Arap Mosque

Overview

In the hardware lanes of Karaköy, below Galata Tower, a tall square tower with a pointed cap rises above shops selling bolts and cables. At first sight it looks like a minaret. Actually, it began life as the bell tower of an Italian church. So this is the Arap Mosque, the Dominican church of San Domenico, built early in the 14th century, whose Gothic vaults still cover the qibla side.

The Story of the Arap Mosque

Dominicans in Genoese Galata

To begin with, a Byzantine church stood here in the 6th century, perhaps dedicated to Saint Irene, and only part of one wall survives from it. In 1233, during the Latin Empire, a small chapel of Saint Paul replaced it. Dominican friars settled in the area, and early in the 14th century they built a much larger church nearby, officially dedicated to Saint Dominic. Still, the people of Galata kept calling it San Paolo.

From church to mosque

After the Ottoman conquest, the church at first stayed in Genoese hands. Then, around 1475, Sultan Mehmed II turned it into a mosque with only small changes, and it became known as the Galata Mosque. At the same time, the friars moved to the friary of San Pietro nearby, while the altar cloths went to Genoa.

Refugees from Spain

Toward the end of the century, Sultan Bayezid II gave the mosque to new neighbors. They were Muslims who had fled Spain and the Spanish Inquisition after 1492 and settled in Galata. Because of them, people began to call it the Arap Camii, the Arab Mosque, the name it still carries.

A legend in marble

An Ottoman tradition claims that the Umayyad general Maslama built a mosque on this spot during the Arab siege of Constantinople in 717 and 718. However, historians see this as a later legend. Even so, a sign from the restoration finished in 2013 gives the founding year as 715. That date, however, does not match the history of the building.

What to See at the Arap Mosque

The Gothic bell tower

First, look up at the tower. With a conical roof added on top, the old bell tower became a minaret, and it still sets the building apart from every Byzantine church in the city.

Ottoman windows on a Gothic church

Next, walk along the walls. After the great Galata fire of 1731, Saliha Sultan, mother of Mahmud I, renovated the mosque and changed its Gothic windows and portal into Ottoman ones. In 1868, Adile Sultan, daughter of Mahmud II, added the fountain for ablutions in the courtyard.

The long wooden hall of the Arap Mosque

Then step inside. Here, a long hall with a wooden ceiling and wooden galleries follows the plan of the old church. Its builders, after all, copied the churches of Italian friars. During restoration work between 1913 and 1919, workers also found Genoese tombstones under the old wooden floor. Today these stones are in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums.

Tips for visiting the Arap Mosque

How to Visit the Arap Mosque

In practical terms, the mosque stands on Galata Mahkemesi Street in Karaköy, not far from the northern shore of the Golden Horn, surrounded by small workshops. A few streets away, on Bankalar Caddesi, the Baltazzi Han of 1836 is now The Galata Istanbul Hotel – MGallery.

Afterward, climb up to Galata Tower, raised by the Genoese of Galata in the same century, and continue along İstiklal to the Catholic St. Anthony of Padua Church.