Mahmutseydi Mahallesi Merkez Camii

About Mahmutseydi Mahallesi Merkez Camii

Mahmutseydi Mahallesi Merkez Camii is a historic mosque on Orta Sokak in Mahmutseydi, Alanya. The Ministry of National Education venue guide says its construction date is not known for certain: the year 1252 is worked on its door, and tradition dates it to the 13th or 14th century. Another tradition holds that Seyyid Mahmud Seydi, who built the mosque and gave the village its name, arrived in 1320 and that the mosque was built then, so it is accepted as at least seven hundred years old. The interior is of timber, with the building resting on twenty wooden columns, and the door leaves, minbar and kürsü are also of wood; the guide likens it to classical Central Asian Turkish and Seljuk architecture. An outer porch, a section for women and the minaret were added in later years, and the exterior is clad in stone. According to the Ottoman inscription above the inner door the mosque was repaired in the Hijri year 1252, and it took its present form in a renovation by the villagers in 1976. The guide describes it as one of the oldest mosques in Alanya. The Tomb of Mahmut Seydi is about half a kilometre away. The inscription indicates that a dervish lodge, an inn and a soup kitchen once stood here as well, but only the mosque has survived.