Yukarı Öveçler Ulu Camii

Yukarı Öveçler Ulu Camii stands in the Yukarı Öveçler neighbourhood of central Ankara, bearing the honoured title Ulu — 'Great' — traditionally applied in Turkish Islamic architecture to the principal mosque of a town or district, the one from which the Friday prayer is led and which is treated as the central point of religious life. Such Ulu Camii exist in nearly every Turkish town, and the Yukarı Öveçler example is a substantial and dignified structure befitting this status. It rises on a prominent street corner with twin slim minarets flanking a large central dome, a broad stone-paved courtyard, and an interior finished to a high standard. The prayer hall is spacious and airy, carpeted in warm tones and lit by high windows, the mihrab is of carefully carved stone and Kütahya tile, and the walls carry calligraphic panels in several classical scripts including thuluth and diwani. The women's gallery is generous in size and well-appointed. The mosque is served by a team of imams and muezzins, and Friday attendance is very high. Sermons are often scholarly in tone and deal seriously with the great themes of classical Islamic teaching as well as with contemporary concerns. Qur'an and ethics classes for children run throughout the year, and adult study circles cover a wide range of subjects. During Ramadan the mosque runs an extensive programme of tarawih, Qur'an khatms, and community iftars, and the last ten nights draw particularly large congregations. The mosque's Friday khutba is broadcast live each week on a modest local radio frequency used by elderly residents of the surrounding streets who can no longer attend the congregational prayer in person, and the knowledge that these listeners are gathered, if only in spirit, around the mosque's sermon is itself a quiet extension of the Ulu Camii's traditional function as the gathering point of the whole district. For Muslim visitors to central Ankara, Yukarı Öveçler Ulu Camii is a memorable place of prayer and a genuine experience of Turkish neighbourhood Islam at its most developed, and the surrounding streets of Yukarı Öveçler contain pleasant options for tea, modest family restaurants, and a quiet walk after the evening prayer.