Hacı Ferruh Masjid: A 13th Century Masterpiece

Hacı Ferruh Masjid is located on Taş Cami Street to the south of Sahip Ata Complex in the Aksinne neighborhood of Konya. Built entirely of cut stones it is locally known as Taş Mosque or Akçegizlemez Masjid.

Standing on an east-west rectangular area, it comprises a cubic masjid covered with a dome and a latecomers’ area attached to it on the east.

The plan type of this structure bears similar features to other Konya mosques built in the thirteenth century, but it differs from them in terms of material and decoration features, approaching the large-scale structures built in Konya and other Seljuk cities in the thirteenth century.

The façades are faced with Gödene stone. On the south façade there is one rectangular window at the very top and one opening into the latecomers’ area. On the west façade, the portal in the middle is flanked on both sides with a rectangular window topped with a pointed-arched tympanum.

The low-arched doorway opens into the latecomers’ area, which is a north-south rectangular hall, currently covered with a barrel vault. It was claimed that the present-day vault built during restorations is very different from the former one.

A stairway inside the wall in the southeast corner of the latecomers’ area suggests, at first glance, that it led up to the non-extant minaret; however, the registry of pious foundations in Konya prepared during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror records the monument as a “masjid and library”; therefore, this stairway may have actually connected the latecomers’ area to the library upstairs.

On the west wall of the latecomers’ area is the doorway opening into the prayer hall and it is flanked with a window topped with a pointed arch on either side.

The low-arched doorway opens into the prayer hall, which is square in shape and covered with a dome resting on squinches. It is known that this dome was built during restorations in place of the fallen one. Extant muqarnas rows on the squinch arches survive from the original superstructure.

The five-line Arabic inscription on a marble plaque embedded on the wall between the upper frame of the portal and the eaves moulding states that the masjid was built in October/ November 1215 by Haji Farruh during the reign of Sultan Izz al-Din Kay Qawus I.

The two-line inscription on the tympanum of the inner doorway gives the name of the master as Ramadan, son of Gunash.