Selimiyeh in Konya

Abstract

Of the mosques of Turkey, that which is perhaps the richest in associations and still remains a center of old tradition is the mosque of Mohammed the Conqueror in Constantinople, or, as it is called by the surname of the conqueror, “Fatih.” It ranks in prestige with the Selimiyeh of Adrianople or the Ulu Djami of Brussa. The original mosque, erected on the site of the famous Church of the Apostles, was begun in 1462/3 (867 A. H.) and finished in 1470/1 (875 A. H.). Of this structure little remains. Only parts of the courtyard—the north wall, certainly, and the east and west walls, perhaps—belong to the original construction. At least some of the columns supporting the domes of the courtyard are new. The present mosque itself is entirely new, replacing the old Fatih, which was destroyed by an earthquake on the eleventh of May in the year 1765 (1179 A. H.).