The Parthenon mosque refers to one of two places of Islamic worship created successively within the

Parthenon The Parthenon (; ; ) is a former Ancient Greek temple, temple on the Acropolis of Athens, Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the Greek gods, goddess Athena. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of c ...

during Greece's Ottoman period. The first was the

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

adapted from the Church of Our Lady of Athens, which was destroyed by a Venetian bombardment in 1687. The second was a free-standing building erected in the open space of what was the naos of the now ruined Parthenon; this was dismantled in 1843.

History

At what point the Parthenon first became a

congregational mosque A congregational mosque or Friday mosque (, ''masjid jāmi‘'', or simply: , ''jāmi‘''; ), or sometimes great mosque or grand mosque (, ''jāmi‘ kabir''; ), is a mosque for hosting the Friday noon prayers known as ''Friday prayer, jumu'ah' ...

is undocumented. However,

Mehmed II Mehmed II (; , ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror (; ), was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481. In Mehmed II's first reign, ...

is known to have visited

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

in 1458 after the surrender of the

Acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens ...

to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

and again in 1460, and it is speculated that the act of conversion could have taken place then or shortly thereafter since the prominent churches of conquered territories were typically converted. The structural changes to the building were slight. A Frankish tower in the south-west corner of the pronaos, which might have served as a

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

, was converted to a

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

. The presbytery screen, the high altar, and the altars in the side apses were all removed. The mosaic of the Virgin in the

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

evidently survived conversion. Less certain is the fate of the ambo, the removal or not of the episcopal throne, and the precise location of the

minbar A minbar (; sometimes romanized as ''mimber'') is a pulpit in a mosque where the imam (leader of prayers) stands to deliver sermons (, ''khutbah''). It is also used in other similar contexts, such as in a Hussainiya where the speaker sits and le ...

and

mihrab ''Mihrab'' (, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "''qibla'' wall". ...

. This building was destroyed in the Venetian bombardment during the 1687 Siege of the Acropolis and replaced with a smaller free-standing, single-domed mosque that stood in the cleared space of the naos. It was built sometime in the early 18th century. This in turn was removed in 1843 with the beginning of archaeological activity on the Acropolis.

Evidence

The primary evidence for this period of the Parthenon’s existence is scant. Not only have the physical structures been erased, but the documentary evidence of the mosque is also scarce. The earliest references are in the biographies of

and the Vienna Anonymous manuscript of c. 1460. Mehmed is recorded as having admired the city and its monuments. In 16th-century Ottoman tax records, the mosque is named , 'fortress mosque of Athens'. The most detailed surviving contemporary description is in

Evliya Çelebi Dervish Mehmed Zillî (25 March 1611 – 1682), known as Evliya Çelebi (), was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman explorer who travelled through his home country during its cultural zenith as well as neighboring lands. He travelled for over 40 years, rec ...

’s ''

Seyahatnâme ''Seyahatname'' () is the name of a literary form and tradition whose examples can be found throughout centuries in the Middle Ages around the Islamic world, starting with the Arab travellers of the Umayyad period. In a more specific sense, the ...

''. Evliya not only recorded the physical details of the Parthenon but attempted to incorporate it into the Ottoman cultural milieu and Islamic legend and folklore. Evliya's visit in 1667 was succeeded by a number of European visitors, who left a small cache of records of the Ottoman Parthenon before its destruction. These include Carrey’s drawings, the Bassano drawing of 1670 Museo Civico of Bassano del Grappa, Collezione RIVA, 11599. See L. Beschi, 1956. “Un disegno veneto dell’Acropoli Ateniese nel 1670,” Arte Veneta 10, pp. 136–141. and Spon’s, Vernon’s and Wheler’s accounts of the Acropolis. The second mosque is slightly better documented in the form of travellers' drawings. Amongst the last of these records is de Lotbinière's 1839

daguerreotype Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photography, photographic process, widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre and introduced worldwid ...

of the Parthenon, depicting the mosque still present in the naos.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parthenon mosque 15th-century mosques in Greece Buildings and structures demolished in 1843 Parthenon Ottoman mosques in Greece Former mosques in Greece Ottoman architecture in Athens Mosques in Athens Demolished buildings and structures in Greece