Prayer Times
Prayer Times in Turkey — All Cities
Namaz vakitleri for Turkish cities are calculated to the convention of the Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, the state authority whose national timetable Turkish mosques follow. Turkey has kept a single fixed clock at UTC+3 since abolishing the seasonal change in 2016, so the times on these pages move with the sun alone and never with a changeover weekend.
One authority, one national timetable
Turkey is unusually centralised in how prayer times are handled. The Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, the Presidency of Religious Affairs, is a state body that administers mosques across the country and publishes an official timetable for every district. That calendar is what the muezzin works from, and it is the reference in ordinary Turkish life for when a prayer begins. In most Muslim countries a mosque may follow a national convention loosely, or apply a local adjustment. In Turkey the timetable is published centrally and followed closely.
This site calculates Turkish cities to the Diyanet convention rather than to an international default such as the Muslim World League, precisely so the figures line up with what is announced locally. Where you see a difference of a minute or two between this page and a Diyanet calendar for the same district, the usual causes are rounding and the exact coordinates each is computed from. Where the difference is larger, the Diyanet timetable for your own district is the one to use.
Permanent summer time since 2016
In 2016 Turkey stopped moving its clocks and settled permanently on UTC+3, the offset it had previously used only in summer. There is now no spring or autumn changeover, no separate winter timetable, and no weekend on which every prayer time jumps by an hour.
The consequence is felt in the darker half of the year rather than the lighter one. Because the clock stays an hour ahead of what a conventional winter offset would give, sabah namazı and sunrise both read late on a Turkish winter morning, and the working day begins well before it is light in Istanbul, Bursa or İzmir. The evening prayers sit correspondingly late. None of this changes where the sun is; it changes only the number the clock shows against it. It also makes Turkish timetables unusually durable, since a printed calendar from a previous year is never an hour out.
Ten degrees of longitude between İzmir and Gaziantep
Turkey stretches a long way east to west, and all of it runs on that one clock. İzmir sits near 27 degrees east; Gaziantep lies past 37 degrees, with Adana, Kayseri and Mersin between them and Istanbul, Bursa, Ankara, Konya and Antalya to the west. That is more than ten degrees of longitude, worth over forty minutes of solar time.
So the sun reaches Gaziantep well before it reaches İzmir, and akşam namazı arrives in the south east around three quarters of an hour before it arrives on the Aegean coast. Turkey also lies almost entirely west of the meridian on which UTC+3 is centred, which pushes every solar event later on the clock, most of all in the west of the country. A timetable printed for Ankara is a poor guide in either İzmir or Gaziantep, and this is why we compute each city from its own coordinates rather than publishing a single national list.
İkindi, and the two measures of the afternoon shadow
İkindi is the prayer where two long-standing juristic positions produce two different times. The first holds that the window opens once a vertical object casts a shadow equal to its own length, added to the shadow it was already casting at midday. The second, the Hanafi position, holds that it opens later, once that shadow has reached twice the object's length plus the noon shadow. The interval between the two is commonly forty minutes to an hour in Turkey, and it widens as the summer days lengthen.
Turkey is overwhelmingly Hanafi in its jurisprudence. The İkindi published on these pages is computed on the earlier of the two measures, which is the standard output of the calculation. If the İkindi called at your local mosque falls appreciably later than the figure here, that is the second measure, and it is the one to follow. We do not attempt to adjudicate between the two positions, and the Diyanet timetable for your district remains the practical authority.
İmsak, sahur and the month of oruç
A Turkish timetable is read in a particular order, and it helps to know the words. İmsak marks the close of sahur and the start of the fast, and corresponds to the beginning of the Fajr window. Güneş is sunrise. Öğle, ikindi, akşam and yatsı are the midday, afternoon, sunset and night prayers. On these pages the same six moments appear under their standard names, with Fajr in the position of imsak.
During the month of oruç the two figures people watch are imsak and akşam. The fast opens at akşam, and Turkish practice is to break it the moment the sunset prayer is called rather than after any interval. Teravih follows yatsı. Because yatsı is set by twilight rather than by a fixed count of minutes after sunset, the wait between iftar and teravih is longer when Ramazan falls in summer and shorter when it falls in winter. The monthly calendar on each city page lays out the whole month, which is more practical than checking a day at a time.
Where each of the ten Turkish cities sits
We publish Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Bursa, Antalya, Adana, Konya, Gaziantep, Kayseri and Mersin. Each is calculated from its own stored coordinates, which in a country over forty minutes wide in solar terms is the only sensible approach. Adana and Mersin sit close enough together to run within a few minutes of each other; Istanbul and Gaziantep are genuinely separate cases.
Open any city for today's five namaz vakitleri and sunrise, a live countdown to the next prayer, and a full monthly calendar. The convention in force is named beneath the times table on every page.
Frequently asked questions
Which authority sets prayer times in Turkey?
The Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, the Presidency of Religious Affairs, which is a state body administering mosques nationwide and publishing an official timetable for each district. Turkish mosques follow that calendar closely, which makes the system more centralised than in most Muslim countries. This site calculates Turkish cities to the Diyanet convention rather than to an international default, so the figures should correspond to what is announced locally. Where a larger difference appears, use the Diyanet timetable for your own district.
How did abolishing daylight saving in 2016 change prayer times?
It did not change where the sun is, but it changed the clock reading against every prayer. Turkey settled permanently on UTC+3, the offset it had previously used only in summer, so winter mornings now read an hour later than they would under a conventional winter offset. Sabah namazı and sunrise both fall late on the clock in a Turkish winter, and the evening prayers sit late as well. There is no longer any changeover weekend, so timetables stay valid year to year.
Is İkindi on this page the Hanafi time?
No. The İkindi published here uses the earlier of the two measures, where the afternoon window opens once an object's shadow equals its own length plus the shadow it cast at noon. The Hanafi position waits until the shadow reaches twice the object's length, which falls roughly forty minutes to an hour later and further still in high summer. Turkey is overwhelmingly Hanafi, so if the İkindi called at your mosque is noticeably later than ours, that is why. Follow your mosque.
What is imsak and how does it relate to Fajr?
İmsak is the moment sahur ends and the fast begins, and it corresponds to the start of the Fajr window. On a Turkish takvim it is the first entry of the day, followed by güneş for sunrise and then öğle, ikindi, akşam and yatsı. On these pages the same moments appear under their standard names, with Fajr occupying the position of imsak. Some households stop eating a few minutes earlier as a precaution, which is a matter of practice rather than of calculation.
Why are prayer times in Gaziantep so much earlier than in İzmir?
Because Turkey keeps one clock across more than ten degrees of longitude. Gaziantep lies past 37 degrees east while İzmir sits near 27 degrees, and the earth turns through a degree every four minutes, so over forty minutes of solar time separates them. The sun reaches the south east first, so akşam arrives there roughly three quarters of an hour before it arrives on the Aegean coast. Always use the city you are in rather than a national timetable.