DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY OTTOMAN ARCHITECTURE ON BULGARIAN TERRITORY. MAHMUD BEY’S IMARET IN IHTIMAN - Alexander Antonov

The present article focuses on one of the imarets in the Bulgarian lands – that of Mahmud Bey in Ihtiman. For the study of its establishment, development and architecture, Ottoman narratives and registers, documents of the National Institute for Immovable Cultural Heritage, and field research have been used. The main goal is to study the architectural characteristics of a forgotten piece of early Ottoman architecture, hardly researched so far, which marks the beginning of urbanization of today’s town of Ihtiman.
 

The imaret in Ihtiman belongs to early Ottoman architecture on the Bulgarian territory and shows both the continuity in construction techniques and decorations with the Balkan-Byzantine tradition, and the new architectural tendencies in the urbanization of conquered lands. The purpose of this newly constructed building was to appropriate for Islam a newly sprung settlement on the Diagonal road, strategically important for communication.