Description:
Ayşe Kadın Mosque is one of these historical mosques in Edirne that are rarely visited by tourists. It was erected between 1468-1469 for Ayşe Kadın. It is believed that the builder responsible for the construction of this mosque was the Ottoman architect Hayrettin. His more famous work in Edirne is Sultan Bayezid II Mosque Complex.
Ayşe Hatun was the daughter of Sultan Mehmed I, known as the "second founder" of the Ottoman Sultanate. He was the fourth son of Sultan Bayezid I and he spent his youth fighting with his brothers over control of the Ottoman realm in the times of the Ottoman Interregnum. After winning this war, he crowned himself sultan in the Thracian city of Edirne. Notably, he was the first of the Ottoman sultans to ascend the throne in Edirne. Later he consolidated his power and made Edirne the most important of the dual capitals, marking the gradual decline of Bursa's importance. Ayşe Hatun, the youngest of the sultan's numerous daughters, was born in 1414. She sponsored numerous public buildings, including nine bathhouses in Hayrabolu, now in Tekirdağ Province, and ten bathhouses in Skopje in Macedonia.
Ayşe Kadın Mosque was erected on a square plan with an open old portico adjacent to the main prayer hall. Nowadays, this porch has been closed off with wooden walls, creating an additional prayer room, with an outer mihrab placed between two windows. The entrance to the main prayer room is on the right side of this front wall. Above the entry to the prayer hall, there is an ancient gold inscription, commemorating its founder Ayşe Kadın. The portal surrounding the door is decorated in the style of muqarnas and surrounded by murals of floristic and geometric motifs.
The building is covered with a hemispherical dome with a diameter of almost 11 meters, supported by the so-called squinches. A squinch is a construction filling in the upper angles of a square room to form a base to receive an octagonal or spherical dome. From the outside, the dome rests on an octagonal drum, in the corner of which are placed small semi-domes. A single minaret with one balcony is located in the north-west corner of the building. Because the winters in Edirne are often very cold, the ablution fountain was fitted with a boiler to heat the water for the faithful in 1647. It's called Hacı Müslim Çeşmesi, and is located on the east side of the mosque.
Visitor tips:
The main prayer hall is open for the prayers only.
Getting there:
Ayşe Kadın is situated in Talatpaşa District of Edirne, on Talat Paşa Street. Selimiye Mosque is 1.5 km in the north-western direction.