Which, before the mohammedans desecrated it, was a Byzantine Christian Chruch in Constantinople.
The minarets are Muslim additions.
Which, before the mohammedans desecrated it, was a Byzantine Christian Chruch in Constantinople.
"Ignoring the hand over agreement, the Christians turned the beautiful Mosque of Cordoba, in Muslim Spain, into a Cathedral (1238)."
From this site:
Córdoba was the capital of the Spanish Muslim dynasty of the Ummayads (756-1031). The Great Mosque of Córdoba (La Mezquita) was founded 785 CE. It was added to and expanded over the next two hundred years to make the third largest structure in the Islamic world.
The prayer hall (23,400 square meters) is filled with almost 500 hundred slender columns and superimposed striped arches; a forest sprouting from the marble floor.
Previously the site had been occupied by a Christian church dedicated to Saint Vincent that had been built by the Visigoths around 500 CE. Before that, when Córdoba was a provincial capital in the Roman Empire, the site was occupied by a temple dedicated to Janus, the double-headed god of doorways and gates.
When Córdoba was captured by the Christian Spanish king of Castile, Ferdinand III, in the 13th century, the mosque reverted to a Christian sanctuary. Then in 1523, the local clergy, with the support of Emperor Charles V, built a cathedral in the middle of the mosque
So, following typical muslim "thinking", it is okay to change a Church into a mosque, but a crime to change that mosque back into a Church. I wonder what type of "hand over agreement" was arranged when the muslims took over the Church. Something like, "hand it over, you stinking infidels, or we'll slaughter the rest of your women and children"
The site of La Mezquita originally bore a church. Then, after the Moors conquered Cordoba in the 8th century, they demolished the church and built the Mezquita (mosque).
Hagia Sophia [aya sofya] stands on the site of an earlier basilican church erected by Constantius II in 360, some 30 years after Byzantium had become the capital of the Roman Empire. This church was burned in 404 and rebuilt by Theodosius II in 415, only to be again destroyed by fire in 532. The present structure, which is entirely fireproof, was built in 532-37 by Emperor Justinian from designs of his imperial architects Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus . As a result of severe earthquakes, the dome collapsed in 558, but it was rebuilt by 563 on a somewhat higher curve.
With the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Hagia Sophia became a mosque, and in subsequent years all the interior figure mosaics were obscured under coatings of plaster and painted ornament; most of the Christian symbols elsewhere were obliterated. The four slender minarets, which rise so strikingly at the outer corners of the structure, were added singly and at different times; the crescent supplanted the cross on the summit of the dome, and the altar and the pulpit were replaced by the customary Muslim furnishings.
So the site was a Christian Church for nearly 1100 years - 300 of those years being before the invention of islam. They stole the Church and intentionally desecrated it.
Which, before the mohammedans desecrated it, was a Byzantine Christian Chruch in Constantinople.
The minarets are Muslim additions.