Menüçehr Mosque
Menucihr Mosque · Manuchihr Mosque · Ebu'l Menüçehr Camii
About
The Menucihr Mosque, sometimes written Manucehr Mosque, stands within the remains of Ani, the once-great medieval capital that now lies in eastern Turkey close to the Armenian frontier. The mosque was raised between 1072 and 1086 by Manuchihr ibn Shavur of the Kurdish Shaddadid dynasty, which governed the city after its passing from Byzantine and Armenian rule.
For centuries the mosque has held its place among the ruins of Ani as one of the earliest surviving examples of Islamic religious architecture in Anatolia. Its survival amid the wider archaeological landscape of the city continues to draw scholars and visitors who seek out the layered history of a place where Christian, Islamic, and Zoroastrian traditions once met.
A restoration of the mosque was begun in June 2020, opening a new chapter in the care of the building and the conservation of the wider city of Ani as a UNESCO-recognised heritage site.
History
The Seljuks took Ani in 1064 under Sultan Alp Arslan, and within a generation Şeddadoğlu Ebu'l Menüçehr raised this mosque, generally dated between 1072 and 1086, on the order of Sultan Malik Shah I, building a deep three-aisled prayer hall with a domed bay before the mihrab and a minaret of square base and octagonal shaft at the northwest corner. The mosque stood through the city's long decline into ruin, its western inscription lost to time, until Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism signed a restoration protocol with regional development authorities in June 2020. The restoration returned the mosque to worship for the first time in centuries, with prayer resuming there in 2021.
Significance
Ani's mosque, church and cathedral still stand within sight of one another on this UNESCO World Heritage site, a landscape where Christian, Islamic and Zoroastrian traditions once met on the frontier between Anatolia and the Caucasus. Registered as a protected immovable cultural property, the Menüçehr Mosque is honoured as the oldest surviving mosque built by Turks in Anatolia, and its restoration to worship allows the call to prayer to sound again over the Aras gorge.
Architecture
Seljuk mosque architecture: deep three-aisled hypostyle hall, domed bay before the mihrab, geometric brick-vaulted ceilings, octagonal-shaft minaret on a square base
Visiting
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