Alaca Old Mosque (Çarşı Mosque)
The Alaca Old Mosque (Eski Camii) is entered in the Kültür Portalı inventory as “Eski Camii (Çarşı Camii)” and stands on Sungurlu Street in the Denizhan neighbourhood of Alaca. According to the Kültür Portalı record and the Çorum Governorship’s 2024 presentation, the mosque was built in 1722 by Ömer Bey, a member of the Mamalı clan who had served as governor (sancak bey) of Çorum. It is a single-space building on a rectangular plan, laid out north-south, with a porch (son cemaat yeri) on the north.
Date and founder
The Kültür Envanteri entry says that the mosque has no inscription giving the date of its first construction, but that sources state it was built in 1722, and that it took its present form through repairs in the 19th century. The Alaca page of the Çorum Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, by contrast, says that the Old Mosque in the district centre was built in 1763 by Ömer Osman Pasha, and the Alaca National Education Directorate’s history page carries the same statement. The sources thus give 1722 and 1763 as the year of construction, and Ömer Bey and Ömer Osman Pasha as the founder.
The history page of the Alaca District Governorship reports that Ömer Pasha of the Mamalı clan was governor of the sancak of Çorum from 1718 to 1724, and that his son Osman Pasha served as governor of Amasya. For the wider history of the district see History of Alaca.
Architecture
According to the Kültür Portalı record, dressed cut stone is used at the corners of the façades and in the lower window frames, and rubble stone with Horasan mortar elsewhere. The roof is hipped; below the eaves a sawtooth (kirpi saçak) brick eave of three courses runs around every façade. The interior is entered from the porch through a wooden door. A women’s gallery lies on the north. The interior is covered with a wooden inverted ceiling with a simple central medallion. The minaret stands at the north-west corner; it has been repaired, but its cut-stone base is original.
Sources
- Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Kültür Portalı, Cultural Inventory, “Eski Camii (Çarşı Camii)”, Alaca. https://www.kulturportali.gov.tr/turkiye/corum/kulturenvanteri/eski-camii-carsi-camii
- Kültür Envanteri, “Eski Cami, Alaca” (Old Mosque, Alaca). https://kulturenvanteri.com/yer/eski-camii-alaca/
- Çorum Governorship presentation, “Çorum Valiliği Alaca Eski Camiyi tanıttı” (Çorum Governorship presented the Alaca Old Mosque), Alaca Lider Gazetesi, February 2024. https://www.alacalider.com/corum-valiligi-alaca-eski-camiyi-tanitti
- Çorum Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, “Alaca”. https://corum.ktb.gov.tr/TR-58693/alaca.html
- Alaca District Governorship, “Alaca Tarihi” (History of Alaca). https://www.alaca.gov.tr/tarihcemiz
- Alaca District Directorate of National Education, “Alaca Tarihçe” (History of Alaca). https://alaca.meb.gov.tr/www/alaca-tarihce/icerik/633