Harput Great Mosque: The Leaning Minaret of 1156

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1. What is Harput Great Mosque?
2. How do you get to Harput Great Mosque?
3. When is the best time to visit Harput Great Mosque?
4. What is the history of Harput Great Mosque?
5. What is Harput Great Mosque famous for?
6. What can you see at Harput Great Mosque?
7. Frequently asked questions about Harput Great Mosque
8. What do the official records say about Harput Great Mosque?

What is Harput Great Mosque?

The Great Mosque (Ulu Cami) of Harput was built in 1156 by Fahrettin Karaaslan, the Artuqid ruler of Harput. The 2002 inventory calls it one of the oldest and most important buildings in Anatolia. It is a low, broad building of stone with a brick minaret, and that minaret is what most visitors come to see: it leans clearly to one side.

The mosque stands in the old town of Harput above Elazığ, a short walk from the castle. It belongs to the first generation of mosques built after the Turks settled in Anatolia, decades before the great Seljuk buildings of Konya.

How do you get to Harput Great Mosque?

Take a taxi or city bus from Elazığ up to Harput, about 5 km; the mosque is in the old town near the main square. Elazığ Airport (EZS), about 12 km from the city, has daily flights from Istanbul and Ankara. The mosque has been under restoration in recent years; check locally whether the interior is open, and as with any mosque, avoid prayer times and dress modestly.

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When is the best time to visit Harput Great Mosque?

Morning or late afternoon from May to October, combined with the castle and the other monuments of Harput. Light from the side shows the lean of the minaret best.

What is the history of Harput Great Mosque?

Harput passed to the Turks after the Battle of Malazgirt in 1071, and the Artuqid dynasty captured it in the early 12th century. Fahrettin Karaaslan ruled Harput from 1148 to 1174, and in 1156 he built the city’s congregational mosque. The provincial culture directorate notes that the Artuqids held Harput as an independent principality until 1234, when the Anatolian Seljuks took it.

The Artuqids were a Turkmen dynasty named after Artuk Bey, a commander in Seljuk service. In the 12th century their branches ruled much of the upper Tigris and Euphrates region from Hasankeyf, Mardin and Harput, and they were great builders of mosques, madrasas and bridges. Harput’s Great Mosque is one of the earliest of their buildings to survive, older than most of the Artuqid monuments of Mardin.

The provincial culture directorate’s chronology runs as follows: Belek died in 1124 and Harput passed to the Artuqid Davud; Fahrettin Karaaslan ruled from 1148 to 1174 and built the Great Mosque; and in 1234 Alaeddin Keykubad I ended Artuqid rule. The town then passed to the Ilkhanids, the Dulkadir, the Akkoyunlu and, in 1515–1516, the Ottomans.

The building has been repaired many times since, but it kept its Artuqid character. As the town declined after 1834 the mosque became a monument rather than the centre of a busy city, and it has been the focus of conservation work in recent decades.

Nobody knows exactly when the minaret began to lean. The townspeople have their own explanation, recorded by the provincial culture directorate.

What is Harput Great Mosque famous for?

The leaning minaret. The brick minaret tilts visibly, and it has become the emblem of Harput.

The legend of the prostration. According to the story, the minaret and a mulberry tree in the mosque’s garden both lean. On a holy night two friends sitting in the garden saw the tree and the minaret bow down in prostration, as if praying. They left in astonishment, and the minaret and the tree have stayed bent ever since. The inventory also notes that people say the minaret “prostrates itself”.

Age. Built in 1156, it is one of the oldest mosques in Anatolia.

What can you see at Harput Great Mosque?

The minaret. A brick minaret on a stone base, visibly leaning. Walk around the courtyard to see the lean from different angles.

The building. A broad, low Artuqid prayer hall of stone, of the kind built before the domed Ottoman mosque became the norm.

The courtyard and garden, where the leaning mulberry tree of the legend stood.

Nearby. Harput Castle, the Sara Hatun Mosque of 1465, the Church of the Virgin Mary and the Arap Baba shrine are all within a few minutes’ walk.

A walk through Harput. Start at the Great Mosque, walk to the Sara Hatun Mosque and the Cimşit Hamamı beside it, then continue to the castle and the Church of the Virgin Mary below its walls. Allow two to three hours, longer if you stop in one of the tea gardens on the edge of the hill. Buzluk Cave, on the other side of the hill, makes a cool end to a summer afternoon.

Frequently asked questions about Harput Great Mosque

What do the official records say about Harput Great Mosque?

The mosque, built in 1156 by the Artuqid ruler Fahrettin Karaaslan, is one of the oldest and most important works of Anatolia. The minaret of the mosque leans, and among the people a legend is told that the minaret is prostrating itself. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Elazığ Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)

Harput and its surroundings passed into the hands of the Turks in 1085, after the Battle of Malazgirt on 26 August 1071. Because of its historical and cultural assets it attracts local and foreign visitors. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Elazığ Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)