Gilahli Mosque in Shaki, Religious complex in Shaki, Azerbaijan
Gilahli Mosque is a mosque in Shaki whose prayer hall measured 6 by 12 metres, its ceiling carried by four wooden columns set in the centre. Its walls were built of sun-dried brick and river stone mixed with clay and straw, plastered inside and out. The interior walls were divided into bands: a 1.5-metre plastered dado, a band of stepped niches with geometric and floral patterns, a thin plant-motif ribbon, a band of Arabic script, and a geometric border. Only the minaret survives today.
The mosque was first built in 1749 by Sheki Khan Haji Chalabi Khan and later reconstructed in 1805 by Haji Shamseddin Bey. This two-phase development reflects how the structure was adapted over the decades to serve the community.
The mosque is known locally as Haji Shamseddin Bey Mosque after the 1805 rebuild. An Arabic-Turkic inscription found buried near the site in the early 20th century records that Haji Shams ad-Din Bey founded the mosque in Rajab 1220 AH; it was later mounted over a spring and photographed by Aleskerzade in 1936.
The minaret stands in the Külekhli quarter on the Gurjana river bank, 20–23 m above the water and 8–10 m from a cliff, inside a 2 m stone wall. A 27 m stretch of the mosque's north wall survives; the minaret rises on a small tower to the south. More than twenty stone steps with a wooden shelter and small windows lead to the balcony.
The minaret is the only surviving part of the mosque: the prayer hall was demolished after a family was housed in it in the 1930s. More than twenty stone steps, sheltered by a wooden canopy with small windows, lead up to the muezzin's balcony.
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