Dortnu Village Mosque

In the village of Dort­nu ­ in the  ­Gafan district ­of Zangezur mahal

Gafan district – Kapan, Dortnu district­since 29.06.1949 Antarashat

Architecture

The Dortnu village mosque was abandoned after the mass deportation of Azerbaijanis in 1987–1991 and was left in a state of disrepair. The tiled roof was torn off and the door was removed. The roof was overgrown with grass. It currently remains in a semi-ruined state.

The Dortnu village mosque is located on a high hilly area in the village of Dortnu, 7 km north of the city of Gafan. The village was also a summer residence for the people of Ganja. The mosque was built using white plaster made of rocks and river stones. The wall width of about 1 meter was effective in its survival to the present day in harsh climatic conditions. The length of the mosque was 11–12, width 5, and height including the roof was about 5–6 meters. The mosque door, which has an oval structure at the top, is 2–2.5 meters high and about 1 meter wide. The door edge is paved with square sawn stones. A square window with a height of 0.4 m and a width of 0.3 m was placed on the right side of the door. The village was part of the administrative-territorial unit of Gafan district between 1930 and 1995. The toponym was formed on the basis of the ethnonym "durt" (>dort) of Kipchak origin. In 1588, a people who spent the winter in the Ganja sanjak and the summer in Zangezur were called "dordnu". It is an ethnotoponym. It is a simple toponym in structure.

In 1897, 181 Azerbaijanis lived in the village, in 1904 - 363, and in 1914 - 327. In 1918, Azerbaijanis were subjected to Armenian aggression and deported. Armenians who were resettled from abroad were settled here from 1918–1919. Dortnu is a settlement formed from the village of Garadıga. It is pronounced as "Dorny" among the people. The name of the village was actually Dordlu. It comes from the name of the Dordlu tribe of the Kolagiran trib.

Mosques were not built only for worship and religious ceremonies. The mosque was considered a multifunctional building, and the events held there also strengthened communication and unity among Muslims. The Dortnu village mosque was one of these mosques. The Islamic monument shows that this area is the Azerbaijani homeland.