A look into the evolution of the Hünkar Mâhfil, from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries

Abstract

When the Ottoman sultan attended service at the imperial mosque, he had his own private quarter — the hünkar mühfil (the sultan's loge) where he would relax and pray in seclusion. In general, an imperial mosque involved a set of signs that reinforced its imperial identity and that of its patron, one of which was the sultan's mühfil (box or loge). (Necipoglu 2005: 20) Moreover, the style of mosques varied according to patron, location, function, decade and architect and being an integral part of the mosque, the sultan's mühfil echoed these variations. The hünkar måhfil witnessed a subtle but marked transformation whether in architectural terms or the symbolic meaning it stood for. It began with the sultan's måhfil at the back of the prayer hall facing the mihrab (niche) at the Yesil Cami. By the sixteenth century, the evolution in architecture necessitated its shift to the southeastern corner of the qibla wall however it remained simple and accessible from a private portal on the outside. It is in the seventeenth century that the Sultan Ahmet Cami marked a shift in the concept and magnitude of the hünkar måhfil with a large ramp leading to a gallery (later pavilion) and then the sultan's måhfil at the back of the mosque. By the nineteenth century, the sultan required greater ceremonial pomp and thus the pavilion was moved to the front of the mosque and became incorporated with the portico. The contrast is very impressive between the hünkar måhfils of earlier mosques and those of mosques from the later nineteenth century. This evolution, visible in the plans, architectural configuration and decorative schemes, was inspired by more than just a need to experiment with space and form.