Kurshun-Jami Mosque (Crimea, 14th Century) and the Seljuk Tradition of Anatolia

Abstract

The publication features the results of many years of studies on one of the most significant sites for the understanding the historical topography of the Golden Horde city in Crimea – the Kurshun-Jami Mosque (the Lead Mosque). The essay is based on an analysis of written information and a complex of archaeological observations. An attempt was made to identify the construction stages and periods of operation of the site as a Tekke and as a mosque after the hospitium was rebuilt. A significant role belongs to observations related to the structures of a later time period in the territory of the complex. One of the main plots of the essay is related to the substantiation of the genesis of the domed spate of the site, which goes back to the Byzantine-Seljuk tradition in the architecture of Asia Minor. At the same time, we do not exclude that the construction of the Solkhat mosque was carried out by the Anatolian construction group. Kurshun-Jami represents the final stage of Seljuk innovations in the architecture of Solkhat, which lasted more than eighty years, starting with the construction of the Uzbek Mosque in 1314. The type of hall buildings with a powerful dome, reflected in the spatial volumes of Kurshun-Jami, documents the onset of the early Ottoman stage in development architecture of the town.

Keywords

• archaeology
• golden horde
• ulus of jochi
• solkhat/crimea
• kurshun-jami
• lead mosque
• asia minor
• seljuk architecture
• seljuk style