The Mosque of Kel Hasan ağa in the Village of Rogova

Abstract

On the 12th kilometer of the road Prizren-Đakovica, on the other side of the river Drim, in the village Rogovo there is an old mosque named Kelhasanaga's mosque. The mosque's yard is walled by a stony wall and there are some tombstones inside. The inscriptions on some of them indicate that they originate from a later period (the XIXth century).

Entering the mosque one can see on both sides two sofas which are built later than the mosque. The inhabitants of the village say that they were used as ibtidaiyya (the primary religious school). Above the entrance there is an inscription (90 X 50 cm) from which one can find out that the mosque is built by a certain Hasan-aga in the year 1581 (988 after the Hejira). The legend says he was named Kel (Ćel) Hasanaga and born in the village Dede near the village Damjan. By the same legend he was a poor shepherd boy and left his village, went to Istanbul, finished the education there and became the high rank officer. After a long time he returned to his native place, he bought there the meadow where he had been shepherd and built this mosque there.

By another legend he has not returned himself but he sent the money to a dervish sheik Alija (from the halvetian order) and the .latter built a school in the village Damjan, a small bridge in the village Dede and this mosque in the village Rogovo.

The mosque is very old, its construction is very interesting so the author considered it worth to present this unique example of the early Islamic architecture in the XVIth century in this country.

From the inscriptions on the inner sides of the mosque's walls it can be seen that it was renovated three times, the third time by Muhamed Ali, the son of Bekir and the decoration inside was a work of Gani Memis from Prizren in the year 1835 (1251 after the· Hejira).