Abstract:

When restoring historic buildings, where rotten or damaged wood elements or parts thereof need to be replaced, the replacement wood to be used must be of the original species and have a natural structure. For this reason, the identification of the original wood material is of great importance in the restoration of historical old buildings in which wood is used as an architectural building material. Afyonkarahisar Grand Mosque, built by Sahipata Nusretiddun Hasan between 1272 and 1277 during the Anatolian Seljuks period and whose architect was Emir Hacı Beg, is one of the unique examples of the Seljuk period with its woodwork and glazed brick architecture. The results of the xylological analysis of the wood fragments from various parts of the mahfil and mihrab of the Afyonkarahisar Grand Mosque showed that black pine (Pinus nigra Arnold) or Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) was used in the construction of the mahfil and walnut wood (Juglans regia L.) in the mihrap. Although black pine and Scots pine cannot be distinguished from each other based on their wood anatomy, based on the geographical location of the mosque and the black pine's natural range in Anatolia, it is believed that the mentioned pine specimen could be black pine.