The Contiguity of Churches and Mosques

chapter 3 The Contiguity of Churches and Mosques

Chronological uncertainties as to the various Direct observation confirms how, in many cities— phases of mosque development prevent a full from Aleppo to Homs, from Diyarbakır to Damas- assessment of the alleged process of converting cus—medieval mosques stood on sites formerly churches into mosques in the post-conquest pe- occupied by churches. The lack of any in-depth ar- riod. Relying mainly on written testimony from chaeological investigations, however, precludes a later periods, scholars have explained the process complete understanding of what really happened through a paradigm dominated by the concept of to the main churches once cities were conquered the “partition.” and Islamized. It also impedes the development of According to this paradigm, during the first a solid chronology for each phase. When, specifi- stage Muslims would have forced Christians to cally, did Christians stop using churches or Chris- share a portion of their great churches with them, tian sites? Uncertainty also prevails as to the na- whereas in the second phase the entire building or ture of the phase in which buildings (or sites) were site would have been used as the congregational shared. That is, how, exactly, did Muslims share a mosque of a city. The second step implied either basilica with Christians? The theory that churches the conversion of a church into a mosque or its de- were partitioned does not rely on any material re- struction and replacement with a new building.1 mains, but is only supported by literary evidence, which, as will be shown in this chapter, is very ge- neric and lacking in detail. 1 Although the different phases characterizing the construc- Some medieval texts (mainly geographic), in tion of the Great Mosque of Damascus (in the first phase, the mosque flanked the church and in a later phase, a new, fact, state that a half (or a quarter or a third) of larger mosque was built on the ruins of both buildings) churches were transformed into mosques shortly have been repeated ad nauseam in secondary literature after the seventh-century conquest. Further com- (Grabar 2001b, p. 508), the scholarship is still permeated by plicating the issue is the fact that other traditions a certain vagueness as to what really happened in the case note the tendency of some early Muslims to pray of most mosques. Quoting a substantial number of prede- in various churches.2 Although the latter practice cessors in footnote 1 of his article on the subject, Bashear is not presented as related to the partition evoked takes for granted that Christians and Muslims routinely by other sources, it seems to strengthen the like- shared the same building (Bashear 1991, p. 267). Donner lihood of the partition; if some or most Muslims seems to suggest he believes Muslims shared with Chris- tians the church in Damascus: “The best-known example, were used to worshipping in churches, then it of course, is the believers’ use of the Church of St. John in Damascus as their place of prayer … The usual inter- territories to be converted into mosques” (2006, p. 35). pretation of this process—at least as far as the Church of Hoyland outlines these possibilities as well: “Very com- St. John in Damascus is concerned—is that the Mus- monly Muslims made use of churches, which were then lims ‘appropriated’ part of the church, later all of it, and either converted or simply divided” (1997, p. 564). See also converted it to their mosque, in the process barring the King 1983, pp. 134–35, and Schick 1995, p. 130. Kennedy Christians from holding their worship there” (2002–03, seems more cautious, dismissing as unlikely the traditions pp. 51–52). Khalek suggests that for the earliest phase both concerning the partition of St. John’s Church at Homs, but options are likely: “it is possible to consider either a space he nevertheless seems to accept the traditions about the which enclosed two separate prayer areas or one structure partition of the church in the temenos at Damascus (Ken- divided into two spaces” (2006, p. 29), and this “because nedy 2007, p. 86). it was common for churches throughout the conquered 2 Bashear 1991; Elad 1995, pp. 138–41.

easily follows that the early Muslim community previous temple. This had been the case before, in requisitioned a fraction of Christian churches to 706, al-Walid i ordered the destruction of both the be utilized as mosques, later appropriating the en- church and the early mosque and the construc- tire structures and expelling the Christians from tion of a large congregational mosque. At the same the area. time, however, Creswell does not fully dismiss oth- This chapter tries to understand what, precisely, er cases of partition suggested by written sources, literary sources mean when they say that a portion but only raises some general doubts as to the au- of a church was used by Muslims and, consequent- thenticity of those sources. Furthermore, at the ly, to discern early Muslim attitudes toward church beginning of the volume, he seems to imply that architecture when it came time to build large con- early mosques were often converted churches or gregational mosques in the conquered cities. portions of Christian buildings adapted as Muslim places of worship.4 This is the reason why, quite paradoxically, the same scholar who definitively Deconstructing the Paradigm of Partition destroyed the myth of the partition of Damascus’s main church between Christians and Muslims, is Literary sources describing the partition of church- also often cited as an authority for the partition es between Christians and Muslims were first fully paradigm. addressed by Creswell, in a passage devoted to the Literary sources describe the phenomenon of early history of congregational mosques such as the partition in the following cities: Damascus, the Great Mosque of Hama and the Great Mosque Diyarbakır, Homs, Aleppo, and Cordoba. To this of Damascus.3 Creswell argues against the possi- list, Bashear adds Hit, Tiberias, and possibly al- bility that the church in Damascus was partitioned Ramla. Let us first tackle the five cities reported between Christians and Muslims, and in favor of in Creswell’s list.5 As far as Damascus, as already the presence of two discrete places of worship for noted in Chapter 2, Creswell (relying on the works the two communities, the church used by Chris- of Miednikoff and Caetani) has unquestionably tians and the tiny mosque built in the courtyard proven how in the aftermath of the seventh- of the church, which was the temenos of the century conquest it was the area of the temenos (the precinct of the earlier Roman temple), and not the church itself, that was shared by the two 3 Creswell 1969 (first edition 1932), vol. 1, pp. 17–20. Creswell communities. He also asserts that the tradition of cites all the cases of partition according to sources, dis- the partition with regard to Damascus’s church ap- closing that in the eighth chapter he will argue against the pears for the first time in Ibn ʿAsakir’s work in the partition in relation to the Great Mosque of Damascus. In twelfth century, when it was included in one of the these three pages, he then discusses the case of Hama as an example of a church converted into a mosque by rotat- numerous versions of the treaty between Muslims ing the orientation of the building by 90 degrees and imag- and the Christians of Damascus following the con- ining the implementation of several other modifications quest. This specific version of the pact was later in the structure. As already mentioned in Chapter 2 of this handed down by Ibn Shakir, but it is important to study, the situation of Hama is more controversial than indicated by Creswell; the topic is also briefly discussed by Tritton (1930, pp. 38–42). Despite later authors’ inter- 4 See footnote 37 in the Introduction; Creswell 1969, vol. 1, pretation of Tritton’s words (see, for example, Elad 1995, pp. 187–96, as well as p. 17. p. 138), Tritton does not conclude that Muslims used a por- 5 Bashear 1991, p. 267. Hit, located to the northwest of Bagh- tion of churches as mosques, but only refers to the writ- dad (al-Baladhuri, p. 179), has only been surveyed; the ten traditions concerning Homs and Hit. Furthermore, he material available on early medieval Tiberias was recently also dismisses as a “myth” the alleged partition of St. John’s reassessed by Cytryn-Silverman (2009); al-Ramla is a city Church of Damascus. founded ex novo by Muslims.