The Ajdarbey Mosque (also known as the Blue Mosque, the Ittifag Mosque) is a historic mosque in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. It was built from 2 March 1912 to 3 December 1913 and is located on Samed Vurgun Street, formerly Krasnovodskaya Street, north of the city center. The project of the mosque was made by the architect

Zivar bey Ahmadbeyov Zivar bay Garay bay oglu Ahmadbayov ( az, Zivər bəy Əhmədbəyov 1873, Shamakhy-1925, Baku) was the first Azerbaijani architect with higher education. Biography In 1902, Zivar bay Ahmadbayov graduated from Saint-Petersburg State University o ...

, and the construction was sponsored by Haji Ajdar bey Ashurbeyov. The Kanni-Tepe city quarter, where the mosque was built, was at the time filled by one-floor private houses. The building of the mosque has an angle of approximately 45 degrees with Krasnovodskaya Street, so that the building could be better appreciated. For the same purpose, it was built on the slope of the hill. The architecture is simple; there is big domed prayer room and a minaret next to it. An

iwan An iwan ( fa, ایوان , ar, إيوان , also spelled ivan) is a rectangular hall or space, usually vaulted, walled on three sides, with one end entirely open. The formal gateway to the iwan is called , a Persian term for a portal projecting ...

is from the east of the prayer room, and a

mihrab Mihrab ( ar, محراب, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "qibla w ...

is from the south and the west. The dome is put on a tall

tholobate In architecture, a tholobate (from el, θολοβάτης, tholobates, dome pedestal) or drum is the upright part of a building on which a dome is raised. It is generally in the shape of a cylinder or a polygonal prism. In the earlier Byzanti ...

, to enhance the volume. There is extensive and fine stone carving covering the walls. It was made by Salman Atayev, who also worked on other buildings in Baku constructed in the 1910s.

References

{{Mosques in Azerbaijan Mosques in Baku Zivar bey Ahmadbeyov buildings and structures

See also

References