A Timeless Landmark in Konya
Bulgur Tekke Mosque is a 13th-century mosque located in Konya, Turkey. It is believed to have been a dervish lodge in the past. The mosque is known for its unique architectural style, which combines Seljuk and Ottoman elements.
Originally part of a vast tekke (dervish lodge), only the mosque and a few adjacent sections have survived. Comprising a covered section, an open section, and a barrel-vaulted room adjacent to the west wall, the mosque stands as a testament to its former glory.
The mosque's north and west facades are hidden by neighboring buildings in the bustling urban landscape of Konya's bazaar. Positioned at the street corner, only the qibla (prayer direction) and east walls of the mosque are visible. The socle, constructed with cut stones, supports the brick-built south and the east facades that rise two stories high. The east facade boasts two pairs of vertically aligned windows, while the south facade features three pairs. The rectangular lower windows now sport marble sills, added during the restoration. Adorned with tile mosaics in turquoise and dark blue, showcasing intricate geometric designs, the upper windows are arched. Though most of the original tile mosaics have been lost, they were carefully reproduced with paint during the restoration process.
A doorway with a round arch in the northeast corner leads into the three-bayed portico, the latecomers' area, or the so-called "summer mosque" area along the north facade. Four stone columns with capitals featuring muqarnas corners are interconnected to each other and to the north wall of the mosque by timber beams; the central arch is wider. The concrete roof, added later, rests on two brick piers built on top of the two middle columns. The most striking architectural element here is the grandiose stone mihrab flanked by an engaged stone column. The rectangular mihrab niche is framed with a pointed arch of cascaded borders and round moldings. It is flanked by a round colonnette with two-tiered capitals and topped with a hood of eleven rows of muqarnas. This latecomers' area was originally a three-bayed portico with pointed arches and domes, and it may be suggested that this area, the stone columns, and mihrab were added during the Ottoman period.
A single flight of stone stairs with a landing against the east wall of the portico leads into the prayer hall, which is square in shape and covered with a dome on a sixteen-sided drum formed by a belt of triangles in brick. The mihrab on the qibla wall is just a rectangular niche, whose bottom part still retains the in-situ remains of the tile mosaics from the original mihrab. The walls of the prayer hall are faced with hexagonal tiles with turquoise glaze up to the lintels of the lower windows.
A rectangular room covered with a barrel vault to the west of the prayer hall can be accessed either via a doorway with a lintel on the west wall of the prayer hall or by a flight of stairs against the west wall of the portico. This room has a basement with a similar layout, accessible directly from the street through a rectangular doorway at the west end of the south side.
Under the landing at the east end of the portico, there is a doorway with a round arch leading to the basement of the mosque through a barrel-vaulted narrow corridor. The basement is a square hall with a concrete column in the middle supporting four beams and has a low ceiling. There is a deep pointed-arched window in the west of its south wall, which is also visible from the exterior. Although lacking an inscription, the mosque is estimated to date back to the thirteenth century, determined by the presence of tile mosaics as historical evidence.
