Layout Plan

The mosque is a rectangular shape, consisting of a courtyard, three arcades and a prayer hall with arched openings on the south side, which is subdivided into two aisles by a row of four pillars and two columns (fig. 5). All spaces are covered with cross vaults. A domed mausoleum is located on the northwest corner, designed as a small quadratic room with two windows on each of the outside facades. The eight-sided minaret (fig. 1), whose rectangular base stands between the mausoleum and the main portal, has two wooden galleries for the adhan (call to prayer). Two tower sections are combined, the shaft with a smaller diameter standing on top of a larger one.

The west-facing facade of the mosque is the most ornate (fig. 6). It is opened by the high arch of the portal niche, six rectangular windows and small arched windows above. The main window openings occupy the lower section of flat recessed niches, which are nearly as high as the wall itself. The window is formed by alternating black and yellow stones (ablaq style) on the sides and topped by a lintel (fig. 7- 8). This is surmounted by a decorative lintel showing joggled ablaq voussoirs. On top of this is a panel with interlacing geometrical patterns. The niche’s lower part is framed by a pair of spiral colonnettes while its upper section is framed by a border of double muqarnas (facetted structured) plates plus a serrated border band. Finally, the niche is topped with a muqarnas (honeycomb structured) cornice.

The deep portal niche ends in a half-dome on muqarnas squinches (fig. 6). Its arch opening is broadly framed with borders similar to the window niches and is decorated with the same ablaq style elements. The mosque’s courtyard facades are not decorated, except for the prayer hall’s middle arch that is framed by ablaq and the corbelled cornice that runs beneath the roofs at the four sides of the building (fig. 9).