Yıldız Hamidiye Camiisi (Yildiz Hamidiye Mosque)
The Yıldız Hamidiye Mosque, located on Barbaros Bulvari, was commissioned by Sultan Abdülhamit II and built between the years 1884-1886; the mosque’s architect was Sarkis Baylan.
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Address
Barbaros Bulvarı, Beşiktaş
Visiting Hours
Daily, except prayer times.
Muslims pray five times each day. The precise timing of prayers often vary by a few minutes each day, therefore throughout a year there is a wide range of prayer times. The reason is that Islamic prayer times were traditionally set according to the movement of the sun.
Actually Islamic prayers are fixed at the same "time" period each day -- before dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset, and evening. Because of the rotation of the earth, the latitudes of the earth’s locations, daylight savings time, etc. -- the "times" (according to the clock) for these prayers change depending on time of day and location.
The Yıldız Hamidiye Mosque, located on Barbaros Bulvari, was commissioned by Sultan Abdülhamit II and built between the years 1884-1886; the mosque’s architect was Sarkis Baylan. It was used for the sultan’s Friday addresses, and was the site of an assassination attempt on Abdülhamid II’s life in 1905.
The two-storied mosque is built on a rectangular plan, with one central dome, and constructed out of cut stone. The mosque has a single minaret, also built of cut stone, and a marble mihrab. Inside the mosque’s courtyard there is housing for the mosque’s functionaries, facilities for ritual ablution, men’s and women’s toilets, a coffin rest and a clock tower built in 1890.
Mosque is a place of worship for Muslims. It comes from the Arabic word 'masjid' which literally means "a place for prostration". Mosques are also places where Muslims come together for different purposes such as education, social gatherings, public meetings, exhibitions, lectures etc. Although there is no specific requirement for mosques in terms of their architecture, one can see some common features inside and outside of many mosques such as minarets, domes, ablution areas, prayer niche (mihrab), pulpit (minbar) and so on.
Muslims are obliged to perform the ritual worship 5 times a day. They are not required to attend a mosque for each of these prayers however in order to interact with the community they are encouraged to pray in congregation. Friday noon is the only time in a week when Muslims must definitely join the congregational prayer in a mosque after which they can continue their work, education or other commitments.
Azan or the call for prayer is a vocal announcement that one can hear from minarets 5 times a day. The call to prayer is made live -even early in the morning- by a person called 'muazzin'. The muazzins are usually chosen from people with loud and beautiful voices and trained over years to make this announcement beautifully and invite people to worship.
