One of the truly great mosques in Bursa is the Yesil or Green (1424). It has a wealth of great tiles and carving, apart from just being good architecture. This is a detail.

The Yeşil Cami (‘Green’ mosque, because of the predominant colour of its tiles inside) is the most decorated of the city’s houses of prayer. Built for sultan Mehmed I Çelebi (1389-1421) by the architect Hacı Ivaz Paşa, who was also an army commander and a vizier; he is the architect of the Yeşil Türbe (mausoleum) too. The mosque’s building was finished in 1419, its inner decoration in 1424.
Mosque and tomb are part of a larger complex (a ‘külliye’), with a medrese (high school), an imaret (soup kitchen) and a hamam (bath), which was added later, in 1485.
The Yeşil Mosque can be shown as the perfect blend between architecture and embellishment, the proof that such works of art were produced in a country where the battles between siblings had come to an end and peace had returned.

On the picture: A detail of the marble ‘Taşkapı’ (monumental main entrance) in late-Seljuk style. These elegant arabesques and floral motifs of the large panels on the left and the right of the muqarnas vaulting announce the later classic Ottoman style.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen.
Sources: ‘Türkye Tarihi Yerler Kılavuzu’ – M.Orhan Bayrak, Inkılâp Kitabevi, Istanbul, 1994 - Wikipedia,
& ‘Vakıf Abideler ve eski Eserler’ - Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü III, Ankara 1983 .