The Fatih Mosque ( tr, Fatih Camii, "Conqueror's Mosque") is a

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

in Ortahisar district of

Trabzon Province Trabzon Province ( tr, ) is a province of Turkey on the Black Sea coast. Located in a strategically important region, Trabzon is one of the oldest trade port cities in Anatolia. Neighbouring provinces are Giresun to the west, Gümüşhane to th ...

, Turkey. It was originally built in

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

times as the Panagia Chrysokephalos Church ( el, Παναγία Χρυσοκέφαλος, "

Panagia Panagia ( el, Παναγία, fem. of , + , the ''All-Holy'', or the ''Most Holy''; pronounced ) (also transliterated Panaghia or Panajia), in Medieval and Modern Greek, is one of the titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern ...

the Golden-Headed"), serving as both the catholicon for the see of Trebizond, and a church for a monastery. It was built sometime in the 10th or 11th century. After Ottoman conquest of the city in 1461, the building became a mosque. The Fatih Mosque also displays the most beautiful samples of the Ottoman writing arts.

History

A number of churches are believed to have stood where the present structure now stands. During the heyday of the Empire of Trebziond, it was used as the resting-place for a number of dignitaries including Emperor John II Megas Komnenos in 1297, Metropolitan Niphon in 1364, and Emperor Alexios IV Megas Komnenos in 1429. The church became a mosque after the Ottoman conquest and first prayer was attended by

Mehmet II Mehmed II ( ota, محمد ثانى, translit=Meḥmed-i s̱ānī; tr, II. Mehmed, ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror ( ota, ابو الفتح, Ebū'l-fetḥ, lit=the Father of Conquest, links=no; tr, Fâtih Su ...

, who adjoined a madrasah (''Fatih Madrasa'') to the building. Ballance also notes that it is "very difficult" to date any portion of the church. She mentions a report of a plaque bearing the date 914 found (since lost) under the floor of the present building during repairs in 1877; there is also a dedication hymn that was sung at its rebuilding after the Hamigogullari set fire to the town in 1341. However, she was unable to match any of its features to either period. "On stylistic grounds a date in the 10th or perhaps 11th century seems reasonable for the basilical layout, with the dome perhaps 12th century ... but it is difficult to see how this can be reconciled with the evidence of the rededication hymn of the mid-14th century." Ballance does note a number of minor details, such as lower windows and blocked doorways, date to the Turkish period.

Architecture

Selina Ballance, who studied the building in 1958, described it as follows: "Though strongly

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's Forum (Roman), forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building ...

l in character, it has a dome, and

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...

s open from floor to vault running north and south to the outer walls; the aisles, like the nave, are barrel-vaulted, with ribs, but have galleries over them, even over the eastern bays which are cut off from the rest by the transepts: and the vaults of the aisle bays on the ground floor span at right-angles to those of the nave and the galleries."Selina Ballance
"The Byzantine Churches of Trebizond"
''Anatolian Studies'', 10 (1960), p. 146 She noted it was unusual in many respects, specifically in that basilicas do not commonly have galleried aisles—as this one does—and by having a

narthex The narthex is an architectural element typical of early Christian and Byzantine basilicas and churches consisting of the entrance or lobby area, located at the west end of the nave, opposite the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex ...

outside of the main narthex.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mosque, Fatih, Trabzon Byzantine sacred architecture Empire of Trebizond Mosques in Trabzon Mosques converted from churches in the Ottoman Empire Byzantine architecture in Trabzon