Alaettin Bey Mosque, Bursa

Alaettin Bey Camii is the oldest dated mosque in Bursa; a plate above the entrance records that it was erected in 1335 and restored in 1892 ¹. It was built in honour of Alaettin Bey, Orhan Gazi's younger brother, who died in 1331 after serving as both first vezir and commander of the army ².

It is of the simple type Aptullah Kuran calls a single-unit mosque: a domed square structure with an added porch and minaret ². A three-bay porch on four columns with Byzantine capitals precedes a square room 8.2 metres on each side, covered by a hemispherical dome on a sixteen-sided belt of large triangles ². The minaret rises from the left of the porch and is original up to the şerefe; Kuran reckons it the earliest minaret in Ottoman architecture ².

• Source read: Freely, A History of Ottoman Architecture (2011), pp. 52–53 (Alaettin Bey Camii).
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