The Abdul Medgid mosque (also named The Great Mosque) was built in the period 1859 – 1865 by the Ottoman Government in the city Medgidia.
Currently, the mosque is the oldest building in the city and one of the two Islamic places of worship from Medgidia.
The Russian – Turkish war (1828 – 1829) which was also concluded with the complete destruction of the city of Medgidia, the population being dispersed in the surrounding localities. After the War of Crimeea (1853 – 1856), Said – pașa, the Ottoman governor of Dobrogea, located approximately 6.000 peasants who immigrated from Crimeea on the place of the old destroyed city, which he rebuilt after almost 30 years.
The sultan Abdul – Medjid (1839 – 1861) has issued on the 2nd of September 1857 a firman for building the mosque, which later received the sultan’s name.
It is a monumental construction, of a square shape, in a neoclassic style, specific to the Islamic architecture [3], executed from limestone stone manually shaped and cedar wood, brought from Liban.
The minaret, with a height of 25 m, with an interior staircase in the shape of a spiral and a circular terrace in the superior part, is also built from a limestone stone. The interior isn’t changed from the constructions and keeps in detail, all the details.
The building, which was executed and maintained by the Ottoman Government, was served from the beginning by an imam, a hatip and a muezzin.
Abdul – Medjid was the XXXIst sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1839 – 1861).
He tried to sign alliances with the great powers of the occidental Europe, such as: Great Britain, France, states which have been allied of the ottomans against the Tsarist Empire in the Crimeea War. During the Treaty of Paris, the Ottoman Empire was included in the family of the European nations. But the great achievement of Abdul – Medjid are the reforms (named Tanzimat) with a liberal character, which he promoted (reforms initiated by his father, Mahmud the Iind), which opened the road to the modernization of Turkey and have favored the nationalist movements fro freeing the subjugated people.
For his reforms, he was considered a real Atatürk of the XIXth century.
Abdul – Medjid dies at only 39 years of age, because of tuberculosis, disease of which his father suffered, too.
He is succeeded by his brother, Abdul Aziz, the oldest survivor of the family.
