The Complex of Orhan Gazi
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The Complex of Orhan I (known as Orhan Gazi), was built in the market area of Bursa in 1339. The endowment (vakfiyye) of the Orhaniye Complex includes a mosque, madrasa (medrese), two baths (hamam), a soup kitchen (imaret) and a han, of which only the mosque, a hamam and the han survive today. The mosque, called Orhaniye, was built following the Seljuk madrasa type to function jointly as a mosque for the court and a convent for the Ahi brotherhood. It was burnt down during the Karamanoglu raid in 820 A.H. (1417) and rebuilt by the vizier of Mehmet I, as declared in the inscriptive plaque (kitabe) above entrance. Severely damaged following the earthquake of 1855, the mosque was restored by French architect Parvillée in 1864 and later again in 1904, at which time a door was opened on the eastern wall.
The mosque is based on a reverse T-plan with five-bay portico at entrance, leading, through a vestibule, to a central hall flanked by eyvans on the east and west and a larger eyvan with mihrab niche on the south. Doors on both side of the entrance in the central hall lead to the convent rooms located north of side eyvans. The interior is lit through windows on exterior walls and eight tall windows pierced into the drum of the central hall dome. On the exterior, the varying height and size of domes create a dynamic composition. The construction of the edifice is stone and brick. The mosque was originally built without a minaret, the existing minaret on the northeast corner dates from the nineteenth century.
The Bey (or Emir) Hani, has badly suffered from earthquake, fire and restoration. Originally it was very grand, forty-five meters to fifty meters in dimension with a stable at the rear. The stable was demolished in the 15th century to make room for the second minaret of the Ulu Cami. The han as it appears today was restored in 1959 to 1965 after a major fire that destroyed the neighborhood. It is composed of a total of seventy-four cells on two floors with gallery around a large courtyard with hexagonal basin at its center. The construction is brick and cut stone.
The earlier of the two baths built in Bursa by Orhan I, known as Eski (Old) Hamam, is located in the Hisar neighborhood in the vicinity of the historic clock tower and was entirely rebuilt following a fire. The other baths, called Bey or Orhan Hamami, is located