Painted entrances
Flowers and verses.
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The Hadum Mosque is Gjakova's oldest mosque and one of the finest in Kosovo, standing in the Old Bazaar. It was built in the last decade of the 16th century, in 1594 or 1595, with money from Hadum Süleyman Efendi, known as Hadum Aga, who gave it its name, on land that belonged to Jakë Vula. Evliya Çelebi wrote that around it stood 2,000 houses, mosques, lead-roofed inns, a fine hammam and 300 shops. The square prayer hall is a single volume under a dome 13.5 metres across and 12.6 metres above the floor, resting directly on pendentives. Its entrances are decorated with floral paintings, geometric patterns, verses of the Qur'an and arabesques, and around it lie carved tombstones inscribed in Ottoman Turkish, belonging to the town's oldest families. In 1999 the complex around it was burned to the ground; the mosque and its minaret survived with some damaged decoration and have since been restored. It is an active mosque that welcomes visitors outside prayer times: dress modestly, women cover their hair, and shoes come off at the door.
Flowers and verses.
In Ottoman Turkish.
Around the mosque.
Old Bazaar, Hadum quarter, Gjakova
From Hadum Süleyman Efendi, known as Hadum Aga, who paid for it in 1594 or 1595.
