Later work has taken the originality out of this mosque, the oldest in Kilis after the great mosque; what has come down unaltered is the minaret, set over a pointed-arch door leading into the courtyard.
Both names attached to the place explain themselves. The quarter was called Meshedlik — the place where a man fell as a martyr, or where a martyr is buried — because it holds the graves of Muslim companions of the Prophet who fell during the conquest of Kilis; and the mosque, built on the spot where they fell, was given the name cüneyne, meaning little paradise. The minaret stands on a square base whose cube has chamfered corners; its shaft is thick and heavy and twelve-sided, and it has one balcony, with plain railings, muqarnas filling the space beneath it and a single moulding above and below. The upper shaft is cylindrical and the cap is stone. The quarter, once Meshedlik, is now called Abdioymağı, in the Odupazari area.
Getting there
- Access
- In the Odupazarı part of the quarter now called Abdioymağı, once Meşhedlik.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Kilis as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 5.9 °C in January to 28.2 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in April, May and October; rainfall is heaviest in December (85 mm) and lightest in July (3 mm). Long-term means for 1959-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
