Turkish Architectural Works in Cyprus : “ Lodges ”

Architectural works from the Ottoman period in Cyprus (1571-1878), still exist in various settlements as samples of Turkish architecture on the island, and leave their mark on the historical textures. Among the religious structures in the island belonging to the Ottoman period, lodges have a significant place with “Mevlevi, Aziziye, Kırklar, Kutup Osman, Hala Sultan, Zuhuri, Hz. Ömer and Hasan Ağa Lodges” constituting important examples to this style. These structures were each planned as complexes and they are all composed of mosque/masjid, tomb, and residential rooms. Lodges were built using local smooth cut stones and load-bearing wall system. The roofs were made of domes and slanted roofs of wooden structures. Pointed arches were used as traditional bearing, covering openings. Lodges, where restoration works are completed, are open for visit, and they preserve their place of importance as cultural heritage, transferring the traits of Ottoman period to the future.


Introduction
The start of the Ottoman period in Cyprus (1571-1878) brought with it Turkish architecture, as a new architectural style, to the construction activities on the island.In addition to the Cypriot construction masters, those brought from Anatolia were used to construct new religious, domestic, and military buildings.Among the newly constructed religious building, after mosques and masjids, lodges have an important place as well.
Lodges, where tariqa members used to gather for worshipping and invocation, and most of which were also used as abodes (Hasol, 1993: 441), are found in various settlements on the island, as works of Turkish architecture.
Built with the aim of spreading Islam, during the Ottoman period in the island, Lodges were planned within the concept of complexes, and comprised of tomb, masjid, and adjunct rooms.
The most important Lodges in Cyprus are "Mevlevi, Aziziye, Kırklar in the district of Nicosia, Kutup Osman in the Famagusta district, Hala Sultan, Zuhuri" in the Larnaca district, Hz.Ömer in the Kyrenia district and Hasan Ağa in the Paphos district.Restoration works have been completed on most of them and they are open to visits.Each one, an example of Ottoman period Turkish architecture in Cyprus, lodges have been examined both through resources and in the field, documenting their architectural characteristics, and aimed to provide a resource for future studies.

Lodges 1-Mevlevi Lodge:
The lodge takes place within the walled city, the historical city center of Nicosia, close to the Kyrenia Gate.It is located on the west side of Kyrenia Avenue.
The lodge has an "L" plan, and a yard, and it was comprised of Semahane (the hall where dervishes whirled), tomb, rooms for dervishes, kitchen, and guest rooms, when it was constructed (Bağışkan, 2005: 23;Anonymous, 1982: 18).Today only Semahane, which lost its originality and the tomb, remains (Figure 1).(Mufti Berberzade Haci Mustafa Fountain-1893) is situated on north side of the main entrance to Mevlevi Lodge, facing Kyrenia Avenue.An architectural work of the Ottoman period, the fountain is made of smooth, cut stone, with a pointed arch, and without a reservoir.Inside the niche formed by the arch, there is an epigraph, a faucet, and a trough.On the marble epigraph of the fountain dated H. 1310, which lost its function today, it is written that it was built by Mufti Berberzade Hacı Mustafa, and it poured water outside from his house (Anonymous, 1982: 37;Bağışkan, 2005: 408), (Figure 2). Figure 2. Mevlevi Lodge (www.seslife.com)(Anonymous, 1982) The lodge is entered from Kyrenia Avenue, through a depressed arched door, opening into the "L" shaped yard.There is an inscription on the door: "Ya Hazreti Mevlâna."

Mevlevi Lodge Street Fountain
Semahane, taking place in the east of the yard, and accessible through a depressed arched door, is divided into two sections with two pillars, carrying the slanted timber ceiling, and with arches that join these to the walls and to each other.The first section is the horizontal rectangle space at the entrance.The second section, stretching towards the south after the pillars with an arch, is the part comprising of the mihrab, the semah space of the dervishes, and the musicians' platform.The musicians' platform is in the north, like a wooden balcony, surrounded by wooden railing, and is accessed through a wooden staircase in its northwest corner.
The semah area, opposite the musicians' platform, is circular, surrounded by wooden railings, and is two steps lower than the floor level.There is a simple mihrab on the south wall of this section, made of plaster.Illumination is provided by four wooden framed glass windows with iron railing and depressed arches.The roofing is completed with Turkish style roof tiles over a wooden structure, while the floor is covered with local marble plates (Figure 3).The section where tombs are is accessed through a door on the south wall of the semah place, and by four steps.This section, stretching in the north-south direction, is covered with four domes and a vault.The floor is covered with local marble plates.The depressed arched windows on the east and west walls of the tombs section have iron railings on the outside and wooden sashes with glass on the inside.There is a wooden door with a depressed arch at the last tomb south, opening to the Kyrenia Avenue on the west side.
There are sixteen tombs in the tomb section.Entering from the semah area, the first tomb belongs to Selim Dede of Damascus, who served as sheikh at the lodge from 1934 to 1954.The second tomb is of Ahmet Pasha, a soldier, who donated land to the Mevlevi Lodge, the third one is of Cypriot Sheikh Celalettin Effendi.The tenth tomb belongs to Arap Abdullah Effendi, who was the servant (lala) to an unknown sheikh, and the sixteenth tomb belongs to Calligrapher Sheikh Fevzi Dede, who lived in the XIX.century (Anonymous, 1973: 3;Anonymous, 1982: 19;Atun, 1999: 351).It is not known to whom the other tombs belong (Figure 4).The Mevlevi Lodge lost its functionality in 1954, and after the restoration work in 1962, under the decision to sustain Turkish culture in Cyprus, it was opened for visits in 1963 as Cyprus Turkish Ethnographical Museum (Bağışkan, 1986: 41;Bağışkan, 2005: 24).The lodge, which serves as a museum now, displays Ottoman Period works and objects related to Mevlevi order inside the Semah section, and Ottoman Period tombstones in the yard.

2-Aziziye Lodge:
This lodge is situated within the walled city of Nicosia, towards the southeast of the historical Municipal Market.
A tomb was built, with the order of Sultan Selim II., for the Regiment Mufti of the Ottoman army Aziz Effendi, during the conquest of Cyprus by the Ottomans in 1570, where he was martyred in the area by the Venetians (Çuhadaroğlu-Oğuz, 1975: 5;Aslanapa, 1975: 12).The tomb was turned into a lodge later, with additional structures (Figure 5), (Figure 6). Figure 6.Aziziye Lodge (Author) (Anonymous, 1982) The lodge is roughly of a rectangular plan, with tomb, masjid, and some rooms.
Aziziye Lodge is accessed through a door towards the north that opens into the Municipal Market.The door opens into a small, rectangular room, and from there, two steps descend into a semi-covered yard.There is a fountain with a reservoir, on the west side of the yard, made of cut stone.The masjid is entered through a depressed arched door on the east of the yard.Both the floor, and the ceiling, carried by two pointed arches, stretching in the direction east west, is covered with timber.On the south wall of the masjid, there is a simple mihrab, protruding inside.From inside the masjid, the tomb place is accessed through a wooden door and two steps, towards the east.The tomb area is of a square plan and its roof is a dome.It is illuminated through a rectangular, wooden, glass window on the north wall.There is an unknown tomb inside, besides the tomb of Aziz Effendi, who gave the lodge its name (Fig. 7).
The lodge was built with cut stone material; its roof was formed with reeds, straw mats, earth and roof tiles over timber beams carried by walls and pointed arches.The floor is covered with local marble plates over compressed earth.The lodge was managed by Muslim Sheikhs of the Nakşibendi sect, and it was considered holy by Christians, as well as Muslims (Anonymous, 1982: 20).It is also argued that it was built to strengthen Islam in Cyprus and that it had nothing to do with real people (Bağışkan, 2005: 18).According to Sir Harry Luke, there are separate tombs of twenty-three dervishes within the tomb area, as well as a mass grave for seventeen dervishes (Anonymous, 1982: 20).It is known that the lodge was built in 1816, however the construction dates of the tomb area and other rooms are unknown (Bağışkan, 2005: 18).The restoration work that began in 2006 was completed in 2007 and the lodge was opened for visits.
Kırklar Lodge has a plan with a yard inside, a tomb place, a masjid, and residential rooms (Figure 8).
The lodge is accessed through a door in the east that opens into the yard.The walls surrounding the yard were built at a certain level from the floor, in bedrock style, using rubble stone with mud-brick on top of the stones.Plaster material is gypsum.The masjid is on the west of the yard, while residential rooms are on the west, northwest, and southwest (Figure 9).The masjid is accessed from the yard, through a depressed arched door.There is a mihrab on the south wall of the masjid, decorated with motifs, and a door to the tombs on the west wall.A pointed arch in the middle of the masjid, carried by pillars stuck on the north and south walls constitute the bearing structure of the roof covering.The walls of the masjid are built using rubble stone and mud-brick, while the floor is covered with local marble plates on compressed earth.
The lodge is accessed through its depressed arched door, down six steps.The rectangular planned tomb space with three sections and stretching east to west is covered with tunnel vault.The middle section is wider and higher than the side sections.The side sections that house the tombs are accessed from the middle section through four arched apertures.At the edge of the middle section, there is an oval space.The tombs are placed parallel to the outer walls (Figure 10).
The tomb space is enlightened through skylights and embrasure windows on the outer walls of the side sections.The construction material of the tomb is stone, while the floor covering is of local marble.

4-Kutup Osman Lodge:
This lodge is within the yard of Namık Kemal Lycée, which used to be the Old Turkish cemetery, opposite Akkule Gate, towards the south of the historical city walls of Famagusta.
Kutup Osman, who served as a preacher and imam in the palace, during the reign of Sultan Mehmet IV., was exiled to Famagusta, Cyprus in 1690, as a result of slander by some jealous statesmen, and he died here in H. 1102 (17.12.1691) (Anonymous, 1991: 13).His grave was fading in time, however, in H. 1240 (1824), the exciseman for Cyprus and Gatekeeper Seyit Mehmet Ağa of the Halvetiye Sect found the grave and rebuilt it.A masjid and various rooms were added to the grave and the Lodge was completed (Anonymous, 1991: 13;Gürkan, 1996: 127;Balkan, 1998: 83).There are unknown graves in the north side of the Lodge as well.The lodge has a "U" shaped plan with the tomb, masjid, and rooms surrounding the yard (Fig. 11).
Kutup Osman Lodge is accessed through a central door in the east.The rooms on the south of the arched entrance iwan belong to the lodge and there are riwaqs opposite this section, opening into the yard (Figure 12).The lodge is built with cut stone material local marble plates are used in flooring.The windows are of straight arch system, with iron railings on the outside, glass casement on the inside, and with partly wooden blinds.The roof structure of the rooms is made of wooden beams on carrier arches, and the top covered with roof tiles.The tomb area is covered with domes (Figure 13).Some of the rooms of Kutup Osman Lodge, which is under the responsibility of the TRNC Evkaf Administration, are used by Namık Kemal Lycée-which is on the same plot-as workshops.

5-Hala Sultan Lodge:
The lodge is within a grove on the west coast of Salt Lake, which is in the south of Larnaca in South Cyprus.
In the year 647 AD or 649 AD, when Arab raids started on Cyprus, Prophet Muhammed's nursing aunt Ümmü Haram, who attended the first raid on the island with her husband Ubeyde, under the command of the Governor of Damascus Muaviye, during the reign of Caliph Osman, fell off her horse and became a martyr.She was buried on the same spot (Aslanapa, 1975: 30;Bağışkan, 2005: 36;Anonymous, 1982: 22).During the Ottoman period in the island, which began in 1571, first, Ümmü Haram's grave was restored, and in 1760, the tomb seen today was built by Sheikh Hasan.A lodge was built here in H. 1212 (1797), and in 1816, a mosque was built by the Cyprus Exciseman Seyit Mehmet Emin Effendi (Çuhadaroğlu, 1975: 8;Aslanapa, 1975: 33;Gürkan, 1996: 55).Thus, the lodge took its final shape.
The lodge is of a complex style typical of Ottoman architecture, comprised of a tomb, mosque, auxiliary buildings, a cemetery, and fountain (Figure 14).
The yard of Hala Sultan Lodge is accessed through an arched door, which is within a rectangular frame of cut stone.There is a tughra on each side of the door arch, and an epigraph on top.
There is a cemetery in the yard and an octagonal fountain resting on columns, with roof tiles above it.
The epigraph states that it was built by the Cyprus Exciseman, Sword bearer Chief Captain Mustafa Ağa, in 1795 (Anonymous, 1982: 22), (Figure 15).Hala Sultan Mosque is of a square plan with a central dome.Built in the classical Ottoman Style, there are five pointed arch openings in the front façade and one on each side of the five-section narthex, which is in the north of the mosque.The central dome, resting on a hoop, and four small, half domes on the sides, which are the cover of the mosque, are carried by eight piers adjacent to walls, two on each wall, and pointed arches that join them together.There are four depressed arched windows in two rows, on both sides of the mosque door placed on the axle of the narthex.There are windows on the east and west walls of the mosque built in the same system, three large ones at a lower level, and three small ones higher above (roof windows).Of the windows on the west, the one on the right side was later turned into a door.All windows have iron railings on the outside and glass with wood frames on the inside.There is a mimbar on the right of the mihrab.Women's place, made of timber, is at a higher level from the mosque door, like a mezzanine floor.This section, resting on two marble columns, is accessed through a wooden staircase on the northeast of the mosque.The minaret with a single balcony, which was repaired in 1959 (Aslanapa, 1975: 33), is on the The tomb is adjacent to the south wall of the mosque and is accessed through a wooden door on the east of the south façade of the mosque.It has a 6.50 x 6.50 m. square plan, covered with a squinch dome and surrounded by riwaqs.The sarcophagus of Hala Sultan is in the middle, encircle by four columns.The sarcophagus is a piece of stone weighing fifteen tons, 2.70m.wide and 4.80m.high, resting on two large obelisks.There are many myths about these stones, both among people and in references (Bağışkan, 2005: 37, 37;Anonymous, 1982: 22).

6-Zuhuri Lodge:
The Lodge is in a historical texture of Larnaca in South Cyprus, in the northwest of Cami-i Kebir.
The Lodge, consisting of a mosque and tomb made of clean-cut stone, was built in the late Ottoman Period in Cyprus, during the 1860s (Anonymous, 1982: 23;Aslanapa, 1975: 35;Bağışkan, 2005: 56).The name of is lodge comes from a corpse found during the foundation excavation of the mosque, of which no record was found in researches.Therefore, it was named "Zuhuri Dede" (Zuhuri Baba), which means emerging from the ground (Bağışkan, 2005: 56).
Built in a style different from the traditional Ottoman lodge architecture, the lodge is accessed through an arched apprentice.The roofs of the lodge and the mosque, which are side by side, are covered with two domes, one large, and one small.On the sides of the hoop, on which the large dome covering the mosque rests, there are roof windows inside the niches created by the plasters and by the arches on top of the plasters.The same design is repeated on the outer walls of the building in the east and west, and there are depressed arched windows with iron railings.
The mihrab in the mosque is made of plaster and has a simple appearance.The mimbar is constructed of wooden material with stone steps, and takes place next to the mihrab.
The tomb made of clean-cut stone, in the tomb section, is believed to belong to Zuhuri Dede.
Adjacent to the mosque, on its northeast, is the cylindrical minaret.It can be seen in Evkaf archives that the minaret needed repair in 1889 (Bağışkan, 2005: 57).The upper part of the minaret, above the balcony has been in ruins for long years now (Figure 17).

7-Hz. Ömer Lodge:
This lodge is in the east of Kyrenia, on the coastline of Çatalköy, placed on a mass of volcanic rock.
According to a legend, Ömer, a commander of the army of Muaviye, and six of his friends were martyred at the spot by the Byzantines during of the Arab raids, which began in 647 AD.During the Ottoman Period, which began in 1571, the graves of the martyrs were found and the remains of the corpses were moved to this place, where a tomb was built (Bağışkan, 2005: 28).
A mosque and rooms for the imam and visitors, encompassing the tomb was built in mid XVIII.century and the lodge was completed (Aslanapa, 1975: 23), (Figure 18), (Figure 19).
The Lodge was recently renovated, and the fountain in front was added as a new construction.Open for visits, the Lodge is a holy place of worship respected by Muslims.

8-Hasan Ağa Lodge:
It is in the lower part of the town of Paphos, in South Cyprus.
Although the precise date of construction is not known, it is estimated that it was built in the first half of the XIX.century.The epitaph of the date of repair above the door (1865) supports this estimate (Anonymous, 1982: 23;Aslanapa, 1975: 40), (Figure 20).
Hasan Ağa Lodge was turned into a complex with the addition of tomb, masjid, auxiliary rooms, cemetery, and bath.There is not much record about the lodge.Built of stone material, the lodge is a two space (masjid and tomb) building, stretching southwest to northeast.The square planned masjid has two doors, one in the north and one in the south, and it has a window in the east.
The tomb, adjacent to the lodge, contains the sarcophagus of Hacı Mehmet Buba.The

Conclusion
Having an important place among the Turkish architectural works in Cyprus, the lodges, being built in various settlements in the island during the Ottoman period, were active in spreading Islam in Cyprus.
The lodges were planned as complexes consisting of a tomb, a mosque or masjid, and residential rooms for dervishes.In some lodges, sections such as a cemetery and a bath were also added to the complex.Almost all were built using the compilation technique and clean-cut stone material.The openings were created with pointed arches, which were the traditional carriers.For roof covering, tombs made of cut stone and slanted timber structures covered with roof tiles were used.Doors and windows were made of wooden material and floors were covered with local stone plates.
Lodges both in North Cyprus and in South Cyprus have been renovated using local or international funds, and are opened for visits.At present, the lodges are holy places of visit for Muslims, and they serve as museums for foreign tourists.
Displaying the characteristics of Ottoman period Turkish architecture in Cyprus as monuments, the lodges form part of the rich cultural heritage of the island.

Figure 17 .
Figure 17.Zuhuri Lodge (wikimapia.org)Attached to the mosque and the tomb on the south side is the two floored Zuhuri Madrasah and Children's School.The ground floor of this section, built in 1865, underwent changes in time, and was turned into shops, opening to the street in the west.The rooms lined up on the upper floor open to the riwaq stretching in front of them.