Hunkar Mahfili
A mahfil is a raised platform in a mosque where the muezzin repeats the prayers. Hünkar Mahfili is an additional structure that became popular under the Ottomans and can be described as an Ottoman version of a maqsura, found in Umayyad and Mamluk mosques, delineating a private area in front of or near the mihrab reserved for the ruler. The sultan and his retinue could attend religious services discreetly without disturbing the worshippers. The hünkar mahfili’s grilled covers, composed of a ‘screen,’ protected the sultan and allowed him to watch without being fully in sight. The above photograph of the Hünkar Mahfili in the Ayasofya Mosque in Istanbul was photographed by Abdullah Frères in 1880. Inside the mosque, the platform is located to the left of the mihrab. This image captures the ornate screening as a form of decoration. Later in the nineteenth century, when the sultans rarely attended public prayers hünkar mahfili became full blown adjoining rooms (known as the Hünkar Kasiri) often taking up the entire façade of a mosque to symbolically project the sultan’s presence onto the street.