Menûçihr Mosque
The Ebu'l Menuçehr (Manuçehr, Menuçihr) Mosque is one of the structures registered as a “protected immovable cultural asset” at the Ani Archaeological Site. The mosque is located in the southwest of the city, south of the road leading to the Inner Castle.
The inscription on the western facade of the Ebu'l Menuçehr Mosque, considered to be the first mosque built by the Turks in Anatolia, which indicates its exact construction date, does not exist today.
According to this inscription, the mosque was built by Şeddâdoğlu Ebu'l Menûçehr on the orders of the Great Seljuk Sultan Melikşah after the Seljuk conquest in 1064.
The structure, which has a deeply planned three-aisled layout, has a plan type with a domed mihrab front and an inner courtyard.
Each aisle is divided into three squares and covered with vaults decorated with different geometric patterns of Seljuk motifs.
The minaret in the northwest corner has a square base and an octagonal body with a single balcony. The remaining traces indicate that the base of the balcony was decorated with muqarnas. The body bears the inscription “Bismillah” in Kufic script.
The octagonal, 99-step stone minaret built adjacent to the mosque has survived to this day. Access to the minaret, whose section above the balcony has collapsed, is through a semicircular arched door on the south facade.
