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17-MAR-2012

Antalya march 2012 2748.jpg

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The Korkut (Truncated) Mosque. It stands on the foundations of a second century AD temple, which was knocked down in the 6th century to erect a church. This was badly damaged during the invasion of Arabs in the 7th century, but was repaired in the 9th. During the Seljuk period it was converted to a mosque, but when Antalya fell in 1361 to the Cypriot King Peter I is was turned into a church again. During the reign of Prince Korkut (1470-1509), a son of sultan Beyazit II, it yet again became a mosque. In 1896 it was largely destroyed by fire. The minaret lost its upper part in that fire, hence the other name for what was formerly known as the Korkut or also Friday Mosque.
The 9th century Byzantine rebuilding and expansion of the church led to a basilica with five naves: a wide one in the middle, and 2 x 2 narrow ones on the sides. When the Seljuks converted the place into a mosque in the early 13th century, they kept the building without alteration (and so did the successive Turkish masters of the city afterwards). They just disposed of the church furniture (the iconostasis, e.g.), added a mihrab indicating the southeast (where Mecca lays), placed a minber (pulpit) and covered (or removed?) the pictures on the walls. They surely added a minaret next to the ‘new’ mosque, but it disappeared, most likely pulled down when the Crusaders from Cyprus took Antalya back for a short time (1361-1373).

After the Turks drove the Crusaders away, the city changed hands several times between the Turkmen Beylik (= Principality) of the Tekeoğulları and the Ottomans, who gained permanent control of it in 1423. From 1502 to 1511 the governor of the province was Şehzade Korkut, a younger brother of (future) sultan Selim I. He ordered the (now ‘Kesik’) minaret to be erected, together with the small entrance building at its foot. This modest building activity granted him the honour that the mosque was named ‘Korkut Camii’ from then on. It continued as a place of worship until the great fire of 1896.

On the picture: the ruins of the Byzantine church building (9th century).

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen.
Source: (among others) ‘Vakıf Abideler ve eski Eserler’ - Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü, Ankara 1983

Nikon D3
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