The First Mosque: Sultan Mehmed II

Ground plan for the original Fatih mosque, which may have been built along the Church of the Holy Apostles' foundations.

Ground plan for the original Fatih mosque, which may have been built along the Church of the Holy Apostles' foundations.

Just like Venice, the Ottoman regime also worked to ally themselves with the Byzantines’ cultural legacy. Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, ordered the destruction of the church in 1462 in favor of building a mosque that would celebrate his own religious and secular authority, a grand statement of his status as conqueror. This choice, however, did not subvert the Byzantines’ authority so much as appropriate it: Janna Israel argues that, “[g]iven its significance as a locus of imperial identity, the Sultan’s choice of the Holy Apostles for his mosque formed part of a larger claim to an inheritance of the city as a historical seat of power, and to a more decisive authority over the Byzantine past as the West prepared to challenge that claim” [1].

This choice extended beyond the physical site to the new mosque’s physical form and layout. Like the Basilica of San Marco, the new Fatih Camii employed a large central dome and surrounding sub-domes that recalled Byzantine architectural forms, as expressed in buildings such as the Hagia Sophia and the former Church of the Holy Apostles. At the same time, the church was seen as a newer and more modern expression of these forms, and a distinctly Ottoman building within that civilization’s architectural tradition [2]. By improving on the Byzantines’ designs, Mehmet II implicitly styled his rule of Constantinople as a natural progression towards perfection.

Even the Fatih Camii’s foundation draws from its predecessor. Byzantine scholars Ken Dark and Ferudun Özgümüs cited compelling architectural evidence to argue that the mosque—since rebuilt—has historically followed the old layout of the Church of the Holy Apostles throughout its various incarnations [3], with certain foundations from the old church still remaining under the mosque’s walls. This hybrid construction speaks not only to Mehmed’s appropriation of Byzantine memory, but also to a more overarching lieu de memoire of Istanbul as a culturally contested hybrid, a fusion of Byzantine and Ottoman civilization that is in many ways distinct from both.

Even the Fatih Camii’s foundation draws from its predecessor. Byzantine scholars Ken Dark and Ferudun Özgümüs cited compelling architectural evidence to argue that the mosque—since rebuilt—has historically followed the old layout of the Church of the Holy Apostles throughout its various incarnations [3], with certain foundations from the old church still remaining under the mosque’s walls. This hybrid construction speaks not only to Mehmed’s appropriation of Byzantine memory, but also to a more overarching lieu de memoire of Istanbul as a culturally contested hybrid, a fusion of Byzantine and Ottoman civilization that is in many ways distinct from both.