A Gothic Church Became a Mosque: Arap Camii (Arab Mosque), Galata, Istanbul, Turkey

Name: A Gothic Church Became a Mosque: Arap Camii (Arab Mosque), Galata, Istanbul, Turkey
Uploaded: 2026-10-21T13:07:28+02:00
Duration: 1 min 36 s

267 views2026/10/21

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267 views · 2026/10/21

This mosque in Istanbul began as a Dominican church in the fourteenth century, and its minaret was once a bell tower. This is the Arap Camii, the Arab Mosque, in Galata.

Key facts
• Galata was then a Genoese colony, and Dominican friars built a church here in brick and stone, in an Italian Gothic style, dedicated to Saint Paul and Saint Dominic (The Byzantine Legacy; Kultur Envanteri)
• After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed the Second ordered it converted into a mosque; an endowment deed of 1475 records it as the Galata Mosque, and the bell tower became its minaret (Kultur Envanteri; The Byzantine Legacy)
• After 1492, Muslims from Andalusia settled in the neighbourhood, and the building became known as the Arab Mosque (both sources)
• A later tradition links it to an Arab siege of Constantinople in the early eighth century, but historians find no evidence for that (both sources)
• After the great fire of 1731, Saliha Sultan, the mother of Sultan Mahmud the First, had it restored, and Ottoman windows and portals replaced the Gothic ones (The Byzantine Legacy)
• In 1913 more than a hundred Italian gravestones of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were found beneath the floor (Kultur Envanteri)
• After the earthquake of 1999 falling plaster revealed frescoes, and the restoration of 2007 to 2012 uncovered more, along with mosaics made by Byzantine artists for Catholic patrons, which is very rare (Kultur Envanteri)

Where sources differ: the exact year of the conversion. The details are in the pinned comment.

Sources
The Byzantine Legacy, San Paolo (Arap Camii): https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/san-paolo
Kultur Envanteri (Turkey's cultural heritage inventory), Arap Camii: https://kulturenvanteri.com/en/yer/arap-camii/

Visuals are AI-generated illustrations. The mosque, its tower, the marble portal and the prayer hall are drawn from published photographs. The harbour colony, the Gothic church interior, the parchment, the lane, the burned hall, the grave slabs and the frescoes are imagined. The real place differs in detail.

Which mosque should we explore next? Tell us in the comments.

#Shorts #Istanbul #ArapCamii

Comments

@Dr.M.Wahid-U-zzamanYouTube

Almighty Allah s.w.t will protect the mosques all over the world. Salamalykum from Bangladesh.

👍 192026/10/21

@Raja-p9lYouTube

ALLAHUMA AMEEN

👍 22026/10/21

@MohammedAhmeduddin-h5cYouTube

Assalamualaikum brother please explore the jinn mosque in hyderabad india

👍 52026/10/21

@Phoenix67614YouTube

Beautiful mashallah ❤

👍 62026/10/21

@netanel____YouTube

It is so sad to see that Turkey is Muslim, rather than Christian as it was in the past.

👍 212026/10/21

@sleepyjo9340YouTube

@Raja-p9ljesus will protect the church

👍 62026/10/22

@WinstonLopez-n4dYouTube

it was all thanks to turkics converting to islam, except the gagauz, yakuts, khakas, altai and chuvash who chose jesus, and tuva and the western yugurs[not uyghurs] who chose to be buddhist, the karaims and krymchaks who chose to be jews, and later pushing west into anatolia during the medieval period, leading to turkey becoming muslim

👍 12026/10/22

@poesje-j3vYouTube

@WinstonLopez-n4d we muslims also believe in Jesus

👍 22026/10/22

@Emirkpln35YouTube

Conversely, Jews think the exact same thing about you! Why did you choose Christianity when Judaism exists? Everyone has their own version of the truth; what matters is being respectful.

👍 112026/10/22

@santeeliomoroYouTube

Which past? Christianity appeared 1900 years ago and after 300 years persecuted and massacred all faith that were there…

👍 02026/10/22

@jasonalmendra3823YouTube

That's poetic. Letting al-Andalus Muslims have the church.

👍 52026/10/22

@jasonalmendra3823YouTube

Some Bulgars and Cumans became Orthodox

👍 02026/10/22

@brandonmireles3249YouTube

I guess that makes sense. I thought this was Europe or something. No this was a Genoese colony area, I think.

👍 02026/10/22

@they-hate-GoonersYouTube

This was on European side of Bosporus

👍 02026/10/23

@MosquesLensYouTube

🕌 Want to go deeper? Every mosque we cover has its own page with the full story, history, architecture and real photos, plus a world map of all our videos. 👉 https://mosqueslens.com 🌍

👍 02026/10/23

@Benny-p3eYouTube

That’s not true they were settlers came same times with Jews they were originally Arabs Berbers Spanish Muslims so they settle there in Spain there is no chance

👍 02026/10/27