Derviş Bey Mosque in Dobrudja: A Possible Contribution to Sarı Saltık Research

Abstract

This study is about the Derviş Bey Mosque in the south of the Dobrudja region. The mosque is located in the village of Umur Fakih, which was a district centre during the Ottoman period. Built with stone walls and a wooden roof, the mosque has a rectangular plan and does not have a minaret. The mosque, which was used until it was burned down in 1994, became dilapidated after that date. The architectural features of the mosque are discussed in comparison with the mosques in the neighbouring villages, and the restitution of the mosque is prepared by analysing the information from the field study, the publication of Zheko Popov and the photographs of Machiel Kiel. The opinions of İbrahim Tatarlı, Peter Mijatev and Nikolay Panayotov on the history of the building, its inscriptions and its owner are discussed and evaluated. The mosque has two inscriptions, one of which has not survived. Both inscriptions are repair inscriptions and the inscription belonging to the last repair has survived intact. There are also opinions stating that the date written in the inscription, which has not survived to the present day, was read incorrectly. The construction date written in the extant inscription is clearly Hijri 698 / Gregorian 1298-1299. This date is contemporary with the Turkmen settlement in Dobruja under the leadership of Sarı Saltık. The arrival of Turkmens in Dobruja, the construction and repair activities mentioned in Saltıknâme and Oğuznâme, Sarı Saltık's establishment of the Yılan Lodge in Kaligra Castle, recent archaeological finds and place names in the region, and the Seljuk past of Dobruja are evaluated, and the possible Seljuk past of Derviş Bey Mosque is examined. Keywords: Bulgaria, Dobrudja, Umur Fakih, Sarı Saltık, Derviş Bey, Mosque.