomb facade are smaller, while the arches on the portico facade are larger. Importance was had in having the eaves line up in the form of a small belt array in line with the tomb facade eaves, continuing on the portico facade eave line.
