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Arap Mosque (Arap Camii)

Arap Mosque (Arap Camii)

Photo: A.Savin · FAL · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Karaköy, Istanbul, Turkey
Client / Owner
Dominican friars
Year
Completed 1325
Access
Public
Typology
Spiritual
Style
Gothic

The Arap Mosque in Istanbul's Karaköy quarter was a Dominican church, completed in 1325. The article calls it the only example of medieval religious Gothic architecture remaining in Istanbul. Its former bell tower is now the minaret. Brickwork alternates small courses of brick and ashlar, and ribbed groin vaults cover the square sanctuary.

Mehmed II converted it into a mosque between 1475 and 1478. Bayezid II later gave it to Muslim refugees from Al-Andalus, which gave the mosque its name. After the Great Fire of Galata in 1731, Saliha Sultan renovated it in 1734 and 1735, changing the windows and portal from Gothic to Ottoman style.

A restoration from 1913 to 1919 lowered the building's height and uncovered Genoese tombstones. Another restoration finished in 2013. It is the largest mosque on the Galata side of the Golden Horn.

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