Akkovanlık Mahallesi Hacı İmamlar Camii

Within the Akkovanlik quarter of the Karpuzlu district in Turkey's Aydin province, the Hacilar Imamlar Camii stands as the neighbourhood mosque for a small settlement tucked into the Aegean foothills of western Anatolia. The Turkish name translates as the mosque of the hajji imams, referring to those among the quarter's previous imams who had completed the pilgrimage to Mecca, and it honours a local tradition by which villages remember with affection their most travelled religious teachers. Aydin province sits along the historic Maeander river valley, its landscape one of olive groves, fig orchards and ancient classical ruins that include the scattered stones of Miletus, Priene and Alinda. Aegean Turkey's Muslim history reaches back to the Aydinid beylicate of the fourteenth century, the Seljuk expansion that preceded it and the long Ottoman centuries during which scholars, merchants and soldiers settled these fertile valleys. Karpuzlu itself, whose name recalls watermelons once famously cultivated in the district, retains a small rural character despite the growing agricultural economy of the surrounding plain. Architecturally the mosque follows a restrained Anatolian village style, combining a cubic stone and plaster prayer hall with a flat roof, a short stone minaret whose pencil form rises above the surrounding rooftops and a forecourt paved in pale limestone. Inside, the carpet is woven in characteristic Turkish red and green, the mihrab is finished in pale plaster with thuluth calligraphy, the mimbar rises in three timber steps and the ceiling is painted in pale pastels. Prayers follow the Diyanet timetable broadcast through a small loudspeaker, the Jumu'ah sermon is delivered in Turkish with Arabic recitation and Ramadan evenings bring village iftar spread under the plane trees, with lentil soup, olive bread, cheese, olives and kunefe appearing on long tables. Eid prayers fill the forecourt at dawn, with families arriving from scattered farmsteads and children clutching small gifts. Visitors should dress modestly, leave shoes on the angled racks and respect the quiet. Nearby lie the ruins of Alinda where Alexander the Great once visited Queen Ada, the vast olive plains of Milas, the thermal baths of Aydin centre and the Aegean coast rising dramatically beyond the purple evening ridges of the western ranges.