Arap Camii

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Arap Camii (minaret)

The Arap Mosque ( Turkish Arap Camii ), also Arab mosque is a mosque in Istanbul district of Karakoy (formerly Galata). The building was erected in 1325 as a Roman Catholic monastery church of the Dominican Order, in place of the earlier St. Paul Chapel from 1233. Although some structural changes were made during the Ottoman era , it is the only remaining Gothic religious building from Istanbul's Middle Ages .

Between 1475 and 1478 the church was converted to a mosque under the rule of Sultan Mehmed II and known as the Galata Mosque. Later on, Sultan Bayezid II donated it to Muslim Arab refugees from al-Andalus who escaped the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 and settled in the Galata district of Istanbul. This is why today's name “Arab Mosque” is evidence of this.

location

Arap Camii (Istanbul)
Red pog.svg
Localization of Istanbul in Turkey
Arap Camii, location in Istanbul

The mosque is located in Istanbul's Karaköy district in the Beyoğlu district on Galata Mahkemesi Sokak near the north bank of the Golden Horn . There she is surrounded by craft shops.

history

Byzantine era

In the 6th century, there was a Byzantine church at the site of the mosque, which was presumably dedicated to St. Irene . A wall of this church still exists today. The fact that the Umayyad prince General Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik had a mosque built here during the Second Siege of Constantinople 717–718 is a legend from the Ottoman era. In several chronicles from this time, the second was confused with the first siege of Constantinople (674–678) and the construction of a mosque was dated to 686.

At the time of the Latin Empire (1204–1261), the church was replaced by the St. Paul Chapel after the Fourth Crusade in 1233. In 1299 the Dominican Guillaume Bernard de Sévérac bought a house near the chapel and founded a monastery with 12 friars . The Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II expelled the Dominicans of Constantinople in 1307 to Pera (today Beyoğlu), which was under the flag of Genoa in the Middle Ages . The chapel of St. Paul was replaced by a much larger church in 1325. It was officially consecrated to St. Dominic , but was still often called St. Paul by the community.

Ottoman era

Northeast side of the Arap Camii with Şadirvan

After the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and the capitulations of the Ottoman Empire , St. Dominic initially remained in Genoese hands, but was converted into a mosque by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II with minor modifications between 1475 and 1478 and received both as a Galata Camii (Galata Mosque ) and known as Cami-i Kebir (Great Mosque). The friars were evacuated to St. Peter and Paul in Galata in 1476 and the altarpieces were brought to Genoa and Kaffa .

Towards the end of the 15th century, Sultan Bayezid II assigned the mosque to Muslim refugees from al-Andalus who had fled the Spanish Inquisition and emigrated to Istanbul, which earned it the current name "Arap Camii" (in German Arabic mosque ). Sultan Mehmed III. left the building at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. Century. At the end of the 17th century, the buildings near the mosque were demolished to reduce the prevailing noise.

After the great fire of Galata in 1731, Saliha Sultan , the mother of Mahmud I , had the building renovated in 1734/35. The former Gothic windows and the portal were renewed in the Ottoman style . The damage caused by another fire in 1808 was repaired in the middle of the 19th century on behalf of Adile Sultan , daughter of Mahmud II . In 1868 a Şadirvan (fountain for ritual ablution before prayer) was built in the churchyard . Colonel Commander (Miralay) Giritli Hasan Bey had the building extensively renovated from 1913 to 1919. During the renovation of the wooden floor, several Genoese tombstones were found that date back to the 14th / 15th centuries. Century could be dated. They were taken to the Istanbul Archaeological Museum . From 2010 to 2013 a comprehensive renovation of the mosque was carried out. An inscription based on a Turkish legend was placed on the front of the building, which says that the mosque was built in 715.

description

Inside, view towards the mihrāb in the former choir room. The beginnings of the Gothic ribbed vault and the southern side apse on the right can be seen.

The building was built according to the model of the Italian churches of the mendicant order of that time and thus represents a three-aisled, rectangular basilica with a square bell tower attached to the south and a divided square choir with ribbed vaults . Both the Gothic portal and the lancet windows and the striking bell tower ( today rebuilt with a conical spire to a minaret ) distinguished the building from the predominant Byzantine architecture of the city of Istanbul. For the masonry but were bricks and natural stones used in the area. Some chapels of Genoese noble families were probably attached to the northeastern nave. One was dedicated to the Holy Virgin , one to St. Nicholas . Overall, the building resembled the Italian Dominican churches of San Domenico in Chieri and Santa Caterina in Finale Ligure . The flat wooden roof and elegant wooden galleries date from the 1913-1919 restoration. On that occasion, the height of the building was lowered and many Genoese tombstones were found, many dating from 1347, suggesting that the Black Death followed from Constantinople Europe invaded. Remnants of paintings were also discovered near the mihrāb , but were hidden there again. Under the minaret, ornaments and fragments of stones decorated with coats of arms can still be found on the walls today. To the northeast of the building is a large courtyard with a Şadirvan.

The Arab Mosque is the largest mosque in Galata north of the Golden Horn. It is considered one of the most interesting mosques in the city because of its early Italian Gothic style of architecture and steeple, which has remained almost unchanged even after being converted into a minaret.

literature

  • Marius Canard: Les expéditions des Arabes contre Constantinople dans l'histoire et dans la légende . In: Journal asiatique. Recueil de mémoires et de notices relatifs aux études orientales . tape 208 , no. 1 , 1926, ISSN  0021-762X , p. 61-121 .
  • Semavi Eyice : Istanbul. Petit guide a travers les monuments byzantins et turcs . Matbaası, Istanbul 1955, p. 102 .
  • John Freely , H. Sumner-Boyd: Istanbul. A leader . Prestel, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-7913-0098-9 , pp. 137-143, 495-496 .
  • Frederick W. Hasluck pm: Arab Jami and its Traditions . In: Christianity and Islam under the sultans . tape 2 . Clarendon, Oxford 1929, p. 718-720 .
  • Raymond Janin: La geographie ecclésiastique de l'empire Byzantin . Part 1: Le siège de Constantinople et le patriarcat œcuménique . tape 3 : Les églises et les monastères . Paris 1953, p. 599-600 .
  • Ernest Mamboury : The tourists' Istanbul . Çituri, Istanbul 1953.
  • Johannes H. Mordtmann : (al-) Ḳusṭanṭīniyya . In: Hamilton AR Gibb (ed.): Encyclopédie de l'Islam . tape 5 : Khe - Mahi . new edition. Brill, Leiden 1986, ISBN 90-04-07820-7 , pp. 532-534 .
  • Wolfgang Müller-Wiener : Pictorial dictionary on the topography of Istanbul. Byzantium - Constantinupolis - Istanbul until the beginning of the 17th century . Wasmuth, Tübingen 1977, ISBN 3-8030-1022-5 , p. 32, 79 f .

Web links

Commons : Arap Mosque  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 79.
  2. ↑ Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 32.
  3. ↑ Canard (1926), p. 99.
  4. ↑ Hasluck (1929), pp. 718-722.
  5. ↑ Mordtmann (1986), p. 533.
  6. ↑ a b c d Janin (1953), p. 599.
  7. ↑ a b c d Eyice (1955), p. 102.
  8. ↑ a b c d Mamboury (1953), p. 319.
  9. ^ Rudolf Grulich : Constantinople. A travel guide for Christians (=  texts on the East-West dialogue . Volume 14 ). Hess, Ulm 1998, ISBN 3-87336-271-6 , p. 87-90 .
  10. ↑ Peter Schreiner : Constantinople. History and archeology . Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-50864-6 , pp. 100-105 .
  11. ↑ Janin (1953), p. 600.
  12. ↑ a b c d e f Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 80.
  13. ↑ Freely (1975), p. 143.
  14. ↑ Freely (1975), pp. 495-496.

Coordinates: 41 ° 1 ′  N , 28 ° 58 ′  E