Sheikh Matar Mosque

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Sheikh Matar Mosque or Sheikh Mutahhar Mosque (Turkish: Şeyh Matar Camii, Kurdish: Mizgefta Şêx Matar or Mizgefta Şêx Mutahar) is a historical mosque in Diyarbakır, Turkey, best known for its unique minaret based on four columns, dubbed the Four-legged Minaret (Turkish: Dört Ayaklı Minare, Kurdish: Minareya Çarling). The mosque is situated in the Yenikapı Street of Savaş neighborhood at Diyarbakır's walled historical district of Sur. The mosque is named after Sheikh Matar (Mutahhar) as it is believed that the mosque's estate covering 600 m2 (6,500 sq ft) contains the grave of the sheikh. According to an inscription attached at the minaret, the mosque was built by Hajji Hüseyin, son of Hajji Ömer during the reign of Ag Qoyunlu Sultan Kasım Han in 1500. Locally, it is also known as the "Kasım Padishah Mosque". It is owned by the General Directorate of Foundations. The mosque is a single-dome, quadratic-plan building having stone masonry walls alternating with brick. There are three windows at each side, and two in the front and backside each, all arched. The two windows on the qibla wall are closed with masonry. It has a covered area of 221 m2 (2,380 sq ft), and can hold up to 500 worshipers. The stand-alone minaret in the form of a quadratic prism is erected on four massive stone columns. In the "Diyarbakır Salnâmeleri" (Yearbooks of Diyarbakır), it is recorded that the tower was built in 906 as a stable and high structure, and was converted into a minaret with the construction of the mosque next to it after the conquest of the region by Islamic people. Today, local people construe that the four columns at the minaret's base symbolize the four main denominations of Sunni Islam, namely Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki and Shafi'i. The mosque underwent a restoration in 1960 through...