Several such mosques in the areas of former Muslim rule have since been reconverted or have become museums, including theParthenon inGreece and numerous mosques in Spain, such asMosque–Cathedral of Córdoba. Conversion of non-Islamic buildings into mosques influenced distinctive regional styles ofIslamic architecture.
Dome of the Rock is a shrine in Jerusalem. ProphetMuhammad, founder of Islam, is traditionally believed to have ascended into heaven from this site. In Jewish tradition, it is here thatAbraham, the progenitor and first patriarch of the Hebrew people, is said to have prepared to sacrifice his sonIsaac. The Dome andAl-Aqsa Mosque are both located on theTemple Mount the site ofSolomon's Temple and its successors.
Upon the capture ofJerusalem, it is commonly reported thatUmar refused to pray in theChurch of the Holy Sepulchre in spite of a treaty.[1][better source needed] The architecturally similarDome of the Rock was built on theTemple 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.[2] Umar initially built there a small prayer house which laid the foundation for the later construction of theAl-Aqsa Mosque by theUmayyads.[3]
The Catholicchurch of Saint Nicholas (Shën Nikollë) was turned into a mosque. After being destroyed in the Communist 1967 anti-religious campaign, the site was turned into an open air mausoleum.
Following the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus, a number of churches (especially theCatholic ones) were converted into mosques. A relatively significant surge in church-to-mosque conversion followed the 1974Turkish Invasion of Cyprus. Many of the Orthodox churches inNorthern Cyprus have been converted, and many are still in the process of becoming mosques[citation needed].
Painting of the ruins of theParthenon and theOttoman mosque built after 1715, in the early 1830s
Numerous orthodox churches were converted to mosques during the Ottoman period in Greece. After theGreek War of Independence, many of them were later reconverted into churches. Among them:
TheHagia Sophia (Bey Mosque) inDrama. Converted in 1430, reconverted in 1922.
Parthenon inAthens: Some time before the close of the fifteenth century, the Parthenon became a mosque. Before that the Parthenon had been aGreek Orthodox church. Much of it was destroyed in a 1687 explosion, and a smaller mosque was erected within the ruins in 1715; this mosque was demolished in 1843. SeeParthenon mosque.
Thechurch of Saint Nicholas (Hünkar Mosque) was originally a Roman Catholic church before it was converted into a mosque in the mid-17th century. It was reconverted in 1918.
The Rotunda of Galerius inThessaloniki, initially a Mausoleum ofRoman EmperorGalerius, a church (326–1590), then a mosque and again a church after 1912
After the Ottomans conqueredMangup, the capital ofPrincipality 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."[7][better source needed]
The Islamic State converted a number of churches into mosques after theyoccupied Mosul in 2014. The churches were restored to their original function after Mosul wasliberated in 2017.[8]
After theconquest ofHebron, this holy place was "taken over from the Jewish tradition" by the Muslim rulers. The cave and the surroundingHerodian enclosure was converted into a mosque.[9]
Tombs of Nathan and Gad inHalhoul, transformed into Mosque of ProphetYunus.[10][11]
The Herodian shrine of theCave of the Patriarchs inHebron, the second most holy site in Judaism,[12] was converted into a church during the Crusades before being turned into a mosque in 1266 and henceforth banned to Jews and Christians.[13] Part of it was restored as a synagogue byIsrael after 1967.[14] Other sites in Hebron have undergone Islamification. TheTomb of Jesse and Ruth became the Church of the Forty Martyrs,[15] which then became the Tomb of Isai and laterDeir Al Arba'een.[16]
Following the Ottoman conquest of Anatolia, virtually all of the churches of Istanbul were converted into mosques except theChurch of Saint Mary of the Mongols.[20]
Hagia Sophia (from theGreek:Ἁγία Σοφία, "Holy Wisdom";Latin:Sancta Sophia orSancta Sapientia;Turkish:Ayasofya) was thecathedral ofConstantinople in thestate church of the Roman Empire and the seat of theEastern Orthodox Church'sPatriarchate. After 1453 it became a mosque, and since 1931 it has been a museum inIstanbul,Turkey. From the date of its dedication in 360 until 1453, it served as the Orthodox cathedral of the imperial capital, except between 1204 and 1261, when it became the Roman Catholic cathedral under theLatin Patriarch of Constantinople of the Western Crusader-establishedLatin Empire. In 1453,Constantinople was conquered by theOttoman Turks under SultanMehmed II, who subsequently ordered the building converted into a mosque.[21] The bells, altar,iconostasis,ambo and sacrificial vessels were removed and many of themosaics were plastered over.Islamic features – such as themihrab,minbar, and fourminarets – were added while in the possession of the Ottomans. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931, when it wassecularised. It was opened as a museum on 1 February 1935.[22] On 10 July 2020, the decision of the Council of Ministers to transform it into a museum was canceled by Council of State and the Turkish PresidentErdoğan signed a decree annulling the Hagia Sophia's museum status, reverting it to a mosque.[23][24][25]
TheChurch of the Holy Apostles became the cathedral church and seat of the patriarchate for three years after the Fall of Constantinople, as Hagia Sophia became the city'sJama masjid. The Justinianic church was already in disrepair and in 1461 it was demolished and theFatih Mosque was erected in its place.
The Church of the Pantocrator, a church favoured for imperial burials in the latter Byzantine Empire, became theZeyrek Mosque.
The Selimiye Mosque was the largest and oldest survivingGothic church inCyprus, which was possibly constructed on the site of an earlierByzantine church.
Elsewhere in Turkey numerous churches were converted into mosques, including:
The temple was demolished under the orders ofAurangzeb, who then constructed the Gyanvapi Mosque atop the original Hindu temple. Some scholars claim that the demolition was motivated by the rebellion of localzamindars (landowners) associated with the temple.[31] The demolition was intended as a warning to the anti-Mughal factions and Hindu religious leaders in the city.[32]
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.[35]
The original building was partially destroyed and converted into a mosque byQutb ud-Din Aibak ofDelhi in the late 12th century.[38]Iltutmish further built the mosque in AD 1213.[39]
The temple was dismantled during the siege of the city byAhmed Shah I (1410–1444) ofMuzaffarid dynasty; parts of it were reused in setting up a new congregational mosque.[40]
A former and unused 10th-century Hindu temple of theLamuri Kingdom of North Sumatra was converted into a Mosque in 1205 CE, when the king and the people of Lamuri Kingdom converted to Islam.[43]
The Babri Masjid (a 16th-century mosque) stood on land traditionally identified by many Hindus as **Ram Janmabhoomi**. The mosque was demolished on 6 December 1992. In 2003 the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) conducted excavations and reported evidence of a pre-existing non-Islamic structure beneath the mosque site. The dispute over the title produced long litigation; on 9 November 2019 the Supreme Court of India ordered that the disputed 2.77 acres be handed to a trust to construct a Ram temple and directed that an alternative 5 acres be allotted to the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board for a replacement mosque.[44][45]
Demolished (1992); site awarded for construction of Ram temple (2019); alternate land allotted to Sunni Waqf Board (Dhannipur)
Or Thora Synagogue ofMarseille, built in the 1960s by Jews from Algeria, was turned into a mosque in 2016 after being bought by a conservative Muslim organization, the al-Badr organization.[47][48]
The Ashkenazi synagogue on Wagenstraat street ofThe Hague, built in 1844, became theAqsa Mosque in 1981. The synagogue had been sold to the city by the Jewish community in 1976, on the grounds that it would not be converted into a church. In 1979 Turkish Muslim residents occupied the abandoned building and demanded it be turned into a mosque, citing alleged construction safety concerns with their usual mosque.[49] The synagogue was conceded to the Muslim community three years later.[50][51]
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.[52]
^Le Strange, Guy (1890).Palestine Under the Moslems. p. 10.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.
^abChristys, Ann (2017). "The meaning of topography in Umayyad Cordoba". In Lester, Anne E. (ed.).Cities, Texts and Social Networks, 400–1500. Routledge.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.
^abGuia, Aitana (1 July 2014).The Muslim Struggle for Civil Rights in Spain, 1985–2010: Promoting Democracy Through Islamic Engagement. Sussex Academic Press. p. 137.ISBN978-1-84519581-6.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.
^Tristram, Henry Baker (1865).The land of Israel : a journal of travels in Palestine, undertaken with special reference to its physical character. London: London Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. p. 394.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.
^Adler, Elkan Nathan (4 April 2014).Jewish Travellers. Routledge. p. 135.ISBN978-1-134-28606-5."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
^Tristram, Henry Baker (1865).The land of Israel: a journal of travels in Palestine, undertaken with special reference to its physical character. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. pp. 390–396.
^Goren, Shlomo (2016).With Might and Strength: An Autobiography. Maggid.ISBN978-1592644094.
^Hillenbrand, R. "Masdjid. I. In the central Islamic lands". In P.J. Bearman; Th. Bianquis;C.E. Bosworth; E. van Donzel; W.P. Heinrichs (eds.).Encyclopaedia of Islam Online. Brill Academic Publishers.ISSN1573-3912.
^Dani, A.H. (2000). "Southern Central Asia". In Bosworth, Clifford Edmund; Asimov, M.S. (eds.).History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Vol. 4, Part 2. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 564.
^Patel, Alka (2004). "Architectural Histories Entwined: The Rudra-Mahalaya/Congregational Mosque of Siddhpur, Gujarat".Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.63 (2):144–163.doi:10.2307/4127950.JSTOR4127950.
^Sharma, Partha (2018).The Forgotten Shivalinga of the Sati Shaktipeeths. Zorba Books. p. 75.ISBN978-9387456129.
^Begama, Āẏaśā (2013).Forts and Fortifications in Medieval Bengal. University Grants Commission of Bangladesh. p. 196.ISBN9789848910139.The Chhota Pandua Minar pre - dates the Firuz Minar by about 10 years built by Sultan Yusuf Shah in 1477 A D.
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