Description:
The best-known mosque in the town of Novi Pazar – Altun-Alem Mosque (which means “the mosque with the golden alem” (a precious stone)) was built in the 16th century by the builder Abdul Gani, known also as Muyezin-Haji al Medini.
It is located in the enclosed compound consisting of the maktab (the school) and the tombstones with the engraved inscriptions.
According to the type, the mosque is a single-room domelike construction with the two-bay porch roofed with domes. This type of the mosque is not characteristic of the Serbian spaces, whereas there are several typical analogies dating back in the 16th century in Edirne, Istanbul, Bursa and Amasya. The main part of the mosque is built by alternating the layers of ashlar (hewn stone) and broken stone and bricks. The domes and the arches are made from thin brick.
The porch and the twelve-sided minaret are built from cuboid sandstone. The interior is decorated by the nicely decorated Mihrab (the Central Niche) and the wooden Mahvil (the Gallery), along the whole length of the northwestern wall.