Tokat’s Gülbahar Hatun Mosque Reopens After Restoration
Restored Ottoman mosque built by Bayezid II for his mother reopens for Friday prayers in Tokat.
The Gülbahar Hatun Mosque in Tokat has reopened for worship after a restoration by Türkiye’s General Directorate of Foundations (Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü). A ceremony before Friday prayers on 16 October 2026 marked the return of this early Ottoman building to its congregation.
Turkish reports describe the mosque as 541 years old. Sultan Bayezid II had it built in 1485 in the name of his mother, Gülbahar Hatun.
Who attended the Gülbahar Hatun Mosque reopening
Tokat Governor Abdullah Köklü, Mayor Mehmet Kemal Yazıcıoğlu and Foundations Director General Sinan Aksu attended the opening. Local members of parliament and residents also took part. The restoration was carried out under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Aksu stressed that foundation works must be protected and passed on to future generations. He also thanked those who supported the project, including local politicians, the municipality and shopkeepers.
Governor Köklü called the complex one of Anatolia’s important historic works. He said he hoped the remaining phases of the site would be finished and opened next year.
Part of a larger Ottoman complex in Tokat
The mosque belongs to a külliye, an Ottoman complex of charitable and religious buildings built around a mosque. Aksu said the complex’s imaret has been opened as a soup kitchen (aşevi), in line with its original foundation deed (vakfiye). An imaret was a public kitchen that fed the poor, students and travellers.
He also spoke about work to rebuild the Hatuniye Medresesi, a madrasa that was demolished in the past. The reports do not give a timetable for that project beyond the governor’s hope for next year.
Why Bayezid II and his mother matter
Bayezid II was the son of Mehmed II, the sultan known as Mehmed the Conqueror. Mehmed II is the ruler at the centre of Mehmed: Sultan of Conquests. Bayezid ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512, and his mother’s complex in Tokat shows how Ottoman royal women funded public buildings far from the capital.
One detail deserves caution. The reopening reports use 1485 as the founding date. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s own Tokat page gives 1474 for the mosque. Sources may count construction and completion differently, so readers should treat the date as reported rather than settled.
Tokat, in north-central Anatolia, holds many foundation works. Reopening a functioning mosque, kitchen and, eventually, a madrasa keeps the site in daily use, which is what the original foundation deed intended.
Source: SonDakika, Diyanet Haber, NET HABER
Featured image: Korkut Tas / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
