Zeyrek Mosque

About

Zeyrek Mosque — Zeyrek Camii — rises on Fazilet Street in the Zeyrek district of Fatih in Istanbul, looking out over the Golden Horn. The building was originally the great Monastery of Christ Pantokrator, a Byzantine complex made up of two churches and a chapel joined together. It remains the finest example of Middle Byzantine architecture surviving in Constantinople and, after Hagia Sophia, the largest Byzantine religious edifice still standing in Istanbul.

Between 1118 and 1124, the Empress Irene of Hungary founded a monastery dedicated to Christ Pantokrator on this site, with a library and hospital. After Irene's death, John II built a second church to the north, dedicated to the Theotokos Eleousa, which was open to the laity.

A chapel of Saint Michael joined the two churches by around 1136, becoming the imperial mausoleum of the Komnenos and Palaiologos dynasties. During the Latin occupation after 1204, the precinct was used by the last Latin emperor Baldwin as a palace. After the Palaiologan restoration, Orthodox monks returned; the future first Patriarch of Constantinople, Gennadius II Scholarius, lived here before 1453.

Following the Ottoman conquest, the principal church was converted into a mosque. The mosque takes its present name from Molla Zeyrek, a scholar who taught there. After long neglect the building was added to UNESCO's watchlist of endangered monuments, and an extensive restoration has since been completed.

History

The Monastery of the Pantokrator was founded between 1118 and 1124 by the Empress Irene of Hungary, the wife of John II Komnenos, dedicated to Christ Pantokrator. After Irene's death, John II added a second church dedicated to the Theotokos Eleousa, and by around 1136 a chapel of Saint Michael joined the two — serving as imperial mausoleum to the Komnenos and Palaiologos dynasties.

After the Fourth Crusade of 1204 the complex passed to Venetian clergy and was used as an imperial palace by the Latin emperor Baldwin. With the restoration of Byzantine rule it returned to Orthodox monks until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, when the principal church was converted into a mosque. The Ottomans named it for the scholar Molla Zeyrek. A major restoration in the early twenty-first century has stabilised the building and restored it to active use for prayer.