When the Greek Parthenon was a Great Mosque: 1458-1687

When the Greek Parthenon was a Great Mosque: 1458-1687

On the summit of the Acropolis, the fortified core of ancient Greek Athens, stands the shell of the Parthenon, one of the architectural glories of mankind.

In August 1458, five years after conquering Constantinople, 28 year old Sultan Mehmet II rode into Athens. His forces had taken this ancient centre of civilization from the Florentine Acciaiuoli Dukes who had ruled there since 1388.

Mehmet II’s chronicler, Michael Kritoboulos, recorded that: “He was eager to see the city, and learn the story of it and of all its buildings, especially the Acropolis itself, and of the places where those heroes had carried on the government and accomplished those things. he saw everything and was amazed, and he praised it, and especially the Acropolis as he went up into it. From the ruins and the remains, he reconstructed mentally the ancient buildings, being a wise man and a Philhellene as a great king, and he conjectured how they must have been originally. He noted with pleasure the respect of the inhabitants of the city for their ancestors, and he rewarded them in many ways. They received from him whatever he asked for.”

The sultan was passionately interested in ancient history. He saw himself as a supreme temporal ruler like the young Alexander who had been tutored by Aristotle (Kritoboulos described him as “one of the most acute philosophers”). He was convinced that his conquest of Byzantium and all its empire was divine destiny. A deeply devout Muslim, he was encouraged by his spiritual mentor, Sheikh Aksemseddin (1372-1459) to do so based on the hadith, “Verily you shall conquer Constantinople. What a wonderful leader will he be, and what a wonderful army that will be.”

The widely held belief that the conqueror of Constantinople would bear the name of the Prophet Muhammad also played its part. The sheikh was the imam when the first Juma namaz was held in Haghia Sophia just after the conquest.

The sultan’s visit to Athens was critical in his decision in 1459 to build a splendid new palace in Istanbul overlooking the Bosphorus on the site of Byzantium’s ancient acropolis (adjacent to Haghia Sophia and the ruins of Emperor Constantine’s grandiose 4th century palace). He ordered that it “should outshine all and be more marvelous than the preceding palaces in looks, size, cost and gracefulness.” To be known as the Topkapi Saray, it was completed between 1465 and 1468.

Following a second tour of Athens by Mehmet II in 1466, the Parthenon (then largely intact) was converted into a great Juma mosque from its use (since the 5th century) as a Christian church. A tall minaret was constructed dominating the cityscape. An Ottoman garrison occupied the Acropolis with soldiers and their families living in the many houses clustered around the mosque.

The Propylaia, the grand Greek classical building at the entrance to the Acropolis, transformed into a palace by the Florentine dukes, became the residence of the Ottoman governor.

The Ottomans long discouraged foreigners from frequenting this region and it was not until the third quarter of the 17th century that westerners began to visit and publish their descriptions and depictions of the Acropolis under Muslim dominion.

However, the first extensive description of Ottoman Athens was not by a European but by the great Turkish traveler Evliya Celebi who visited in 1667 and wrote ecstatically of what he saw. Celebi was a gifted hafiz (one who could recite the Koran from memory) who had served Sultan Murad IV (1612- 1640) personally. In a dream he had received permission from the Prophet to undertake his travels.

Celebi recorded that in Athens there were eleven mosques, one madrasa, three mektebs, two caravanserais and three hamams. He wrote that no one could be considered learned until he had visited Athens, and regarding the Acropolis itself: “like some impregnable fortress not made by human agency . it is truly the work less of human hands than that of Heaven itself: may it be blessed and remain standing for all time.”

The Parthenon Mosque overwhelmed him: “This humble and inept writer . has been blessed to be able to tour the entire continent [of Asia] and seven climes. the manmade masterpieces inside the Mosque of Athens are more distinguished and more astounding than the monuments of all the lands I have mentioned ”. “Despite all the destruction [it has suffered], no other mosque known to us can open up such shining paths in the soul of man. Every time you visit, you discover more and more new masterpieces which during previous visits escaped your notice.”

Evilya Celebi had seen for himself the glories of the four most splendidly adorned ancient mosques of Islam, three of which also had been converted from previous religious functions: Haghia Sophia in Istanbul (Sultan Mehmet II himself exclaimed “If you long for Paradise, oh, Sufi, you find Heaven in Haghia Sophia”), the Great Mosque of Damascus and the Rotunda of Galerius in Thessalonika. The fourth was the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem built by 691 in Caliph Abd alMalik. For this widely travelled Turk to have made such statements about the Parthenon meant that it must truly have seemed without equal.

Celebi’s descriptions of the great mosque’s interior are extensive and effusive. He admired columns made of ruby red marble, which could “reflect even the shade of one’ face,” the “goldplated dome,” the “four pillars of green marble near the minbar . decorated with elaborate flowers,” “the colours and the stones on the doors and the walls that resemble eyes, of cats and of fish, etc.”

The wooden doors to the mosque were of finely carved cypress «twenty yards high» which had once been gilded. The arches and walls were ornamented with multicolored mosaics which reminded him of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

European visitors were no less impressed. One was George Wheler, an English botanists and antiquarian, who visited in 1676. After noting five mosques in the city below, he wrote, “that in the Castle, transform’d from Minerva’s Temple to the Use of a Mosque is, without comparison, the finest in the world.” He concluded his account of his tour by stating that he “has nowhere seen such marvels as in the city of Athens.” His comments on Haghia Sophia were in stark contrast: “This is neither kept so well in repair, nor adorned as the other Mosques built by the Sultans: therefore I will defer to describe its Furniture as Mosque, till I come to another more magnificently adorned.”

In 1683, Sultan Mehmet IV (1642- 1693) unsuccessfully laid siege to Vienna.

In response Austria, Poland, Venice and the Pope formed a Holy League to retake all European lands occupied by the Ottomans. In 1687, an army under the command of the Venetian admiral Francesco Morosini began an attack on Athens. Its Ottoman garrison fortified themselves on the Acropolis. Women, children and the elderly were sheltered in the Parthenon Mosque. The Acropolis suffered from fierce cannon bombardment for eight days, and on the night of 26 September 1687 a mortar shell scored a direct hit on munitions stored in the Parthenon. A great explosion wrecked most of the building.

The ensuing fire ensued completely destroyed its roof and interior furnishings. About three hundred people were killed. The Ottomans surrendered and Athens was abandoned to the invaders. The citadel was recovered in 1688 but the city remained empty for several years.

The Parthenon which for two centuries had become one of the greatest and most magnificent mosques in the Islamic world would never again be so resplendent. Due to the extent of the damage, no attempt was made to restore it. Another small free standing mosque designed in a typical Ottoman style was built within its ruins.

For the next century and a half the Parthenon remained a ruin within a military base. The little mosque endured several sieges of the Acropolis during the Greek War of Independence (1821-1830). Although, its minaret was demolished in 1832, the building itself survived long enough to be recorded in early photographs of the Parthenon as late as 1844: there is no record after that.

Following Greece’s independence all structures on the Acropolis later than those of the 5th century BC were removed. Athens’ mosques were demolished or repurposed and their minarets potent symbols of the Shahada and the call to Islam were destroyed.

Athen’s first official mosque since that time 175 years ago was scheduled to open in 2019. Built with Greek government funding to serve the capital’s now substantial and growing number of believers, applications are being considered for the post of its first imam.

GUY (GHAYDAR) PETHERBRIDGE PROFESSOR, EXPERT ON CULTURAL HERITAGE AND HISTORY OF ISLAM, AUSTRALIA, RUSSIA