Al-Adiliyah Mosque

The Al-Adiliyah Mosque, also known in Turkish as the Dukaginzâde Mehmet Paşa Camii, is an Ottoman mosque complex in Aleppo. It stands west of the Citadel, at the southern entrance of the covered market (suq), and is counted among the oldest Ottoman mosques in the city. The mosque is a domed building with a large prayer hall and a portico covered by several small domes. Its minaret has a decorated balcony and a pencil-shaped pointed cap in the Ottoman manner. Hadith inscriptions run above the windows, which are adorned with tiles thought to be imported İznik ceramics. The complex also includes a courtyard with an ablution fountain, three caravanserais and four markets with a covered bedesten, together holding 150 shops and guest rooms.

The mosque was commissioned by Dukaginzâde Mehmed Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Aleppo during the reign of Sultan Süleyman I. He was of Albanian origin and descended from the Balkan Dukagjini tribe, which gives the complex its Turkish name; the date of his death is inscribed on the entrance door. Our record gives 1566 as the year of construction and names Mimar Sinan as the architect. The mosque was founded together with the surrounding courtyard, caravanserais and markets as a single külliye.