Conversion of non-Islamic places of worship into mosques

Conversion of church buildings

Europe

Albania

• The Catholic church 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.
• The church of St Stephen in Shkodër was converted into a mosque in 1479 after the city was conquered by the Ottomans.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Fethija Mosque in Bihać, Bosnia

The Fethija Mosque (since 1592) of Bihać was a Catholic church devoted to Saint Anthony of Padua (1266).

Greece

Painting of the ruins of the Parthenon and the Ottoman mosque built after 1715, in the early 1830s

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:

• The Church of the Acheiropoietos (Eski Mosque), the Church of Hosios David (Suluca or Murad Mosque), the Church of Prophet Elijah (Saraylı Mosque), the Church of Saint Catherine (Yakup Pasha Mosque), the Church of Saint Panteleimon (Ishakiye Mosque), the Church of Holy Apostles (Soğuksu Mosque), the Church of Hagios Demetrios (Kasımiye Mosque), the Church of Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya Mosque), the Church of Panagia Chalkeon (Kazancilar Mosque), the church of Taxiarches (İki Şerefiye Mosque), the Rotonda of Galerius (Mosque of Suleyman Hortaji Effendi) in Thessaloniki.
• The Cathedral church of Veria (Hünkar Mosque) and the Church of Saint Paul in Veria (Medrese Mosque).
• The Church of Saint John in Ioannina, destroyed by the Ottomans and the Aslan Pasha Mosque was built in its place.
• The Theotokos Kosmosoteira monastery in Feres was converted into a mosque in the mid-14th century.
• The original Pantocrator (Kursum Mosque) church building in Patras.
• The gothic-style Panagia tou Kastrou (Enderun Mosque), the Holy Trinity church in Knights Avenue (Khan Zade Mosque) in Rhodes.
• The Brontochion Monastery, the Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya Mosque), and Panagia Hodegetria (Fethiye Mosque) churches in Laconia.
• The Hagia Sophia (Bey Mosque) in Drama.
• Parthenon in Athens: Some time before the close of the fifteenth century, the Parthenon became a mosque. Before that the Parthenon had been a Greek 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. See Parthenon mosque.
• The Fethiye Mosque in Athens was built on top of a Byzantine basilica. It is currently an exhibition centre.
• The church of Saint Nicholas (Hünkar Mosque) was originally a Roman Catholic church before it was converted into a mosque.

The Rotunda of Galerius in Thessaloniki, initially a Mausoleum of Roman Emperor Galerius, a church (326–1590), then a mosque and again a church after 1912

Hungary

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.

• Church of Our Lady of Buda, converted into Eski Djami immediately after the capture of Buda in 1541, reconverted in 1686.

Spain

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. 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.

Middle East and North Africa

Iraq

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.

• Chaldean Church of St. Joseph in Mosul, Iraq

Israel and Palestinian territories

After the conquest of Hebron, this holy place was "taken over from the Jewish tradition" by the Muslim rulers. The cave and the surrounding Herodian enclosure was converted into a mosque.

Lebanon

• Grand Mosque of Tangier; built on a formerly Roman pagan, and then Roman Christian, site.

Syria

• The mosque of Job in Al-Shaykh Saad, Syria, was previously a church of Job.

Turkey

Istanbul

Hagia Sophia

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.

• Hagia Sophia (from the Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, "Holy Wisdom"; Latin: Sancta Sophia or Sancta Sapientia; Turkish: Ayasofya) was the cathedral of Constantinople in the state church of the Roman Empire and the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church's Patriarchate. After 1453 it became a mosque, and since 1931 it has been a museum in Istanbul, 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 the Latin Patriarch of Constantinople of the Western Crusader-established Latin Empire. In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks under Sultan Mehmed II, who subsequently ordered the building converted into a mosque. The bells, altar, iconostasis, ambo and sacrificial vessels were removed and many of the mosaics were plastered over. Islamic features – such as the mihrab, minbar, and four minarets – were added while in the possession of the Ottomans. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931, when it was secularised. It was opened as a museum on 1 February 1935. 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 President Erdoğan signed a decree annulling the Hagia Sophia's museum status, reverting it to a mosque.

Other churches

• Chora Church in Istanbul (2019)

Conversion of Hindu temples

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. The demolition was intended as a warning to the anti-Mughal factions and Hindu religious leaders in the city.	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.	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.	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.	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. Iltutmish further built the mosque in AD 1213.	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.	Ruined, partly converted into Mosque

Conversion of synagogues

The Great Synagogue of Oran was the largest synagogue in North Africa until it was converted into the Abdellah Ben Salem Mosque in 1975.

North Africa

Algeria

• Great Synagogue of Algiers, now Ben Farès Mosque
• Great Synagogue of Oran, now Abdellah Ben Salem Mosque

Europe

France

• Or Thora Synagogue of Marseille, 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.

The Netherlands

• The Ashkenazi synagogue on Wagenstraat street of The Hague, built in 1844, became the Aqsa 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. The synagogue was conceded to the Muslim community three years later.

Influence on Islamic architecture

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.

See also

• Conversion of non-Hindu places of worship into temples
• Conversion of mosques into non-Islamic places of worship
• Christianized sites
• Islam and other religions
• List of destroyed heritage

External links

• Quotations related to Conversion of non-Islamic places of worship into mosques at Wikiquote