Hicret Cami

Hicret Camii takes its name from the Hijra — the emigration of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم and his companions from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE, an event so pivotal in Islamic history that it marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. To name a mosque Hicret is to place it under the patronage of that foundational journey and to remind every worshipper of the virtues it embodied: courage, trust in God, patience in hardship, and the readiness to leave behind what must be left behind for the sake of faith. The Mamak mosque bearing this name is a neighbourhood structure of modest scale, with a single minaret, a central dome, and a small, well-kept forecourt. Inside, the prayer hall is carpeted in the familiar Turkish pattern, and the mihrab is framed in a careful arrangement of Kütahya tile. A calligraphic panel above the mihrab carries a verse from the Qur'an connected with the Hijra, and the general effect is one of quiet dignity. The imam's Friday sermons often return to the lessons of the Hijra — the spiritual significance of beginnings, the importance of intention, the obligation of mutual support between emigrants and helpers — themes which resonate particularly in a district such as Mamak whose population includes many families who migrated to Ankara from other parts of Anatolia. Women pray in a comfortable upper gallery, and Qur'an classes for children run throughout the year. Ablution facilities are clean and heated. During Ramadan the mosque runs a full programme of tarawih and occasional community iftars. The mosque's annual observance of the Islamic New Year, the first of Muharram, includes a brief retelling of the Hijra by the imam and a shared meal of traditional ashure — the dessert whose recipe tradition associates with the prophets Nūh and his ark — in a small but poetically fitting connection of past and present at a mosque that bears the name of the emigration itself. For Muslim visitors to Mamak, Hicret Camii is a reflective and welcoming place to pray, and its name is itself a gentle invitation to consider the journeys, outward and inward, that every believer is called to make.