Guide
The Nimetullah Mosque, also called the Ak Mosque, stands on Ellisekiz Square in Şanlıurfa. It is thought to have been built in the 1500s by Nimetullah Bey, one of the sanjak beys of Urfa. The records show endowments made to it by Hacı Nimetullah bin Asker in 1721 and by Hacı Haydar Ağa in 1755. An inscription in the mosque, itself undated, says that the building was an old and ruined church that was repaired and converted into a mosque; that inscription mentions Firuz Bey and was probably prepared between 1779 and 1781.
The door into the prayer hall carries classical Ottoman ornament. Inside, half domes were added at the sides of the main dome to widen the space, the aim being to let a larger congregation pray together. The decoration to look for is the geometric ornament of octagons in the mihrab niche. The cylindrical minaret with its single balcony matters locally as the tallest minaret in Şanlıurfa. The medrese rooms around the courtyard were built in 1695 by Abbas Ağa. Of the three graves set in the ground at the north side of the courtyard, two belong to Ruz Bey, son of Nimetullah, who died in 1520, and to Ali Bey, son of Lutfu, who died in 1594.
