Abstract:

The fact that Trabzon, which is located within the borders of the Eastern Black Sea Region, has a rich flora and wide forests thanks to its climatic features has caused the intensive use of wooden materials in architecture. The wood, which we encounter mostly in rural areas with civil buildings such as houses and granaries; religious buildings such as mosques and masjids in Trabzon, appears as a material contributing to the originality of the 19th century architecture. The wood has been a material that is used not only in exterior architecture but also in interior architecture in the region. One of the most significant reflections of the application is the wooden mihrabs. The Mihrabs, about which various views are put forward on their emergence, symbolism and architectural form, exhibiting a unique development in different geographies and periods with their forms, materials and ornamental features are the most attractive interior architectural elements of mosques. The mihrabs that carry the sense of glory seen in the portals to the interior, maintain this tradition in the Black Sea Region. The aim of the study is to examine the wooden mihrabs of nine Late Ottoman-period mosques built between 1813-1893 in Trabzon. Mosques with mihrabs are small-sized structures that shape the rural architecture of the region. The period in which these mihrabs were constructed was under the influence of the Empire style since the beginning of the 19th century and of the Eclectic styles after the second half of the century. When we go further away from Istanbul, then-the capital, stylistic effects of the period transform into a unique regional form and this can be observed clearly in mihrabs in Trabzon. Wooden mihrabs in Trabzon mosques are examples that reveal unique forms by combining the stylistic effects of the period in which they were built with regional architectural, material and ornamental features. They are rectangular masses with semicircular crossing niches usually in the middle of southern walls of mosques. None of these mihrabs has cap stone and recessed arch. Rectangular framework is delimited by curbs and niche cove is embroidered progressively from bottom to top. Decorations on these mihrabs are seen more in panels and surrounding curbs in both sides of the niche. Different and effective S-curve branches and tulips attached to these branches in the decoration, C-curves, guilloche, almond-like transitions, passionflower, rosette flowers, fans, star and crescent as well as pomegranate motifs are seen in the decoration. In addition, the harmony of the mihrabs with the minbar, the balustrades of the mahfil, the sermon rostrums and the door wings brings an atmosphere that integrates the warm appearance of the wood with a decorative movement.

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