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State and Religion (Ottoman Empire)
Encyclopedia
During the 1st centuries of control over the Balkans
by the Ottoman Empire
(c. 14th to 19th centuries), the Christian population, and especially the Orthodox Christians (who were not under the protection of a Great Power
, as were the Catholics, until the rise of Imperial Russia), faced various degrees of tolerance, both from local Ottoman authorities and from the Sultan
.
The Ottoman Empire was, in principle, tolerant towards Christians and Jews
, but not polytheists
, in accordance with Sharia law. Forced conversion
of those raised by a non-Muslim father is counter to Sharia law, and was not a standard practice. However, anyone whose father was Muslim was usually legally required to be Muslim or face execution for apostasy
. Until the empire began to crumble, Ottoman law required the execution of all former Muslims and non-Muslim children of a Muslim father in accordance with the Sharia law on apostasy.
s. Of course, there were isolated instances of gaps between established policy and its actual practical application, but still, it was the modus operandi
of the Empire.
As such, the Empire often served as a refuge for the persecuted and exiled Jews of Europe, as for example following the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492
, when Sultan Beyazid II
welcomed them. Lewis and Cohen point out that until relatively modern times, tolerance in the treatment of non-believers, at least as it is understood in the West after John Locke
, was neither valued, nor its absence condemned by both Muslims and Christians.
Under Ottoman rule, dhimmi
s (non-Muslim subjects) were allowed to "practice their religion, subject to certain conditions, and to enjoy a measure of communal autonomy, see: Millet
" and guaranteed their personal safety and security of property, in return for paying tribute to Muslims and acknowledging Muslim supremacy. While recognizing the inferior status of dhimmis under Islamic rule, Bernard Lewis
, Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University
, states that, in most respects, their position was "was very much easier than that of non-Christians or even of heretical Christians in medieval Europe." For example, dhimmis rarely faced martyrdom or exile, or forced compulsion to change their religion, and with certain exceptions, they were free in their choice of residence and profession.
Negative attitudes towards dhimmis harbored by the Ottoman governors were partly due to the "normal" feelings of a dominant group towards subject groups, to the contempt Muslims had for those whom they perceived to have willfully chosen to refuse to accept the truth and convert to Islam, and to certain specific prejudices and humiliations. The negative attitudes, however, rarely had any ethnic or racial components.
In the early years, the Ottoman Empire decreed that people of different millets
should wear specific colors of, for instance, turbans and shoes — a policy that was not, however, always followed by Ottoman citizens.
The Ottoman Empire constantly formulated policies balancing its religious problems. The Ottomans recognized the concept of clergy
and its associated extension of religion as an institution. They brought established policies (regulations) over religious institutions through the idea of "legally valid" organizations.
The state's relationship with the Greek Orthodox Church
was peaceful. The church's structure was kept intact and largely left alone (but under close control and scrutiny) until the Greek War of Independence
of 1821–1831 and, later in the 19th and early 20th centuries, during the rise of the Ottoman constitutional monarchy
, which was driven to some extent by nationalistic currents. Other churches, like the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
, were dissolved and placed under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Church.
Eventually, Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire
(contracts with European powers) were negotiated, protecting the religious rights of Christians
within the Empire. The Russians
became formal protectors of the Eastern Orthodox groups in 1774, the French
of the Catholics, and the British
of the Jews and other groups. Russia and England competed for the Armenians. They perceived the establishment of over 100 American Protestant missionaries in Anatolia by World War I
as weakening their own Eastern Orthodox teaching.
, for example during the European colonization of the Americas
, Africa and Asia. There is no record of a Muslim organization corresponding to the Christian mission system under the Ottoman Empire. According to Thomas Walker Arnold
, Islam was not spread by force in the areas under the control of the Ottoman Sultan. Rather, Arnold concludes by quoting a 17th century author:
According to Arnold:
Voluntary conversion to Islam was welcomed by the Ottoman authorities. If a Christian became a Muslim, he or she lived under the same rules and regulations that applied to other Muslims; there were no special ones for converts.
However, conversion from Islam to Christianity was, around the 15th and the 16th centuries, sometimes punished by death.
The Ottomans tolerated Protestant missionaries within their realm, so long as they limited their proselytising to the Orthodox Christians. This may also have been allowed as an attempt to divide and rule
the Christian communities.
". The Ottomans tried to leave the choice of religion to the individual rather than imposing forced classifications. However, there were gray areas.
Ottoman practice assumed that law would be applied based on the religious beliefs of its citizens. However, the Ottoman Empire was organized around a system of local jurisprudence
. Legal administration fit into a larger schema balancing central and local authority. The jurisdictional complexity of the Ottoman Empire aimed to facilitate the integration of culturally and religiously different groups.
There were three court systems: one for Muslims, another for non-Muslims (dhimmi
s), involving appointed Jews and Christians ruling over their respective religious communities, and the "trade court". Dhimmis were allowed to operate their own courts following their own legal systems in cases that did not involve other religious groups, capital offenses, or threats to public order. Christians were liable in a non-Christian court in specific, clearly defined instances, for example the assassination of a Muslim or to resolve a trade dispute.
However, in the Ottoman Empire of the 18th and 19th centuries, dhimmis frequently used the Muslim courts not only when their attendance was compulsory (for example in cases brought against them by Muslims), but also in order to record property and business transactions within their own communities. Cases were brought against Muslims, against other dhimmis and even against members of the dhimmi’s own family. Dhimmis often took cases relating to marriage, divorce and inheritance to Muslim courts so that they would be decided under shari'a law. Oaths sworn by dhimmis in the Muslim courts were sometimes the same as the oaths taken by Muslims, sometimes tailored to the dhimmis’ beliefs. Some Christian sources points that although Christians were not Muslims, there were instances which they were subjected to shari'a law. According to some western sources, "the testimony of a Christian was not considered as valid in the Muslim court as much as the testimony of a Muslim". In a Muslim court, a Christian witness had a problem of building trust; a Christian who took a "Muslim oath" over the Koran ("God is Allah and there is no other God"), committed perjury.
Since the only legally valid Orthodox organization of the Ottoman Empire was the Ecumenical Patriarchate, inheritance of family property from father to son was usually considered invalid.
never granted to any of its minorities.
in the 14th century and extending through the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire employed devşirme
(دوشيرم), a policy of forcibly taking young Christian boys from their families and taking them to the capital for education and an eventual career, either in the Janissary
military corps or the Ottoman administrative system. The most promising students were enrolled in the Enderun School
, whose graduates would fill the higher positions. Most of the children collected were from the Empire's Balkan territories, where the devşirme system was referred to as the "blood tax". When the children ended up becoming Islamic due to the milieu in which they were raised, any children that they had were considered to be free Muslims.
That the Ottoman Empire had difficult economic problems during periods of decline and dissolution was a proven fact. The claim that the Muslim millet was better off economically than the Christian one is highly questionable.. The Muslim states that emerged from the dissolution era did not have a better socio-economic status than the rest.
Prior to the Tanzimat
(a period of reformation beginning in 1839), special restrictions were imposed concerning the construction, renovation, size and the bells in Orthodox churches. For example, an Orthodox church's bell tower
had to be slightly shorter than the minaret
of the largest mosque
in the same city. Hagia Photini in İzmir
was a notable exception, as its bell tower was the tallest landmark of the city by far.
The majority of churches were left to function as such by the Ottoman Empire. Only one large church, the Church of the Holy Apostles
, was destroyed. Some others - notably the Hagia Sophia
, Chora Church
, Rotonda
, and Hagios Demetrios - were converted into mosques.
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
by the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
(c. 14th to 19th centuries), the Christian population, and especially the Orthodox Christians (who were not under the protection of a Great Power
Great power
A great power is a nation or state that has the ability to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength and diplomatic and cultural influence which may cause small powers to consider the opinions of great powers before taking actions...
, as were the Catholics, until the rise of Imperial Russia), faced various degrees of tolerance, both from local Ottoman authorities and from the Sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
.
The Ottoman Empire was, in principle, tolerant towards Christians and Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, but not polytheists
Polytheism
Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities also usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own mythologies and rituals....
, in accordance with Sharia law. Forced conversion
Forced conversion
A forced conversion is the religious conversion or acceptance of a philosophy against the will of the subject, often with the threatened consequence of earthly penalties or harm. These consequences range from job loss and social isolation to incarceration, torture or death...
of those raised by a non-Muslim father is counter to Sharia law, and was not a standard practice. However, anyone whose father was Muslim was usually legally required to be Muslim or face execution for apostasy
Apostasy
Apostasy , 'a defection or revolt', from ἀπό, apo, 'away, apart', στάσις, stasis, 'stand, 'standing') is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy is known as an apostate. These terms have a pejorative implication in everyday...
. Until the empire began to crumble, Ottoman law required the execution of all former Muslims and non-Muslim children of a Muslim father in accordance with the Sharia law on apostasy.
Civil status
Ottoman religious tolerance was notable for being much better than that which existed elsewhere in other great past or contemporary empires, such as the Byzantine or Roman EmpireRoman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
s. Of course, there were isolated instances of gaps between established policy and its actual practical application, but still, it was the modus operandi
Modus operandi
Modus operandi is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode of operation". The term is used to describe someone's habits or manner of working, their method of operating or functioning...
of the Empire.
As such, the Empire often served as a refuge for the persecuted and exiled Jews of Europe, as for example following the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492
Alhambra decree
The Alhambra Decree was an edict issued on 31 March 1492 by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain ordering the expulsion of Jews from the Kingdom of Spain and its territories and possessions by 31 July of that year.The edict was formally revoked on 16 December 1968, following the Second...
, when Sultan Beyazid II
Bayezid II
Bayezid II or Sultân Bayezid-î Velî was the oldest son and successor of Mehmed II, ruling as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512...
welcomed them. Lewis and Cohen point out that until relatively modern times, tolerance in the treatment of non-believers, at least as it is understood in the West after John Locke
John Locke
John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...
, was neither valued, nor its absence condemned by both Muslims and Christians.
Under Ottoman rule, dhimmi
Dhimmi
A , is a non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance with sharia law. Linguistically, the word means "one whose responsibility has been taken". This has to be understood in the context of the definition of state in Islam...
s (non-Muslim subjects) were allowed to "practice their religion, subject to certain conditions, and to enjoy a measure of communal autonomy, see: Millet
Millet (Ottoman Empire)
Millet is a term for the confessional communities in the Ottoman Empire. It refers to the separate legal courts pertaining to "personal law" under which communities were allowed to rule themselves under their own system...
" and guaranteed their personal safety and security of property, in return for paying tribute to Muslims and acknowledging Muslim supremacy. While recognizing the inferior status of dhimmis under Islamic rule, Bernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis, FBA is a British-American historian, scholar in Oriental studies, and political commentator. He is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University...
, Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, states that, in most respects, their position was "was very much easier than that of non-Christians or even of heretical Christians in medieval Europe." For example, dhimmis rarely faced martyrdom or exile, or forced compulsion to change their religion, and with certain exceptions, they were free in their choice of residence and profession.
Negative attitudes towards dhimmis harbored by the Ottoman governors were partly due to the "normal" feelings of a dominant group towards subject groups, to the contempt Muslims had for those whom they perceived to have willfully chosen to refuse to accept the truth and convert to Islam, and to certain specific prejudices and humiliations. The negative attitudes, however, rarely had any ethnic or racial components.
In the early years, the Ottoman Empire decreed that people of different millets
Millet (Ottoman Empire)
Millet is a term for the confessional communities in the Ottoman Empire. It refers to the separate legal courts pertaining to "personal law" under which communities were allowed to rule themselves under their own system...
should wear specific colors of, for instance, turbans and shoes — a policy that was not, however, always followed by Ottoman citizens.
Religion as an Ottoman institution
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
and its associated extension of religion as an institution. They brought established policies (regulations) over religious institutions through the idea of "legally valid" organizations.
The state's relationship with the Greek Orthodox Church
Greek Orthodox Church
The Greek Orthodox Church is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity sharing a common cultural tradition whose liturgy is also traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament...
was peaceful. The church's structure was kept intact and largely left alone (but under close control and scrutiny) until the Greek War of Independence
Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between...
of 1821–1831 and, later in the 19th and early 20th centuries, during the rise of the Ottoman constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...
, which was driven to some extent by nationalistic currents. Other churches, like the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
Bulgarian Orthodox Church
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church - Bulgarian Patriarchate is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church with some 6.5 million members in the Republic of Bulgaria and between 1.5 and 2.0 million members in a number of European countries, the Americas and Australia...
, were dissolved and placed under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Church.
Eventually, Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire
Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire
Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire were contracts between the Ottoman Empire and European powers, particularly France. Turkish capitulations, or ahdnames, were generally bilateral acts whereby definite arrangements were entered into by each contracting party towards the other, not mere...
(contracts with European powers) were negotiated, protecting the religious rights of Christians
Protectorate of missions
Protectorate of Missions is a term for the right of protection exercised by a Christian power in an 'infidel' country with regard to the persons and establishments of the missionaries...
within the Empire. The Russians
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
became formal protectors of the Eastern Orthodox groups in 1774, the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
of the Catholics, and the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
of the Jews and other groups. Russia and England competed for the Armenians. They perceived the establishment of over 100 American Protestant missionaries in Anatolia by World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
as weakening their own Eastern Orthodox teaching.
Conversion
In the past, Christian missionaries sometimes worked hand-in-hand with colonialismColonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
, for example during the European colonization of the Americas
European colonization of the Americas
The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492. The first Europeans to reach the Americas were the Vikings during the 11th century, who established several colonies in Greenland and one short-lived settlement in present day Newfoundland...
, Africa and Asia. There is no record of a Muslim organization corresponding to the Christian mission system under the Ottoman Empire. According to Thomas Walker Arnold
Thomas Walker Arnold
Sir Thomas Walker Arnold was an eminent British orientalist and historian of Islamic art who taught at MAO College, Aligarh Muslim University, then Aligarh College, and Government College University, Lahore. He was a friend of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, and wrote his famous book "The preaching of Islam"...
, Islam was not spread by force in the areas under the control of the Ottoman Sultan. Rather, Arnold concludes by quoting a 17th century author:
Meanwhile he (the Turk) wins (converts) by craft more than by force, and snatches away Christ by fraud out of the hearts of men. For the Turk, it is true, at the present time compels no country by violence to apostatise; but he uses other means whereby imperceptibly he roots out Christianity...
According to Arnold:
We find that many Greeks of high talent and moral character were so sensible of the superiority of the Mohammedans, that even when they escaped being drafted into the Sultan's household as tribute children, they voluntarily embraced the faith of MahometMuhammadMuhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
. The moral superiority of the Othoman society must be allowed to have had as much weight in causing these conversions, which were numerous in the 15th century, as the personal ambition of individuals.
Voluntary conversion to Islam was welcomed by the Ottoman authorities. If a Christian became a Muslim, he or she lived under the same rules and regulations that applied to other Muslims; there were no special ones for converts.
However, conversion from Islam to Christianity was, around the 15th and the 16th centuries, sometimes punished by death.
The Ottomans tolerated Protestant missionaries within their realm, so long as they limited their proselytising to the Orthodox Christians. This may also have been allowed as an attempt to divide and rule
Divide and rule
In politics and sociology, divide and rule is a combination of political, military and economic strategy of gaining and maintaining power by breaking up larger concentrations of power into chunks that individually have less power than the one implementing the strategy...
the Christian communities.
Religion and the legal system
The main idea behind the Ottoman legal system was the "confessional communityConfessional community
A confessional community is a group of people with similar religious beliefs.In the Ottoman Empire, this allowed people to be grouped by religious confession as opposed to nationality or ethnicity, which was more consistent with the existing social structure. People were able to represent...
". The Ottomans tried to leave the choice of religion to the individual rather than imposing forced classifications. However, there were gray areas.
Ottoman practice assumed that law would be applied based on the religious beliefs of its citizens. However, the Ottoman Empire was organized around a system of local jurisprudence
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
. Legal administration fit into a larger schema balancing central and local authority. The jurisdictional complexity of the Ottoman Empire aimed to facilitate the integration of culturally and religiously different groups.
There were three court systems: one for Muslims, another for non-Muslims (dhimmi
Dhimmi
A , is a non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance with sharia law. Linguistically, the word means "one whose responsibility has been taken". This has to be understood in the context of the definition of state in Islam...
s), involving appointed Jews and Christians ruling over their respective religious communities, and the "trade court". Dhimmis were allowed to operate their own courts following their own legal systems in cases that did not involve other religious groups, capital offenses, or threats to public order. Christians were liable in a non-Christian court in specific, clearly defined instances, for example the assassination of a Muslim or to resolve a trade dispute.
However, in the Ottoman Empire of the 18th and 19th centuries, dhimmis frequently used the Muslim courts not only when their attendance was compulsory (for example in cases brought against them by Muslims), but also in order to record property and business transactions within their own communities. Cases were brought against Muslims, against other dhimmis and even against members of the dhimmi’s own family. Dhimmis often took cases relating to marriage, divorce and inheritance to Muslim courts so that they would be decided under shari'a law. Oaths sworn by dhimmis in the Muslim courts were sometimes the same as the oaths taken by Muslims, sometimes tailored to the dhimmis’ beliefs. Some Christian sources points that although Christians were not Muslims, there were instances which they were subjected to shari'a law. According to some western sources, "the testimony of a Christian was not considered as valid in the Muslim court as much as the testimony of a Muslim". In a Muslim court, a Christian witness had a problem of building trust; a Christian who took a "Muslim oath" over the Koran ("God is Allah and there is no other God"), committed perjury.
Since the only legally valid Orthodox organization of the Ottoman Empire was the Ecumenical Patriarchate, inheritance of family property from father to son was usually considered invalid.
Education
All millets of the Empire had the right to open and run their own schools, teaching in their own languages, a privilege the Byzantine EmpireByzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
never granted to any of its minorities.
Devşirme
Beginning with Murad IMurad I
Murad I was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1361 to 1389...
in the 14th century and extending through the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire employed devşirme
Devshirmeh
Devshirme was the practice by which...
(دوشيرم), a policy of forcibly taking young Christian boys from their families and taking them to the capital for education and an eventual career, either in the Janissary
Janissary
The Janissaries were infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops and bodyguards...
military corps or the Ottoman administrative system. The most promising students were enrolled in the Enderun School
Enderun School
Enderun School which meant "inner most" was a free-boarding school for the Christian Millet of the Ottoman Empire, which recruited students via Devshirme - an enculturation system of the Christian youngsters for learning the characteristics of the Islamic society and the unique culture of the...
, whose graduates would fill the higher positions. Most of the children collected were from the Empire's Balkan territories, where the devşirme system was referred to as the "blood tax". When the children ended up becoming Islamic due to the milieu in which they were raised, any children that they had were considered to be free Muslims.
Taxation
Taxation from the perspective of dhimmis was "a concrete continuation of the taxes paid to earlier regimes" (but now lower under the Muslim rule) and from the point of view of the Muslim conqueror was a material proof of the dhimmis' subjection.That the Ottoman Empire had difficult economic problems during periods of decline and dissolution was a proven fact. The claim that the Muslim millet was better off economically than the Christian one is highly questionable.. The Muslim states that emerged from the dissolution era did not have a better socio-economic status than the rest.
Religious architecture
The Ottoman Empire regulated how its cities would be built (quality assurances) and how the architecture (structural integrity, social needs, etc.) would be shaped.Prior to the Tanzimat
Tanzimat
The Tanzimât , meaning reorganization of the Ottoman Empire, was a period of reformation that began in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. The Tanzimât reform era was characterized by various attempts to modernize the Ottoman Empire, to secure its territorial integrity against...
(a period of reformation beginning in 1839), special restrictions were imposed concerning the construction, renovation, size and the bells in Orthodox churches. For example, an Orthodox church's bell tower
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
had to be slightly shorter than the minaret
Minaret
A minaret مناره , sometimes مئذنه) is a distinctive architectural feature of Islamic mosques, generally a tall spire with an onion-shaped or conical crown, usually either free standing or taller than any associated support structure. The basic form of a minaret includes a base, shaft, and gallery....
of the largest mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
in the same city. Hagia Photini in İzmir
Izmir
Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...
was a notable exception, as its bell tower was the tallest landmark of the city by far.
The majority of churches were left to function as such by the Ottoman Empire. Only one large church, the Church of the Holy Apostles
Church of the Holy Apostles
The Church of the Holy Apostles , also known as the Imperial Polyandreion, was a Christian church built in Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, in 550. It was second only to the Church of the Holy Wisdom among the great churches of the capital...
, was destroyed. Some others - notably the Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...
, Chora Church
Chora Church
The Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora is considered to be one of the most beautiful examples of a Byzantine church. The church is situated in Istanbul, in the Edirnekapı neighborhood, which lies in the western part of the municipality of Fatih...
, Rotonda
Arch and Tomb of Galerius
The Arch of Galerius and the Rotunda are neighboring early 4th-century monuments in the city of Thessaloniki, in the region of Central Macedonia in northern Greece. The Rotunda is also known as the Church of Agios Georgios or the Rotunda of St...
, and Hagios Demetrios - were converted into mosques.