Lauren Booth – Mystery of Istanbuls Arab Mosque – Islamic Heritage Series
AI: Summary ©
The transcript discusses the history of a mosque in Islamic Heritage, where the temple was located. The temple was built in the expectation of being a Roman temple, but it was eventually replaced by a Catholic church. The temple was eventually abandoned and later destroyed, but the Jewish community settled in Galata, Pakistan.
AI: Summary ©
As-salamu alaykum, welcome to the latest episode
of Islamic Heritage with me Lauren Booth and
today we're going to be looking at a
very small but very important mosque in a
quite ugly back street of Istanbul but its
history is disputed by Orientalists and Muslims.
Was this the place where the Adhan was
called just a hundred years after Hidra in
ancient Constantinople?
Welcome to the Arab Jami.
So this current building is based on what
was put up in 1325 as a Roman
Catholic Church and there's no doubt the feeling
is not, it's not Ottoman-y, it's not
that kind of vaulted high design of Mimar
Sinan, it's definitely got a feel of a
Catholic Church inside but the dispute arises on
whether or not there was something here before
and where does the name Arab Jami come
from because that's what it's always been known
around these parts.
According to many historians this was the site
where the call to prayer Allahu Akbar, Allahu
Akbar, Ash-hadu an la ilaha illa Allah,
Ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Rasool Allah was called
for the first time in Constantinople under Christian
rule in 717 common era, subhanallah, just 100
years after the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon
him made Hidra to Medina.
That's a really close time span.
Did it happen and if so how did
it happen?
Let's find out.
So Constantinople couldn't be taken by that army
but Galata, the area Galata famous in Byzantine
history was taken and it's true to say
that that really shook Emperor Leon, it shook
him into making an agreement, a truce agreement
with the Muslim army and that included this
area so historians say being a place of
worship for a battalion or a garrison of
Muslim troops included in the agreement was that
this area was going to be a place
of a masjid for the Arab army, the
Muslim army where they would pray because they
were going to be based here permanently under
that agreement.
The problem was just seven years later the
Christian Emperor reneged on that agreement and in
an uprising the Arabs, the Muslims were driven
out and ended up going back to Damascus.
Subhanallah I was just about to walk out
when I noticed this, Hazrat Meslema bin Abdul
Malik, the great commander.
Now on checking this is not actually where
his body is interred, that is in Damascus
but it is commemorated that he and his
troops were here, subhanallah.
That seems to give more credibility to the
fact that the Muslims had a masjid here.
So I'm here at Galata Tower one of
the oldest, if not the oldest surviving tower
watchtower in the world.
It's right around the corner from the Arab
masjid subhanallah.
Towards the end of the century Sultan Bayezid
II made the decision to give the Arab
masjid to all of those survivors of the
Inquisition.
They fled and he sent boats and when
they arrived they needed their own place to
live and what's really interesting is that a
great number of those were from the Jewish
community who were also being persecuted by the
Spanish Inquisition and by the 16th century the
largest Jewish community in the world was in
the Ottoman Empire and a lot of them
settled here in Galata.
I hope
you've enjoyed this video and discovering all about
Arab masjid here in Galata in Istanbul plenty
more to come.
If you want to find out more about
how the Jews were welcomed in the Ottoman
Empire watch this video and for more about
Suleyman the Magnificent watch this one and don't
forget to subscribe, like and share.
See you next time, Asalaamu Alaikum