Islamic Turkish Reformation: The Imrahor Mosque

The interior of the Stoudios Monastery after it was re-adapted as the Imrahor Mosque under Ottoman rule.

The exterior of the Stoudios Monastery-turned-Imrahor Mosque.

After a two month-long siege, Constantinople was conquered on May 29, 1453, and the Ottoman Turks took control of the city and what was left of the Byzantine Empire, moving their capital there and renaming it Istanbul[1]. Christian and Muslim tensions had long existed in Europe and the Middle East, and though Istanbul presented itself as a city largely defined by Orthodox Christian principles, the new Ottoman regime did not make it a priority to disturb the historical infrastructure. Instead, many of the churches and monasteries that existed in Constantinople were repurposed as mosques in Istanbul, and the Stoudios Monastery is no different, being renamed the Imrahor Mosque[2]. Nonetheless, through the rigid transition in power over the city, the Stoudios Monastery experienced its share of cultural and physical trauma. Though many of the functions maintained within the Stoudios Monastery proved useful for the maintenance of the Imrahor Mosque, the transition displaced the Studite monks that had long lived there and imbued it with its historical graces. The monastery’s body was left largely intact, but its soul had been altered.

A map of the city of Istanbul in 1922; the Imrahor Mosque is situated in the southwest region of the map a short distance from the shore.

While the alteration in functionality of the monastery surely seems a burden, the new experiences that it opens the physical space up to reinforces the site’s position as a lieu de mémoire, such that the place invokes the history of different people and cultures and makes its importance more unanimous. Physically, the monastery saw significant destruction during the conquest of Istanbul, though its central Church of St. John the Baptist survived unscathed. From the story of the Stoudios Monastery’s conversion into the Imrahor Mosque, two senses of trauma are thus understood and it is reasoned that they contribute to the upholding of the site as a lieu de mémoire differently: While cultural trauma experienced through re-designating purpose can expand upon the sacredness of the location and reinforce it has a lieu de mémoire, physical trauma disables functionality and diminishes the historical value it could otherwise be generating. The latter aspect is what contributes to the Stoudios Monastery’s present state of ruination.