At a glance
- Era
- The Gunpowder Empires
- Region
- Anatolia · al-Andalus & Europe · Maghreb
In time
Overview
Kiliseye Çevrilen Türk Eserleri (The Turkish Monuments Converted into Churches) is a three-volume catalogue by the Turkish researcher Mehmet Emin Yılmaz, advised by Dr İ. Aydın Yüksel; its first edition was published by the Istanbul Conquest Society in 2020 and its enlarged second edition by the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB) in Ankara in 2023, in a cultural heritage series. 3 1 The author dedicates it to the memory of the architectural historian Ekrem Hakkı Ayverdi. 4
Structure
Volume 1 covers Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Algeria, Armenia, Southern Cyprus, Georgia, Croatia, Montenegro, Kosovo and North Macedonia; volume 2 Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Türkiye and Ukraine; volume 3 Greece, with a section on fountains in Dobruja on which crosses were fixed. 1 2 Each monument has a bilingual box giving its location, builder, building date, conversion date, present name, archive record and references, then a Turkish text usually followed by an English one, with old and recent photographs. 5 6
Method and stance
The author relies heavily on the travel book of Evliya Çelebi, on Ayverdi's survey of Ottoman architecture in Europe, and on the archives of the General Directorate of Foundations and the Ottoman prime ministry. 5 7 The foreword presents Ottoman rule in the Balkans as a Pax Ottomanica that brought stability and prosperity — the publisher's and author's assessment, not the museum's. 8 Many of the buildings it lists were demolished or altered beyond recognition; it also records those returned to use as mosques, as in Algeria after independence. 6 9
Connections
People and things also explored
Ketchaoua Mosque, Algiers· Musa Çelebi Mosque, Feres (Ferecik)· Sudak Castle Mosque, Crimea· Algiers· Memorial of Abdurrahman Abdi Pasha, Buda Castle· Abu Dulaf Mosque, Samarra· Achabal garden, Kashmir· Great Mosque of Adana
Sources
- Mehmet Emin Yılmaz, Kiliseye Çevrilen Türk Eserleri / The Turkish Monuments Converted into Churches, vol. 1 (Ankara: YTB, 2nd enlarged ed., 2023) , p. 7
- Mehmet Emin Yılmaz, Kiliseye Çevrilen Türk Eserleri / The Turkish Monuments Converted into Churches, vol. 1 (Ankara: YTB, 2nd enlarged ed., 2023) , p. 37
- Mehmet Emin Yılmaz, Kiliseye Çevrilen Türk Eserleri / The Turkish Monuments Converted into Churches, vol. 1 (Ankara: YTB, 2nd enlarged ed., 2023) , p. 4
- Mehmet Emin Yılmaz, Kiliseye Çevrilen Türk Eserleri / The Turkish Monuments Converted into Churches, vol. 1 (Ankara: YTB, 2nd enlarged ed., 2023) , p. 9
- Mehmet Emin Yılmaz, Kiliseye Çevrilen Türk Eserleri / The Turkish Monuments Converted into Churches, vol. 1 (Ankara: YTB, 2nd enlarged ed., 2023) , p. 64
- Mehmet Emin Yılmaz, Kiliseye Çevrilen Türk Eserleri / The Turkish Monuments Converted into Churches, vol. 1 (Ankara: YTB, 2nd enlarged ed., 2023) , p. 222
- Mehmet Emin Yılmaz, Kiliseye Çevrilen Türk Eserleri / The Turkish Monuments Converted into Churches, vol. 1 (Ankara: YTB, 2nd enlarged ed., 2023) , p. 134
- Mehmet Emin Yılmaz, Kiliseye Çevrilen Türk Eserleri / The Turkish Monuments Converted into Churches, vol. 1 (Ankara: YTB, 2nd enlarged ed., 2023) , p. 10
- Mehmet Emin Yılmaz, Kiliseye Çevrilen Türk Eserleri / The Turkish Monuments Converted into Churches, vol. 1 (Ankara: YTB, 2nd enlarged ed., 2023) , p. 230
- Mehmet Emin Yılmaz, Kiliseye Çevrilen Türk Eserleri / The Turkish Monuments Converted into Churches, vol. 2 (Ankara: YTB, 2nd enlarged ed., 2023)
- Mehmet Emin Yılmaz, Kiliseye Çevrilen Türk Eserleri / The Turkish Monuments Converted into Churches, vol. 3 (Ankara: YTB, 2nd enlarged ed., 2023)
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Kiliseye Çevrilen Türk Eserleri (The Turkish Monuments Converted into Churches)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/work/kiliseye-cevrilen-turk-eserleri/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-04.
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