Mecitözü Grand Mosque
The Mecitözü Grand Mosque (Ulu Cami), also called Cami-i Kebir or Büyük Cami, stands in the town of Mecitözü and is attributed to Avkatlızade Hacı Ali Ağa. That one of the quarters of the district centre bears the name Cami Kebir can be seen from the address given for the Government House in the 2009 Çorum Cultural Inventory.
Founding
The history page of the Mecitözü District Governor’s Office, drawing on Abdizade Hüseyin Hüsameddin’s Amasya Tarihi, writes that Avkatlızade Hacı Ali Ağa lived in this village from 1728, built a mosque (cami-i şerif), a bath, a school and a large mansion there, and that his grandson built a medrese in front of the mosque, turning the village into a town.
According to the Kültür Envanteri entry, the mosque was first built by Hacı Ali Ağa in AH 1168 (1754-1755). The same entry states that:
- his son Mustafa Paşa arranged the mosque’s endowments;
- his grandson Hacı Süleyman Bey later renewed and enlarged the building thoroughly and built a medrese in front of it;
- because Abdizade Hüseyin Hüsameddin recorded this work as tecdîden tevsî (“renewing by enlarging”), it is not certain that the mosque was torn down and rebuilt entirely;
- in the Ottoman provincial yearbooks (salname) the mosque is recorded as built by Avkatlızade Süleyman Bey in AH 1200 (1785-1786), which the entry takes to refer to Süleyman Bey’s phase of renewal and enlargement;
- the mosque was repaired in AH 1316 (1898-1899) by the district governor İskilipli İsmail Kemal Bey, and a minaret was added at that time.
Ethem Erkoç writes that a mosque, bath, school and mansion were built in Hacı Ali Ağa’s time and that the medrese was built in the time of his son Mustafa Paşa. The sources therefore differ on who built the medrese: the District Governor’s Office and the Kültür Envanteri name the grandson, Erkoç the son. For the government house built by the same İsmail Kemal Bey, see Mecitözü Government House and Clock Tower.
Condition
The sources used give no details on the mosque’s architectural features, dimensions or present state of repair; a current published source should be consulted for these. For the history of the district, see History of Mecitözü.
Sources
- Kültür Envanteri (Cultural Inventory), entry “Mecitözü Ulu Cami”. https://kulturenvanteri.com/yer/mecitozu-ulu-cami/
- T.C. Mecitözü District Governor’s Office, “History of Our District”. https://www.mecitozu.gov.tr/ilcemizin-tarihcesi
- Ethem Erkoç, Çorum’da Sahabe ve Evliya Makamları (Companions of the Prophet and Saints’ Shrines in Çorum), Çorum Municipality Cultural Publications, December 2015, p. 488. https://www.corum.bel.tr/public/uploads/2023/05/sahabeevliyamakamlari.pdf
- Çorum Kültür Envanteri (Çorum Cultural Inventory), Çorum Governorate Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism Publications No. 3, Çorum 2009, p. 236. https://www.kulturportali.gov.tr/medya/dokuman/dokumandetay/6074