Sufis & Mystics
Sheikh Konevi Mosque: Bursa’s 500-Year-Old Ottoman Mystery
What is the mystery behind Sheikh Konevi Mosque, a hidden Ottoman mosque in Bursa, Turkey?
Standing in the historic Kuzgunluk area of İvazpaşa, this modest mosque carries almost five centuries of history, conflicting dates, a lost burial ground, memories of the devastating 1855 Bursa earthquakes, and an identity that still raises unanswered questions.
In this NEWLY MOTION documentary, we explore Sheikh Konevi Mosque through original footage filmed on location in Bursa.
Modern official cultural records attribute the mosque to Hacı Sinan, a man associated with Konya. The name “Konevi” is traditionally understood as a designation for someone from or connected with Konya.
However, older Bursa records make the story more complicated.
A modern inscription gives the year 1537, while historical sources also point to 1550. An even earlier foundation record from 1532 refers to an allocation connected with the mosque’s imam, suggesting that a religious institution may already have existed here before the surviving sixteenth-century structure was completed.
Another record from 1555 refers to repairs and the completion of the mosque’s minaret.
The historic Kuzgunluk neighbourhood also once contained a burial ground around the mosque. Historical records describe numerous graves in the area, but there is no reliable evidence proving that a specific person known as Sheikh Konevi was buried here.
There is also no confirmed evidence that Hacı Sinan himself was a Sufi sheikh or that Sheikh Konevi Mosque functioned as a lodge belonging to a particular Sufi order.
This makes the title
Standing in the historic Kuzgunluk area of İvazpaşa, this modest mosque carries almost five centuries of history, conflicting dates, a lost burial ground, memories of the devastating 1855 Bursa earthquakes, and an identity that still raises unanswered questions.
In this NEWLY MOTION documentary, we explore Sheikh Konevi Mosque through original footage filmed on location in Bursa.
Modern official cultural records attribute the mosque to Hacı Sinan, a man associated with Konya. The name “Konevi” is traditionally understood as a designation for someone from or connected with Konya.
However, older Bursa records make the story more complicated.
A modern inscription gives the year 1537, while historical sources also point to 1550. An even earlier foundation record from 1532 refers to an allocation connected with the mosque’s imam, suggesting that a religious institution may already have existed here before the surviving sixteenth-century structure was completed.
Another record from 1555 refers to repairs and the completion of the mosque’s minaret.
The historic Kuzgunluk neighbourhood also once contained a burial ground around the mosque. Historical records describe numerous graves in the area, but there is no reliable evidence proving that a specific person known as Sheikh Konevi was buried here.
There is also no confirmed evidence that Hacı Sinan himself was a Sufi sheikh or that Sheikh Konevi Mosque functioned as a lodge belonging to a particular Sufi order.
This makes the title
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