Built 735 years ago in the village of Mlike, in the Dragash Municipality in southern Kosovo, the Mlike Mosque is the “oldest mosque in the country.”
According to the inscription on its minaret, the Mlike Mosque, built in 1289, was rebuilt in 1822 by “Ahmet Ağa”, one of the residents of the region.
Based on a document obtained from the Aleppo Mufti’s Office, it is known that the Mlike Mosque was first built by a family from Aleppo, Syria.
The mosque, which has been restored many times in the past centuries, is today under protection by Kosovo institutions.
Nuhija Tairovci, who occasionally serves as an imam at the mosque, told AA that they have a document translated by the Syrian Embassy, which clearly states that the Mlike Mosque was built during that period.
“Of course, historians need to investigate this, but according to the information we have, this is definitely the oldest mosque in Kosovo and the Balkans,” Tairovci said.
Tairovci stated that he did not believe that the family from Syria had the Mlike Mosque built only for themselves, and that there were other Muslims who would worship and pray in the region at that time.
Built before the conquest of Kosovo by the Ottoman Empire, the Mlike Mosque is among the “oldest known mosques in the country and the oldest in the Balkans.”
The 735-year-old mosque, located in the village of Mlike in the Dragash Municipality in the country’s mountainous Gora region, is currently used by the villagers.
