Currently the largest

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, the Grand Çamlıca Mosque () ( tr, Büyük Çamlıca Camii) is a complex for

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...

worship which was completed and opened on 7 March 2019. The mosque stands astride

Çamlıca Hill Çamlıca Hill () ( tr, Çamlıca Tepesi), aka Big Çamlıca Hill ( tr, Büyük Çamlıca Tepesi) to differentiate it from the nearby Little Çamlıca Hill ( tr, Küçük Çamlıca Tepesi), is a hill in the Üsküdar district of the Asian side of ...

in the

Üsküdar Üsküdar () is a large and densely populated district of Istanbul, Turkey, on the Anatolian shore of the Bosphorus. It is bordered to the north by Beykoz, to the east by Ümraniye, to the southeast by Ataşehir and to the south by Kadıköy; w ...

district of

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

and is visible from much of the centre of the city. The complex incorporates an art gallery, library, and conference hall. It can hold up to 63,000 worshippers at a time (can accommodate up to 100,000 people in case of an earthquake). The cost of the mosque was US$110 million (approx. 550 million Turkish liras at the time). Planning for the Çamlıca Mosque began in the year 2000 and was led by two female architects, Bahar Mızrak and Hayriye Gül Totu. Their design won second prize in a competition to come up with something suitable. The mosque was officially inaugurated on 3 May 2019 by the current President of Turkey,

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...

. Several world leaders were present at the ceremony including Senegalese President

Macky Sall Macky Sall (, wo, Maki Sàll, fuc, 𞤃𞤢𞤳𞤭 𞤅𞤢𞤤‎, italic=no, Maki Sal; born 11 December 1961) is a Senegalese politician who has been President of Senegal since April 2012. He was re-elected President in the first round voti ...

, Guinean President Alpha Conde, Albanian president

Ilir Meta Ilir Rexhep Meta (; born 24 March 1969) is an Albanian politician. He served as President of Albania from 24 July 2017 to 24 July 2022. Previously Meta served as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2002 and he was Speaker of the Parliament of Albania f ...

, Palestinian Prime Minister

Mohammad Shtayyeh Mohammad Ibrahim Shtayyeh ( ar, محمد اشتية) (born 17 January 1958) is a Palestinian politician, academic and economist who became prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority in March 2019. He is a member of Fatah who was elect ...

and other foreign dignitaries. Çamlıca Mosque was only the third mosque in Turkey to have six minarets (after the Sultanahmet (Blue) Mosque in

and the Sabancı Merkez Mosque in

Adana Adana (; ; ) is a major city in southern Turkey. It is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The administrative seat of Adana Province, Adana province, it has a population of 2.26 million. Adana lies in the heart ...

). In 2022 work was under way to add a spur to the M5 Metro line from Üsküdar to include a stop at the Çamlıca Mosque.

Architecture

The mosque's design was inspired by

Classical Ottoman architecture Classical Ottoman architecture is a period in Ottoman architecture generally including the 16th and 17th centuries. The period is most strongly associated with the works of Mimar Sinan, who was Chief Court Architect under three sultans between 15 ...

and the works of

Mimar Sinan Mimar Sinan ( ota, معمار سينان, translit=Mi'mâr Sinân, , ) ( 1488–1490 – 17 July 1588) also known as Koca Mi'mâr Sinân Âğâ, ("Sinan Agha (title), Agha the Grand Architect" or "Grand Sinan") was the chief Ottoman Empir ...

The exterior of the mosque has been described as "a huge box attached to a colonnaded courtyard; on top of the box, domes and half-domes swarm around a squat central dome surmounted by a golden, crescent-shaped

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

." The exterior design may be influenced by Sinan but "its use of concrete has relegated Sinan's structural devices – the dome-clusters, for example, that he used to diffuse the downward thrust of the main dome – to mere ornament." It was supposedly designed to rival Sinan's famous Suleymaniye Mosque, across the Bosphorus on the European side of Istanbul. At 72 metres in height, the main dome of Çamlıca Mosque symbolises the 72 nations residing in Istanbul, Turkey; the dome spanning 34 metres represents the city of Istanbul (34 is the city's car plate number). The main dome is 3.12 metres wide, 7.77 metres high and weighs 4.5 tons. The mosque's gates are some of the largest inside a place of worship in the world - the main gate is 5 metres long, 6.5 metres high and weighs 6 tons. The finial of the Çamlıca Mosque - the largest in the world - was coloured using nanotechnology.

Minarets

Çamlıca Mosque has six minarets which represent the six articles of Islamic faith ( ''iman''). Four of the six minarets feature three balconies that stand 107.1 metres high in recognition of the

Seljuks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turk ...

' Victory at Manzikert in 1071. The other two minarets feature two balconies and are 90 metres high. Four of the minarets are centred around the central dome with the other two on the outer ends of the mosque.

Interior

The interior of the mosque was designed with a more minimalist approach. The two female designers said that their use of "light, colour, glass, ornamentation and calligraphy" was intended to make people feel more spiritual within the space.

Complex

Çamlıca Mosque features a museum, underground parking with space for 3,500 vehicles, an art gallery, library, conference hall, and childcare facilities. The art gallery covers 3,500 square metres while the library fills 3,000 square metres. The conference hall is able to seat up to 1,071 people and the mosque features eight art workshops. In April 2022 a new Museum of Islamic Civilisations opened as part of the mosque complex.

Female design and female-specific features

The design for Çamlıca Mosque was by two female architects, Bahar Mızrak and Hayriye Gül Totu, who planned to create a 'female-friendly' mosque that uses positive affirmation for women. The planning incorporated a separate space for women to perform ablutions before prayer, a separate elevator to the prayer spaces and a childcare facility. The separate prayer space for women is located in the central hall of the mosque and holds up to 600 worshippers. The childcare facility has a playground area and a car park. The architects stated that they wanted to change the tradition of more men going to mosques than women by designing Çamlıca Mosque to be 'female-friendly'.

Notable funerals

The first notable funeral to attract crowds to the mosque was the one held for

Kadir Mısıroğlu Kadir Mısıroğlu (1933–2019) was a Turkish writer, publisher and conspiracy theorist. He was known for his staunch opposition to the early Kemalist regime of Turkey and the advocating the restoration of the caliphate. Mısıroğlu's claims ...

on 6 May 2019.

Controversy

As one of several

megaproject A megaproject is an extremely large-scale investment project. According to the ''Oxford Handbook of Megaproject Management'', "Megaprojects are large-scale, complex ventures that typically cost $1 billion or more, take many years to develop and ...

s embarked on by the ruling

AK Party The Justice and Development Party ( tr, Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, ; AKP), abbreviated officially AK Party in English, is a political party in Turkey self-describing as conservative-democrat. It is one of the two major parties of contemporar ...

in the second half of the 2010s, the Çamlıca Mosque attracted a great deal of attention, as often negative as positive. Critics of the Mosque stated that its construction is against the principle of

secularism in Turkey Secularism in Turkey defines the relationship between religion and state in the country of Turkey. Secularism or Laicism (or ''laïcité'') was first introduced with the 1928 amendment of the Constitution of 1924, which removed the provision de ...

.https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/170320182

Gallery

File:Istanbul Big Camlica Mosque june 2019 2036.jpg, Main entrance courtyard File:Istanbul Big Camlica Mosque june 2019 2021.jpg, West side File:Istanbul Big Camlica Mosque june 2019 1940 panorama (1).jpg, Panorama File:Istanbul Big Camlica Mosque june 2019 1986.jpg, General view File:Çamlıca Mosque, Istanbul Interiror.jpg, Interior with main dome in centre File:Istanbul Big Camlica Mosque june 2019 1998.jpg, Mihrab File:Istanbul Big Camlica Mosque june 2019 1933.jpg, Window File:Istanbul Big Camlica Mosque june 2019 1948.jpg, Window File:Istanbul Big Camlica Mosque june 2019 1980.jpg, Tile panel File:Istanbul Big Camlica Mosque june 2019 2013.jpg, Courtyard File:Istanbul Big Camlica Mosque june 2019 2009.jpg, Decoration in courtyard File:Istanbul Big Camlica Mosque june 2019 2026 panorama.jpg, View from north side of platform File:Cami istabulda.jpg, Another front view of the Çamlıca Mosque

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Camlica Mosque 2019 establishments in Turkey Mosques in Istanbul Mosques completed in 2019 Mosque buildings with domes Üsküdar Ottoman architecture