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The conversion of non-Islamic places of worship into mosques occurred during the life of Muhammad [ citation needed ] and continued during subsequent Islamic conquests and invasions and under historical Muslim rule.[ citation needed ] Hindu temples, Jain Temples, churches, synagogues, and Zoroastrian fire temples have been converted into mosques.
Several such mosques in the areas of former Muslim rule have since been reconverted or have become museums, including the Parthenon in Greece and numerous mosques in Spain, such as Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba. Conversion of non-Islamic buildings into mosques influenced distinctive regional styles of Islamic architecture.
Before Muhammad, the Kaaba and Mecca (referred to as Bakkah in the Quran), were revered as a sacred sanctuary and were sites of pilgrimage. [1] During Muhammad's lifetime (AD 570–632), his tribe, the Quraysh, was in charge of the Kaʿaba, at that time a shrine containing hundreds of idols representing Arabian tribal gods and other religious figures. Muhammad earned the enmity of his tribe by preaching the new religion of Islam. Early Muslims practiced, or attempted to practice, their rituals by the Ka'aba alongside polytheists, until they eventually left Mecca, driven out by escalating persecution. The aborted first pilgrimage, which was prevented by the Quraysh, who promised to allow it the following year in the Hudaybiyah treaty, did not also entail the prevention of continuing practices by polytheists. However, before the second pilgrimage season, allies of the Quraysh violated the treaty, allowing the Muslims to return as conquerors rather than guests. Henceforth, the Kaʿaba was to be dedicated to the worship of the one God alone, and the idols were destroyed. The Black Stone (al-Hajar-ul-Aswad) at the Kaʿaba was a special object of veneration at the site. According to some traditions the text of seven or ten especially honoured poems were suspended around the Kaʿaba. [2]
Upon the capture of Jerusalem, it is commonly reported that Umar refused to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in spite of a treaty. [3] [ better source needed ] The architecturally similar Dome of the Rock was built on the Temple Mount, which was a destroyed site of the holiest Jewish temple, destroyed by the Romans in AD 70 and with consistent Jewish presence in Jerusalem has always been a site of religious prayer for Jews. [4] Umar initially built there a small prayer house which laid the foundation for the later construction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by the Umayyads. [5]
The Fethija Mosque (since 1592) of Bihać was a Catholic church devoted to Saint Anthony of Padua (1266). [6]
Following the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus, a number of churches (especially the Catholic ones) were converted into mosques. A relatively significant surge in church-to-mosque conversion followed the 1974 Turkish Invasion of Cyprus. Many of the Orthodox churches in Northern Cyprus have been converted, and many are still in the process of becoming mosques[ citation needed ].
Numerous orthodox churches were converted to mosques during the Ottoman period in Greece. After the Greek War of Independence, many of them were later reconverted into churches. Among them:
Following the Ottoman conquest of the Kingdom of Hungary, a number of churches were converted into mosques. Those that survived the era of Ottoman rule, were later reconverted into churches after the Great Turkish War.
A Catholic church dedicated to Saint Vincent of Lérins, was built by the Visigoths in Córdoba; during the reign of Abd al-Rahman I, it was converted into a mosque. [7] [8] [9] In the time of the Reconquista, Christian rule was reestablished and the building became a church once again, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption. [7] [8] [9]
After the Ottomans conquered Mangup, the capital of Principality of Theodoro, a prayer for the Sultan recited in one of the churches which converted into a mosque, and according to Turkish authors "the house of the infidel became the house of Islam." [10] [ better source needed ]
The Islamic State converted a number of churches into mosques after they occupied Mosul in 2014. The churches were restored to their original function after Mosul was liberated in 2017. [11]
The Herodian shrine of the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, the second most holy site in Judaism, [15] was converted into a church during the Crusades before being turned into a mosque in 1266 and henceforth banned to Jews and Christians. [16] Part of it was restored as a synagogue by Israel after 1967. [17] Other sites in Hebron have undergone Islamification. The Tomb of Jesse and Ruth became the Church of the Forty Martyrs, [18] which then became the Tomb of Isai and later Deir Al Arba'een. [19]
Following the Ottoman conquest of Anatolia, virtually all of the churches of Istanbul were converted into mosques except the Church of Saint Mary of the Mongols. [23]
Elsewhere in Turkey numerous churches were converted into mosques, including:
Hundreds of Armenian Churches were converted into Mosques in Turkey and Azerbaijan[ citation needed ].
Temple Name | Mosque Name | Images | City | Country | Ruler | Notes | Current Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kashi Vishwanath Temple | Gyanvapi Mosque | Varanasi, UP | India | Aurangzeb | The temple was demolished under the orders of Aurangzeb, who then constructed the Gyanvapi Mosque atop the original Hindu temple. The demolition was motivated by the rebellion of local zamindars (landowners) associated with the temple. [32] The demolition was intended as a warning to the anti-Mughal factions and Hindu religious leaders in the city. [33] | Mosque; temple reconstructed adjacent to Mosque | |
Keshavdeva Temple | Shahi Edgah | Mathura, UP | India | Aurangzeb attacked Mathura, destroyed the Keshavdeva Temple in 1670 and built the Shahi Eidgah in its place. [34] [35] | Mosque; temple reconstructed adjacent to Mosque | ||
Bindu Madhav Temple | Alamgir Mosque | Varanasi, U.P. | India | The Alamgir Mosque in Varanasi was constructed by Mughal Emperor Aurnagzeb built atop the ancient 100 ft high Bindu Madhav (Nand Madho) Temple after its destruction in 1682. [36] | Mosque | ||
Atala Devi Temple | Atala Mosque | Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh | India | Firuz Shah Tughlaq | Firuz Shah Tughlaq destroyed the Atala Devi temple in 1377 and built the Atala Mosque over it. [37] | Mosque | |
Somnath Temple | Veraval, Gujarat | India | Mahmud of Ghazni, Alauddin Khalji, Muzaffar Shah I, Mahmud Begada, Aurangzeb | The temple was attacked, destroyed and rebuilt multiple times and was converted into an Islamic Mosque in the 19th century. [38] | Temple rebuilt | ||
Jain and Saraswati Temple | Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra | Ajmer, Rajasthan | India | Qutb ud-Din Aibak | The original building was partially destroyed and converted into a mosque by Qutb ud-Din Aibak of Delhi in the late 12th century. [39] Iltutmish further built the mosque in AD 1213. [40] | Mosque | |
Rudra Mahalaya Temple | Jami Mosque | Siddhpur, Gujarat | India | Ahmad Shah I | The temple was dismantled during the siege of the city by Ahmed Shah I (1410–1444) of Muzaffarid dynasty; parts of it were reused in setting up a new congregational mosque. [41] | Ruined, partly converted into Mosque |
The conversion of non-Islamic religious buildings into mosques during the first centuries of Islam played a major role in the development of Islamic architectural styles. Distinct regional styles of mosque design, which have come to be known by such names as Arab, Persian, Andalusian, and others, commonly reflected the external and internal stylistic elements of churches and other temples characteristic for that region. [48]
Murad III was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death in 1595. His rule saw battles with the Habsburgs and exhausting wars with the Safavids. The long-independent Morocco was for a time made a vassal of the empire but regained independence in 1582. His reign also saw the empire's expanding influence on the eastern coast of Africa. However, the empire was beset by increasing corruption and inflation from the New World which led to unrest among the Janissary and commoners. Relations with Elizabethan England were cemented during his reign, as both had a common enemy in the Spanish. He was also a great patron of the arts, commissioning the Siyer-i-Nebi and other illustrated manuscripts.
Hagia Sophia, officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, is a mosque and former church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively erected on the site by the Eastern Roman Empire, it was completed in AD 537. The site was a Eastern rite church from AD 360 to 1453, except for a brief time as a Latin Catholic church between the Fourth Crusade and 1261. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, it served as a mosque until 1935, when it became a museum. In 2020, the site once again became a mosque.
Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, or Eastern Roman Empire, usually dated from 330 AD, when Constantine the Great established a new Roman capital in Byzantium, which became Constantinople, until the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. There was initially no hard line between the Byzantine and Roman Empires, and early Byzantine architecture is stylistically and structurally indistinguishable from late Roman architecture. The style continued to be based on arches, vaults and domes, often on a large scale. Wall mosaics with gold backgrounds became standard for the grandest buildings, with frescos a cheaper alternative.
Trabzon Province is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey on the Black Sea coast. Its area is 4,628 km2, and its population is 818,023 (2022). Located in a strategically important region, Trabzon is one of the oldest trade port cities in Anatolia. Neighbouring provinces are Giresun to the west, Gümüşhane to the southwest, Bayburt to the southeast and Rize to the east. Aziz Yıldırım was appointed Governor of the province in August 2023. The capital of the province is Trabzon.
Hagia Sophia is a mosque and former church in Istanbul, Turkey.
Fatih is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 15 km2, and its population is 368,227 (2022). It is home to almost all of the provincial authorities but not the courthouse. It encompasses the historical peninsula, coinciding with old Constantinople. In 2009, the district of Eminönü, which had been a separate municipality located at the tip of the peninsula, was once again remerged into Fatih because of its small population. Fatih is bordered by the Golden Horn to the north and the Sea of Marmara to the south, while the Western border is demarked by the Theodosian wall and the east by the Bosphorus Strait.
Sumela Monastery is a museum and former Greek Orthodox monastery in the Pontic Mountains, in the Maçka district of Trabzon Province in modern Turkey.
Hagia Sophia is a formerly Greek Orthodox church that was converted into a mosque following the conquest of Trabzon by Mehmed II in 1461. It is located in Trabzon, northeastern Turkey. It was converted into a museum in 1964 and back into a mosque in 2013. The building dates back to the thirteenth century, when Trabzon was the capital of the Empire of Trebizond. It is located near the seashore and two miles west of the medieval town's limits. It is one of a few dozen Byzantine sites extant in the area and has been described as being "regarded as one of the finest examples of Byzantine architecture".
The Chora Church or Kariye Mosque is a former church, now converted to a mosque, in the Edirnekapı neighborhood of Fatih district, Istanbul, Turkey. It is mainly famous for its outstanding Late Byzantine mosaics and frescos.
The Christianization of sites that had been pagan occurred as a result of conversions in early Christian times, as well as an important part of the strategy of Interpretatio Christiana during the Christianization of pagan peoples. The landscape itself was Christianized, as prominent features were rededicated to Christian saints, sometimes quite directly, as when the island of Oglasa in the Tyrrhenian Sea was christened Montecristo.
Selimiye Mosque, historically known as Cathedral of Saint Sophia or Ayasofya Mosque, is a former Christian cathedral converted into a mosque, located in North Nicosia. It has historically been the main mosque on the island of Cyprus. The Selimiye Mosque is housed in the largest and oldest surviving Gothic church in Cyprus possibly constructed on the site of an earlier Byzantine church.
The Little Hagia Sophia mosque, formerly the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, is a former Greek Orthodox church dedicated to Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople, built between 532 and 536, and converted into a mosque during the Ottoman Empire.
The Pammakaristos Church, also known as the Church of Theotokos Pammakaristos, is one of the most famous Byzantine church buildings in Istanbul, Turkey, and was the last pre-Ottoman building to house the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Converted in 1591 into the Fethiye Mosque, it is today partly a museum housed in a side chapel or parekklesion. One of the most important examples of Constantinople's Palaiologan architecture, the mosque contains the largest quantity of Byzantine mosaics in Istanbul after the Hagia Sophia and The Chora.
The Hagia Sophia is a church located in Thessaloniki, Greece. With its current structure dating from the 7th century, it is one of the oldest churches in the city still standing today. Because of its outstanding Byzantine art and architecture, in addition to its importance in early Christianity, it is one of several monuments in Thessaloniki listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988.
The Cathedral of Saint Titus also known as Hagios Titos, is an Orthodox church in the city of Heraklion, Crete, dedicated to Saint Titus. The current church was built in 1869 as the Yeni Cami after the previous building was destroyed by the earthquake of 1856. In 1925 it was converted to Christian worship. The church was declared a cathedral of the archdiocese of Crete in 2013. The church is an eclectic style square temple with a dome. The exterior of the temple is dominated by vertical elements, while at the top there is a stone-carved apse.
The Church of Hagia Sophia or Holy Wisdom is a Byzantine church in the fortified medieval town of Mystras, Peloponnese, Greece. It forms part of the wider archaeological site of Mystras, which is designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Built within the palace complex, it functioned as the royal palace church until Ottoman conquest of Mystras and its conversion into an Islamic mosque. Hagia Sophia of Mystras was made back into a Christian church when Greece achieved independence during the early nineteenth century.
The Church of Hagia Sophia or Holy Wisdom is a Byzantine church in the medieval town of Monemvasia, Peloponnese, Greece. It forms part of the wider archaeological site of Monemvasia. It was built on the upper town of Monemvasia, and was originally dedicated to Panagia Hodegetria. It is the most important monument of Monemvasia. The Venetians, who held Monemvasia for some time, used it as a Catholic church dedicated to Madonna, while during the Ottoman period it was converted into a mosque before being restored to Christian worship upon Greece's independence.
The Mosque of Monemvasia is a historical Ottoman religious building located in the lower medieval town of Monemvasia, Peloponnese, Greece. Following Greece's independence in 1830, it was briefly used as a prison. The restored old mosque has housed the city's archaeological collection since 1999.
It seems probable, also, that this latter Khalif, when he began to rebuild the Aksa, made use of the materials which lay to hand in the ruins of the great St. Mary Church of Justinian, which must originally have stood on the site, approximately, on which the Aksa Mosque was afterwards raised.
It is a commonplace of the history of Córdoba that in their early years in the city, the Muslims shared with the Christians the church of S. Vicente, until ʿAbd al-Raḥmān I bought the Christians out and used the site to build the Great Mosque. It was a pivotal moment in the history of Córdoba, which later historians may have emphasised by drawing a parallel between Córdoba and another Umayyad capital, Damascus. The first reference to the Muslims' sharing the church was by Ibn Idhārī in the fourteenth century, citing the tenth-century historian al-Rāzī. It could be a version of a similar story referring to the Great Mosque in Damascus, which may itself have been written long after the Mosque was built. It is a story that meant something in the tenth-century context, a clear statement of the Muslim appropriation of Visigothic Córdoba.
It was originally a small temple of Christian Visigoth origin. Under Umayyad reign in Spain (711–1031 CE), it was expanded and made into a mosque, which it would remain for eight centuries. During the Christian reconquest of Al-Andalus, Christians captured the mosque and consecrated it as a Catholic church.
On this site originally stood the Visigoths' church of San Vicente, but when the Moors came to town in 758 CE they knocked it down and constructed a mosque in its place. When Córdoba fell once again to the Christians, King Ferdinand II and his successors set about Christianizing the structure, most dramatically adding the bright pearly white Renaissance nave where mass is held every morning.
The design is unique and patriarchal in its magnificent simplicity. One can scarcely tolerate the theory of some architectural writers, that this enclosure is of a period later than the Jewish. It would have been strange if any of the Herodian princes should here alone have raised, at enormous cost, a building utterly differing from the countless products of their architectural passion and Roman taste with which the land is strewn.
"From there we reached Halhul, a place mentioned by Joshua. Here there are a certain number of Jews. They take travelers to see an ancient sepulchral monument attributed to Gad the Seer." — Isaac ben Joseph ibn Cehlo, 1334