No. 277

Three Byzantine religious foundations turned into mosques: a photographic, historical and bibliographical context The church of St. Theodosia or monastery of Christ

No. 277  (2020)

by Maria Vaiou

Evergetis =Gül Camii (‘Mosque of the Roses’)

Exterior

South flank

The east end of the church

Interior

View from the west ambulatory into the nave

General view from the sanctuary

Interior

The sanctuary

Interior

Located in the Ayakapı quarter of Fatih district on the Golden Horn (Haliç). The Camii is identified with the church of St. Theodosia or St. Euphemia by Paspates, Van Millingen, Mathews and Janin. Shäfer has argued that the identification with St. Theodosia must be rejected on the basis that St. Theodosia was built after the end of Iconoclasm while the Camii is an eleventh or twelfth century building. He identifies the structure with the church of the monastery of Christ Evergetis. He does not though exclude the possibility that the building could have dedicated to St. Theodosia at a later period. Janin and Majeska say that the monastery of Christ Evergetis and St. Theodosia were either adjacent or two parts formed of one monastery complex. The original edifice is assignable to the ninth century St. Euphemia en to Petrio, in the quarter of Dexiocrates which housed the body of the martyr St. Theodosia of Caesarea; the church and adjoining monastery were built by the emperor Basil I (867– 86) at the end of the ninth century. The dedication of the church to St. Theodosia was gradual; it was until after the 11th century that the church was named after her. The commemoration of the saint refers to the monastery of Christ the Savior Evergetis and the monastery of Dexiocrates (Μονή τής Άγιας Θεοδοσίας εν τοις Δεξιοκράτους) where

her relics were deposed; the latter can be identified with St. Theodosia. The Synaxis of St. Theodosia of Constantinople was celebrated there. With Dexiocrates were ‘either contiguous or two parts of the same monastic complex’. The monastery of Evergetis lay in the vicinity of the nunnery of St. Theodosia. The monastery of Evergetis represents a phase marking ‘the gradual transition from the domed basilica to the inscribed-cross type with dome’. Originally founded by an anonymous founder. One epigram tells us that the monastery was restored from top to bottom by the protosebastos¹ and megas dux ²John Comnenus, son of Andronicus and brother of the emperor John Comnenus (1118‒43), whose portrait of himself and his wife figure in this religious house probably in the interior of the church. The text says also that the grand duke gave his father’s house to construct the church and that he renovated the monastery. An act of patr. George II Xiphilinus (1191‒8)³ said that the monastery possessed important properties in the eparchy of Cassandria in Macedonia and that  the bishop complained to the envoys of the convent who went to collect the revenues. Mentioned by the historian Choniates in the events of the fire of 1204: in 1203 (17 July) the fire put out by the Latins in the part of Blachernae extended its ravages until the monastery of Christ Evergetis. The following year (12 April 1204) the Crusades deployed their fleet before the convent to assault the city. It is before the monastery of Christ that the Latins made their habitual anchoring during their occupation. A long quarrel took place between the patr. of Constantinople and the patr. of Alexandria for the possession of the monastery. The building of the trapeza (refectory) of the monastery by Batholomeus Atouemes (=Batholomeus Palaiologus) took place in the end of thirteenth beginning of fourteenth century. During the war between the Byzantines and the Genoese (1348‒9) the monastery was attacked by the Genoese. The celebrated minister Apocaucus (d. 1345) resided for some time in the monastery (ca. 1350). Possessed an icon bearing the epithet of Christ the Benefactor. Last mentioned by the pilgrim Zosima in 1420, who said that in the convent of Evergetis rested the virgin Theodosia. Possibly the twelfth century Gül Camii building can be identified with the monastery of Christ Evergetis and the nearby ruins of a church at Ayakapi with the church of St. Theodosia nunnery. Her body was venerated by the

¹ R. Macrides, J. Munitiz, D. Angelov (eds./tr.), Pseudo-Kodinos and the Constantinopolitan court: offices and ceremonies (Farnham, 2013), index, 532.

² Pseudo-Kodinos, index,524.

³ J. Darrouzès, Les regestes des actes du patriarcat de Constantinople. I/7: Les regestes de 1410 à 1453 (Paris, 1991), index, 105.

pilgrims Anthony of Novgorod, Stephen and the Russian Anonymous. The Byzantine historians Joseph Bryennius, George Pachymeres and Acropolites list a great number of miracles. The Russian Anonymous says that the relics of Theodosia brought healing to the sick who carry them and depose them on them. According to legend the church of St. Theodosia was the site of a Turkish massacre and enslavement of people gathered to celebrate the festival of the saint on May 29 1453. As the church was traditionally filled with roses when the Turkish soldiers burst into it later they found the roses in place and this is how the church was called Rose mosque (Gül Camii) when it was converted into a mosque. After the Fall, the church became a storehouse for the fleet. Its conversion began in 895/1490 under the sultan Bāyezīd II (d. 1512). Sultan Selīm II established a waqf of the mosque. Between 1573 and 1578 Stephen Gerlach identified the mosque with the church of St. Theodosia. Sultan Murād IV (1623–40) repaired it after it was destroyed by an earthquake. Sultan Maḥmūd II (1808–39) restored it in the early nineteenth century. The mahalle existed until 1934. The building has lost both Byzantine and Ottoman characteristics due to modern restorations.

www.doaks.org; A. G. Paspates, Byzantinai Meletai Topographikai kai Historikai (Konstantinoupolis, 1877), 320‒2; A. Berger, Untersuchungen zu den Patria Konstantinupoleos (Bonn, 1988), 491f. [=Berger]; A. Van Millingen, Byzantine churches in Constantinople. Their history and architecture (London, 1912), 164‒82; T. Mathews, The Byzantine churches of Istanbul. A photographic survey (Penn State, 1976), 128‒39; Janin², 143‒5; Dukas, Decline and fall of Byzantium to the Ottoman Turks, trans. H. Magoulias (Detroit, 1975), 228; E. A. Grosvenor, Constantinople (Boston, 1899), ii, 420‒2; V. Kidonopoulos, Bauten in Konstantinopel 1204‒1328 (Wiesbaden, 1994), 25‒8; for a description of the mosque, see Evliya Efendi, Narrative of travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa in the seventeenth century, tr. J. von Hammer, vol. 1 (London, 1834), 118‒9; H. Crane, The garden of the mosques: Hafiz Hüseyin al-Ayvansarayi’s guide to the Muslim monuments of Ottoman Istanbul (Leiden, 2000), 207; A. Mordtmann, Equisse topographique de Constantinople (Lille, 1892), index; on Enkomion of Theodosia (BHG 1774a), ed. S. Kotzabassi, Das hagiographische Dossier der heiligen Theodosia von Konstantinopel: Einleitung, Edition und Kommentar (Berlin, 2009), 54‒106; Synaxarium ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae. Propylaeum ad Sanctorum Novembris, ed. H. Delehaye (Brussels, 1902), 828‒30 [=Synaxarium of Constantinople]; A. M. Talbot, ‘Healing shrines in late Byzantine Constantinople’, in Women and religious life in Byzantium (Aldershot, 2001), 9‒ 11; Vita of Theodosia of Constantinople (BHG 1773y) , in B. Latyshev, Menologii Anonymi Byzantini, ii, (St. Petersburg, 1912), 86‒8; Vita of Theodosia of Constantinople (BHG 1773z), Byzantinon Heortologion, 12 vols, ed. M. Gedeon (Constantinople, 1899), 130‒1; Vita of Theodosia of Constantinople (BHG 1774) by Constantine Akropolites in AASS, Maii, VII, 69‒86; Vita of Theodosia of Constantinople (BHG 1774 e), in Synaxarium of Constantinople, 827‒8; Tr. N. Constas, ‘Life of St. Theodosia’, in A. M. Talbot (ed.), Byzantine defenders (Washington, D.C., 1998), 1‒7; E. Mamboury, Istanbul Touristique (Istanbul, 1951),   263‒5;

1. Theis,   Flankenräume   im   mittelbyzantinischen   Kirchenbau,   Zur   Befundsicherung,

Rekonstruction und Bedeutung einer verschwundenen architektonischen Form in Konstantinopel (Wiesbaden, 2005), 99‒113; J. Pargoire, ‘Constantinople: L‘ eglise Sainte- Théodosie’, EO 9 (1906), 161‒5; A. M. Talbot, ‘Old wine in new bottles: the rewriting of saints’ lives in the Palaiologan period’, in S. Curcic, D. Mouriki (eds.), The twilight of Byzantium (Princeton NJ, 1991), 15‒26, 18; J. Ebersolt and A. Thiers, Les eglises de Constantinople (London, 1979), 113‒27; N. Brunov, ‘Die Gul – Djami von Konstantinopel’, BZ 30 (1939), 554‒60; H. Schäfer, ‘Die Gül Camii in Istanbul: Ein Beitrag zur mittelbyzantinischen Kirchenarchitektur Kontantinopels’, IM 7 (1973), 13‒4; B. Aran, ‘The church of St. Theodosia and the monastery of Christ Evergetes. Notes on the topography of Constantinople’, JÖB 28 (1979), 211‒28; for the ‘Life of St. Theodosia’, see L. Brubaker, J. Haldon, Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era C. 680–850: a history (Cambridge, 2011), 230; G. Majeska, Russian Travelers to Constantinople in the fourteenth and fifteenth ceturies (Washington, 1984), 346‒51, 347 n. 64; S. Kırımtayıf, Converted Byzantine churches in İstanbul. Their transformation into mosques and masjids (İstanbul, 2001), 82‒7; C. E. Arseven, Eski Istanbul, Abidat ve Mebanîsi. Şehrin Tesisinden Osmanlı Fethine Kadar (Old Istanbul. Monuments and Foundations. From the Foundation of the City to the Ottoman Conquest) (Istanbul, 1328/1912), 147; W. Müller-Wiener, Bildlexikon zur Topographie Istanbuls (Tübingen, 1977), 140‒6; Öz Tahsin, Istanbul Camileri (Ankara, 1987).62; N. Asutay, ‘Überlegungen zum Christos-Evergetis-Kloster und zur Theodosiakirche am Goldenen Horn’, IM 51 (2001), 435‒43; P. Hatlie, The monks and monasteries of Constantinople, ca. 350‒850 (Cambridge, 2007), 470; for church of Evergetis, see Pmbz, 7788; J. Pargoire, ‘Constantinople׃ le couvent de l’ Evergétis’, EO 9 (1906), 371‒2; ODB, 2, 740‒1; P. Magdalino, ‘Medieval Constantinople’, in idem, Studies on the history, 70, n.111;

1. Magoulias, O City of Byzantium: annals of Niketas Choniates (Detroit, 1984), 298, 313; V. Grumel, Les regestes des actes dupatriarcat de Constantinople, III, 1043– 1206 (Paris, 1989),
2. 1188; V Laurent, Fasc. IV, Les Regestes de 1208 a 1309 (Paris, 1971), N. 1203, 1614; on patr. George Xiphilinus, see J. W. Nesbitt, (ed.), Catalogue of Byzantine seals, v. 6 (Washington DC, 2009), 215; D. Krausmüller, ‘The abbots of Evergetis as opponents of “monastic reform”: a re-appraisal of the monastic discourse in eleventh- and twelfth-century Constantinople’, RÉB 69 (2011), 111‒34; M. Philippides, ‘Santa Theodosia or Gül Camii? The controversy surrounding a famous structure’, in Thirtieth annual Byzatine studies conference, abstracts of papers (Baltimore, 2004), 91–2; W. K Hanak, ‘Two neglected sources on the church of Hagia Theodosia at the fall of Constantinople, 29 May 1453’, in Captain and scholar papers in memory of D. I. Polemis, eds E. Zachariadou and E. Chrysos (Andros, 2009), 115–35; ed./Fr. tr. F. Halkin, ‘Théodosie de Césarée’, in idem, Hagiologie byzantine (Brussels, 1986), 63‒8. D. Krausmüller, ‘Liturgical innovation in 11th-and 12th century Constantinple: hours and inter-hours in the Evergetis Typikon, its ‘daughters’ and its ‘granddaughters’, REB 71 (2013), 149‒72; A. Effenberger, ‘Theodosia von Konstantinopel- Kult und Kultort. Ergänzende Ũberlegungen zu ihrem ‘hagiographischen Dossier’, JÖB 61 (2011), 121‒34; A. Dilsiz, ‘The Byzantine heritage of Istanbul: resource or burden? A study on the surviving ecclesiastical architecture of the Historical Peninsula within the framework of perception, preservation and research in the Turkish Republican Period,” MA thesis, Koç University, 2006, 108‒10.

Panagia Cyriotissa =The Kalenderhane Camii

View from the northwest

The west façade

The interior looking north-east

View toward the sanctuary, east end

Capital on column at the entrance to the mosque

The entrance to the mosque

The sanctuary

The west façade

The south flank of the church

Located near the aqueduct of Valens⁴ in Şehzadebaşı. In the 10th Region.⁵ Janin and others   locate   the   monastery   south   of   the   Forum   Tauri. ⁶  south     of          Mese

4 Berger, index, 765.

5 Mamboury,70; Mordtmann, 12.

6  Mordtmann, index, 85. R. Naumann, ‘Neue Beobachtungen am Theodosiusbogen  und

Forum  Tauri in Istanbul’, IM 26 (1976), 117–41; Constantine Porphyrogennetos: The

Book of Ceremonies, translated by Ann Moffatt and Maxeme Tall, with the Greek edition of the Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae (1829), [Byzantina Australiensia 18, Australian Association for Byzantine Studies], 2 vols (Canberra, 2012), index, 855.

(Atmeydanı). ⁷ Wrongly identified with the church of the Mother of God tes Diaconisses by Mordmann or as church of Akataleptos by Striker and Kuban. The church in its oldest parts dates back to the 6th -8th centuries. Nicephorus Callistus and George Codinus attributes to Cyrus of Panopolis⁸ (d. 457),9 prefect of Constantinople (ca. 435), the erection of the church of Theotokos ta Kyrou. ¹⁰ Based on the results of the excavations the earliest church on the site was the north church which was built in the 2nd half of the 6th century. In the late seventh century, another church the Bema was built south of the north church. The north church was demolished, except for the apse, sometime between the tenth and twelfth centuries; the Bema church in the twelfth century. The name Theotokos eis ta Kyrou was transferred from its designation of a church in the west of the city, which ceased to exist, to the church called Bema in the centre of the city not later than the tenth century. After 1195 the Bema church was dismantled and was replaced by the main church preserved for the most part in today’s building and were the catholicon of a monastery. The building existing today was erected ca. 1180/1200. It was constructed on the remains of an earlier church. Its date of foundation is unknown. The two early twelfth century fresco icons of Theotokos Cyriotissa were found during the restoration sponsored by the DO and İstanbul Technical University and makes it more reasonable to identify  the church with Theotokos Cyriotissa. The monastery was certainly in existence by the early 6th century as the signatures of its abbots for the councils of 518 and 536 attest. In the seventh century a church ta Kyrou existed. From the tenth century on references to ta Kyrou refers to the church in the place of the Kalenderhane. Possessed a miraculous icon of ta Kyrou which is not mentioned before the eleventh century and is identified with the Cyriotissa. Nicetas Choniates reports that the image of ta Kyrou prophesied the defeat at Myriocephalon in 1176. A church of Theotokos mentioned in the poem of Stilbes destroyed in the fire of 1197 should be identified

⁷ The chief thoroughfare of the City, from the Chalke of the palace to the forum of Constantine, and on to the Golden Gate: J. F. Haldon, Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Three treatises on imperial military expeditions (Wien, 1990), 266n.712; R. Janin, Constantinople byzantine. Developpement urbain et repertoire topographique (Paris, 1950), index, 524; ODB, 2, 1346‒7; R. Guilland, Études de topographie de Constantinople byzantine, 2 vols. (Berlin and Amsterdam, 1969), II, 69‒79.

8 A. Cameron, ‘The empress and the poet paganism and politics at the court of Theodosius II’,

Yale Classical Studies 27 (1982), 217‒89

⁹ ODB, 2, 1163‒4.

¹⁰ Situated in the west of the city between the gate of St. Romasnus and the cistern of Mocius. Janin, CB, 378-9; Berger, 477‒82.

with the church of Theotokos ta Kyrou. The Kalendarhane Camii was erected after this fire; the work must have been completed by 1204 at the latest. The church and monastery attracted people with medical problems. Romanus Melodus (d. 556)¹¹ lived in the monastery, which was connected with the church, and was buried there. Ta Kyrou still existed in the Palaiologan time, but it was similar to the monastery ton Hodegon/tes Hodegetrias no longer ta Kyrou but tes Cyriotisses. Patr. John XIII withdrew there before his death. Visited by the pilgrims Ignatius, Anthony and the Russian Anonymous. Probably lcated between the churches of Sts. Romanus and Mocius. During the Latin occupation it was held by Franciscan friars as the frescoes of St. Francis, which were discovered in the chapel at the southeast corner of the church attest. Alterations in the church took place after the Crusader conquest in 1261 in the late Comnenian period. Restored by the patr. John Glykys (1315‒9)¹², who withdrew there before his death in 1319. The name of the monastery appears in the typikon of the Bebaias Elpidos monastery. Reoccupied by the Greeks after their reconquest. It kept the name of Cyriotissa up to the Ottoman conquest. Converted into a mosque by the sultan Mehmed II. A general restoration was carried out by Maktul Beşir Ağa.¹³ Used as a soup kitchen and as a Mevlevihane for ceremonial occassions and a madrasa called Kalenderhane. In the eighteenth century around the mosque were a madrasa and other pious foundations. It was repaired in 1746‒7 and in 1854‒ 55 after a fire by Hacı Kadri Efendi. A mahalle grew around the mosque. A chapel with the name of St. John existed. Restorations and excavations took place between 1966 and 1978.

Grosvenor, ii, 431; Cod., 54; George Kodinos, Peri ktismaton III, ed. T. Preger (Leipzig, 1907), 252; Crane, The garden of mosques, 184‒5; D. J. Constantelos, ‘Kyros Panopolites, rebuilder  of  Constantinople’,  GRBS  12  (1971),  451‒64;  Paspates,  351‒2;  Mordtmann,

Esquisse,  1892,  70,  no  124;  Georgius  Cedrenus,  historiarum  compendium,  2  vols, ed.  I.

Bekker, CSHB, 2 vols (Bonn, 1838/9), i, 699; Janin², 193–5; Berger, 477‒82; Mamboury, Istanbul, 231‒2; S. Eyice, Istanbul, Petit guide à travers les monuments byzantins et turcs (Istanbul, 1955), 54; De Cér., A. Vogt, 108; C. L. Striker and Y. D. Kuban, ‘Work at  Kalenderhane Camii in Istanbul. First preliminary report’, DOP 21 (1967), 267‒71; DOP 22

(1968), 185‒93; DOP 25 (1971), 251‒58; idem, ‘Work at Kelanderhane Camii in Istanbul.

Fifth Preliminary Report (1970–1974)’, DOP 29 (1975), 306–18; (eds.) Kalenderhane in Istanbul: the buildings, their history, architecture and decoration (Mainz, 1997), 13; (eds.), Kalenderhane in Istanbul: the excavations – final reports on the archaeological expedition and restoration at Kalenderhane Camii 1966–1978 (Mainz, 2007); W. Goez, ‘Franziskus-

¹¹ ODB, 3, 1807‒8.

¹² ODB, 2, ‘John XIII Glykys’, 1055.

13 Crane, The garden of mosques, 184.

Fresken und Franziskaner in Konstantinopel’, in E. Hubala, G. Schweikhart (eds.), Festschrift Herbert Siebenhüner zum 70. Geburtstag (Würzburg 1978), 31–40; C.L. Striker, ‘The findings at Kalenderhane and problems of method in the history of Byzantine architecture’, in

1. Necipolu (ed.), Byzantine Constantinople: Monuments, topography and everyday life, (Leiden, 2001), 107–16; Mathews, 171‒85; L. Theis, Flankenräume im mittelbyzantinischen Kirchenbau (Wiesbaden, 2005), 134‒47; H. Sumner-Boyd and J. Freely, Strolling through Istanbul (London, NY, 1972), 195–6; J. Freely-A. S. Çakmak, Byzantine monuments of Istanbul (Cambridge, 2004), 235‒44; Van Millingen, 183‒190; A. Toydemir Sabuncu, ‘A Ceramic assemblage from a closed deposit of the early thir teenth century in the Kalenderhane Camii, Istanbul’, STD 11 (2007), 63–84; N. Göyünç, ‘Kalenderhane Camii’, TD 34 (1983-4), 492‒3; E. Freshfield, ‘Notes on the church now called the mosque of the Kalenders at Constantinople’, Arch 55 (1897), 431‒38; FDİ, 26; Arseven, İstanbul, 145‒6; Müller-Wiener, 153‒8; Ayverdi, Fatih Devri, 28; Öz, Camileri, 79‒80; P. Goubert, ‘Édifices byzantins de la fin du VIe siècle’, OCP 21 (1955) 102‒8, 104; M. Tunay, ‘Byzantine archaeological findings in Istanbul during the last decade’, in Necipoglu (ed.), Byzantine Constantinople, 217–31, 229; M. Whitby, The emperor Maurice and his historian (Oxford, 1988), 20; Kidon.,79‒80; J. Bardill, Brickstamps, of Constantinople, 2 vols, i (Oxford, 2004), index, 418; H.-G. Beck, Kirche und Theologische Literatur im Byzantinischen Reich (München, 1959), 553; Cod., 42; Patria, iii, 111; Majeska, 329‒31; Choniates, Historia, ed.
2. L. Van Dieten (Berlin, 1975), 190; V. Chrisafulli and J. Nesbitt (eds.), The Miracles of Artemius, A Collection of miracle stories by an anonymous author of seventh‒century Byzantium (Leiden, 1997), 38; Greg., ii, i, 107; Hatlie, 78; P. Magdalino, ‚John Geometres, the Kyriotai, and the church of ta Kyrou‚, in N. Gaul, T. Shawcross, I. Toth (eds.), .Reading Byzantium; B. Pitarakis, ‚Un groupe de croix-reliquaires pectorales en bronze à décor en relief attribuable à Constantinople avec la crucifié et la Vierge‘, CA 46 (1998), 81‒102; C. A. Trypanis, ‚A possible portrait of Johannes Geometres Kyriotes‘, DOP 22 (1968); K. T. Argoe, John Kyriotes Geometres, a tenth century Byzantine writer (1938); Jean Géomètre. Poèmes en hexamètres et en distiques élégiaques, ed./tr. E. M. van Opstall (Leiden, 2008); P. Magdalino, ‚Cultural change? The context of Byzantine poetry from Geometres to Prodromos‘, in F. Bernard and K. Demoen (eds.), Poetry and its contexts in eleventh-century Byzantium (London, 2012), 35‒6; idem, ‚John Geometres, the church of ta Kyrou, and the Kyriotai‘, in T. Shawcross and I. Toth (eds.), Reading Byzantium (Oxford, 2014); C. Striker, ‘Crusader painting in Constantinople: the findings at Kalenderhane Camii’ in H. Belting (ed.), Il Medio Oriente e l‘ Occidente nell‘ arte del XIII secolo (Bologna, 1982), 117‒21; M. R. Menna, ‘Byzantium, Rome, Crusader kingdoms: exchanges and artistic interactions in the second half of   the   thirteenth   century’,   Opuscula   historiae   artium. vol.    62    (2013), iss. Supplementum, 48-61, 48ff.; E. Mitsiou, ‘Die Netzwerke einer kulturellen Begegnung: byzantinische und lateinische Klöster in Konstantinopel im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert’, in L. Lieb, K. Oschema, J. Heil (eds.), Abrahams Erbe: Konkurrenz, Konflikt und Koexistenz der Religionen im Europäischen Mittelalter (Berlin, 2015); J. Blid Kullberg, ‘When bath became church: spatial fusion in late antique Constantinople and beyond’, in B. Shilling, P. Stephenson (eds.), Fountains and water culture in Byzantium (Cambridge, 2016), 145‒62; S. Dönbekçi, ‘Contextualizing the fresco cycle of the Life of St. Francis at the Kalenderhane mosque in Constantinople: The Vita icon between Byzantium and Italy’ (Ma thesis, Koç Univ., 2016); P. Magdalino, ‘Constantinopolitana. 2. The fire of 1197 and the church of the Theotokos Kyriotissa’, in idem, Studies on the history and topography of Byzantine Constantinople (Ashgate, 2007), 227‒30.

Monastery of John the Baptist en tois Stoudiou14 =The ºmrahor or İlyas Bey

Mescidi or Mirahur Mescidi (‘Mosque of the Stablemaster’)

Entrance

nin, CB, 431.

 

The narthex façade

 

The east end

 

The east end

 

 

Situated in Yedikule neighbourhood of Fatih municipality. Monastic complex, near the Golden Gate, in the city’s district known as Psomathion or Psomathia.The monument has been the object of study by B. Panchenko, Van Millingen, J. Ebersolt,

1. Naumann, A. Thiers, Ch. Pertusier, U. Peschlow, K. Dark and F. Özgümüş. One of the most famous monasteries of Byzantium. Visited by the pilgrims Stephen and the Russian Anonymous. Witnessed as being entirely demolished by the sixteenth- century traveller Gilles. The monastery and the church were founded by the patrician

Studius15 according to the Byzantine chronicle of Theophanes in 463 and dedicated to St. John the Baptist. During the period of Iconoclasm the monks were persecuted and the monastery was closed. However, as Berger says, this is not the case as its abbot took part in the council of 787. Theodore the Studite 16 (759‒826) refounded the monastery in the late eighth century. Its typikon, attributed to Theodore, was adopted by many other monasteries. Its order of service were standardised for general liturgical practice. In the time of the second iconoclasm, Theodore the Studite, a ‘fervent champion of Orthodoxy’, led the struggle for the restoration of icon veneration and became an opponent of the Iconoclasts. In the ninth century the monastery possessed a school, a xenodocheion, and was famous for its scriptorium and a library. The monastery was a center of culture and learning, where some of the greatest scholars of the Byzantine era such as Theodore the Studite, Damascenus the Studite (16th c.), and others studied and taught. Its sciptoria produced a wealth of illuminated manuscripts which were in demand throughout the empire and many of which are now in the libraries of western Europe. In the early ninth century it had 700 monks and in the eleventh was still numerous. Theodore, organized the monastery, encouraged theological and philosophical studies, set up a school for the education of children, and founded hospices for the destitute and the travellers. Three learned monks of Studius became patriarchs. Place of exile for three former emperors Michael V (1041–42), Isaac I Comnenus (1057–9) and Michael VII Ducas (1071–8) in the eleventh century; the last two restored it. Abandoned during the Latin occupation. Constantine Doucas Palaeologus (d. 1306)¹⁷, brother of emperor Andronicus II, and the third son of Michael VIII Palaiologus and Theodora Palaiologina, restored the katholikon and other buildings of the monastic complex in 1293. In the 14th c. the monastery ranked first among the monasteries of Constantinople, as recorded in a praxis issued by the patr. Neilus (1380‒8)¹⁸. The monastery of Studius possessed many holy relics, prior to 1204 including part of the head of St. John the Baptist, the body of St. Theodore the Studite and of his brother Joseph, and their uncle Plato. The body of St Solomonis is attested by Stephen and the Russian Anonymous. The site

15 Kid., 49 n. 577.

16 ODB, 3, 2044‒5; Kid., 49 n. 578; R. Cholij, Theodore the Stoudite. The ordering of  holiness (Oxford, 2002); J. Darrouzes, Les Regestes des actes du patriarcat, v. 1, fasc. VII. Les regests de 1410 a 1453 (Paris, 1991), index, 150.

¹⁷ D. I. Polemis, The Doukai a contribution to Byzantine prosopography (London, 1968), 160‒1.

18 Les Regestes des actes du patriarcat, v. 1, fasc. VII. Les regests de 1410 a 1453, index, 133.

occupied by the monastic complex was vast. At its center stood the katholikon, a three aisled basilica, the apse, to the east, was polygonal on the outside, and the narthex, to the west, was preceded by a large rectangular atrium. Mentioned in the triumphal entry of the emperor Michael VIII (1261–82) in 1261 as the site where he left the icon of Virgin, on his way to St. Sophia and the centre of the city. Patr. Euthymius II¹⁹, archbishop of Studius by 1396, was buried there. The pilgrims Anthony and Stephen and the traveller Clavijo (d. 1412) describe the church and give details on its mosaic and marble decoration. Russian monks lived in Studius in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century where they copied books. Since the 16th century the monastic buildings served as a quarry. In the reign of the sultan Beyazid II, the monastery was ceded to the mirahur Ilyas Bey, the sultan’s Emir ahir (Stablemaster)²⁰, who converted the church into a mosque and established its waqf. Hence known as Imrahor Camii, a corruption of the words Emir-ahir Camii. Underwent alterations: the upper parts of the apse were rebuilt, a minaret was added against the wall of the southern bay of the narthex. Turned into a tekke by Devlet Han, a Tartar khan. The edifice is a basilica, the only example of that type in the city. It still retains the atrium with a fountain in the centre before the church, the narthex, the interior area divided into a nave and aisles with lines of columns, a semicircular apse at the eastern end, and galleries over the aisles. The outer walls of the church still stand up, the north colonnade of the nave, and the west colonnade of the narthex, surmounted by splendid Theodosian capitals. A fine thirteenth-century portion of the inlaid marble flooring of the church showing geometric patterns and miniature figures of animals and birds is still preserved today and attests to the excellent workmanship and artistic standard of the decoration in the church. The ruins of a large vaulted cistern with 23 Corinthian columns survive south of the church. The renown traveller Gilles notes that the cistern was built with bricks, and its roof was held by 20 high columns of granite of Corinthian style. The destruction of the monastery started with the fire of 1784 and was accelerated by the damages caused by earthquakes in 1894. Finally, the great fire of 1920 or 1923 ruined it completely and was left in ruins since then. The remains of the huge monastic complex scattered over the immense site were used by the inhabitants of the district to rebuild their houses after the great fire. Exists in poor physical state. Due to the lack of roofing the monument is under threat and it has been

19  Les Regestes des actes du patriarcat, v. 1, fasc. VII. Les regests de 1410 a 1453, index, 103.

20 Crane, The garden of the mosques, index.

suggested that precautions must take place ‘to stabilize the walls and preserve the opus sectile floor’. An hagiasma is situated in the yard of the monastery. A church of St. Mary ton Stoudiou was in the compound of the monastery and is mentioned in the ‘Book of Ceremonies’ and the typikon of the monastery.

Pmbz, # index, 430–1; Grosvenor, ii, 459–64; Van Millingen, 35–61; Patria, iii, 87; Janin², 231, 430–40; idem, Les églises et les monastères des grands centres byzantins: Bithynie, Hellespont, Latros, Galèsios, Trébizonde, Athènes, Thessalonique (Paris, 1975), 429; Theoph., 113; Paspates, 343–50; Mordtmann,  24,  108;  Kid.,  49–51;  R.  Macrides,  George

Akropolites. The History (Oxford, 2007), 384; Cod., 41; Berger, 363-5, index; Majeska, Travelers, 283–8; EPLBHC. ‘Alexios Stoudites’, ’Anatolios’, ‘Antony’-Antony III Stoudites (974-9) no3, ‘Arsenios of Stoudios’, 1, 163–4, 227–8, 311, 399; ‘Vita of Theodore of Stoudius’ (BHG 1754) by Michael the Monk, PG 99, 233–28; (BHG 1755) by Theodore Daphnopates, PG 99 113–232; (BHG 1755d), ed. B. Latyshev, in ‘Vita S. Theodori Studitae in codice Mosquensi musei Rumianzoviani no. 520’, VV21 (1914), 258–304; (BHG 1756) by

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26. Barsanti, ‘The marble floor of St. John Studius in Constantinople: a forgotten masterpiece’, in M. Ahin (ed.), Proceedings of the XI international AIEMA mosaic symposium, Bursa 18–20 October 2009, 87–98; A. P. Kazhdan and A. M. Talbot, ‘Women and Iconoclasm’, BZ 84/85 (1991–2), 391–408 at 396–400; Eyice, Istanbul, 94; C. Barsanti with A. Guiglia, S. Pedone, ‘St. Sophia museum project 2007: the marble sculptures of St.John Studius (Imrahor Camii)”, in 26. AST, Ankara 26/30–5–2008 (Ankara 2009), 3. Cilt, 311– 28; C. Gourlay, ‘Minor churches of Constantinople,’ JRIBA 14.18 (1907), 637‒49; B. Panchenko, ‘Ha. Ioannes Studios,’ Izvestiy a russkago arkeol instituta 14 (Sofia, 1909), 136– 52; 15 (1911), 250–7; 16 (1912), 1–359; Ebersolt–Thiers, Les eglises, 3–18; G. Mandel, Catalogue des sculptures grecques, romaines el byzantines (Istanbul, 1912–14), nos. 668‒70, 715–22, 1209; R. Kautzsch, Kapitellstudien. Studien zur spatentiken Kunstgeschichte 9 (Berlin-Leipzig, 1936), 131, 135–6, 167; K. Bittel, AA 64 (1939), 202, fig. 51–2; E. Ettinghausen, ‘Byzantine tiles from the basilica in the Topkapu Sarayi and saint John of Stoudios’, CA 7 (1954), 79‒88; F.W. Deichmann, Studien zur Archl’tektur Konstantinopels,

Deutsche Beitrdge zur Altertumswissenschaft (Baden, 1956), 56‒108; R. Krautheimer, Early Christian Early christian and Byzantine architecture, 3 rd ed. (Harmondworth, 1979), 78‒9; AS 30 (1980) 218ff.; P. Speck, ‘Ein Heiligenbilderzyklus im Studios-Kloster um das Jahr 800’, in CEB Ochride, 10‒16 Septembre 1961, 3 (Belgrade, 1964), 333‒44; U. Peschlow, ‘Die Johanneskirche des Studios in Istanbul. Bericht über die jüngsten Untersuchungsergebnisses’, JÖB 32/4 (1982), 429‒34; J. Thieme, ‘Metrology and planning in the basilica of Johannes Stoudios’, in Le dessin d’architecture dans les sociétés antiques. Actes du Colloque de Strasbourg 26‒28 janvier 1984 (Leiden, 1985), 291‒308; Kırımtayıf,

99; ODB, 3, 1960‒1; The antiquities of Constantinople (London, 1729) repr. (1986), 205‒6; Arseven, İstanbul, 133; T. Miller, tr., ’Theodore Studites: Testament of Theodore the Studite for the monastery of St.. John Studios in Constantinople’, in J. Thomas and A.  Constantinides Hero (eds.), BMFD [=Byzantine monastic foundation documents: a complete translation of the surviving founders ‘ typika and testaments] (Washintgton DC, 2000), 67‒ 83; T. S. Miller, ‘Stoudios: rule of the monastery of St. John of Stoudios in Constantinople’, BMFD, i, 84–115; Müller-Wiener, 147‒52; A. M. Schneider, ‘Yedikule und Umgebung, Oriens                                 5                       (1952)                                 197-208,            200‒2-

.http://www.patriarchate.org/ecumenical_patriarchate/chapter_4/html/studius.html (esp. an unpublished 3 volume history of the Studius monastery); Fâtih Câmileri, 170; Öz, Camileri, 105, n. 223; K. Ciggaar, ed., ‘Une description de Constantinople traduite par un pèlerin anglais’, REB 34 (1976), 211‒67, 56, 57; T. Pratsch, Theodoros Studites (759‒826) zwischen Dogma und Pragma. Der Abt des Studiosklosters in Konstantinopel im Spannungsfeld von Patriarch, Kaiser und eigenem Anspruch [BBS 4] (Franfurt am Maim 1998); C. Frazee, ‘St. Theodore of Studios and ninth-century monasticism in Constantinople’, Studia monastica 23 (1981), 26‒58; A. Oğan, ‘Bizans Mimari Tarahinde √stanbul Kiliseleri Ve Mozaikler’, Güzel Sanatlar, 5 (1944), 103‒15; N. Atzemoglou, T’ agiasmata tıs polıs (Athens, 1990), 51; Reg. 1043 a 1206, N. 909; P. Hatlie, ’Abbot Theodore and the Stoudites a case study in monastic social groupings and religious conflict in Constantinople’ (PhD dissert. Fordham Univ. 1993); P. Karlin-Hayter, ‘A Byzantine politician monk St. Theodore Studite’, JÖB 44 (1994), 217‒32; N. C. Eleopoulos, He bibliotheke kai to bibliographikon ergasterion tes mones ton Stoudiou (Athens, 1967); J. Featherstone and M. Holland, ‘A note on penances prescribed for negligent scribes and librarians in the monastery of Stoudios’, Script 36 (1982), 258‒60; McGeer, Catalogue of Byzantine seals, 118; K. Kreiser, ‘Imrahor câmi‘i: Die Finanzen einer ºstanbuler Moschee-Stiftung zwischen 1546 und 1706’, IM 39 (1989), 321‒7; for the ‘Life of St. Theodore’, see Brubaker, Haldon, Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era, 229‒30; G. A. Schneider, Der Hl. Theodor von studion. Sein Leben und Wirken. Ein Beitrag zur byzantinischen Mönchgeschichte (Münster, 1900); B. Hermann, ‘Der hl. Abt Theodor, der asketische Meister von Studium und die Studient Mönche’, ZAM 4 (1929), 289‒312; ibd., 5 (1930), 121‒47; P. Hartlıe, ‘Abbot Theodore and the Stoudites: a case study in monastic social groupings and religious conflict in Constantinople (787-826) (PhD dissert Fordham Univ., 1993); on Naukratios, Nicholas, Theodore, abbots of Stoudios, see idem, The monks and monasteries, index, 546, 548; on the monastery, see index, 544; on Leontios, monk of Stoudios, see idem, 272‒3, 372; J. Featherstone and M. Holland, ‘A note on penances prescribed for negligent scribes and librarians in the monastety of Studios’, Script 36 (1982), 258‒60; on patr. Euthymius II, see PLP 3 no 6268; J. Nesbitt, C. Morrisson, Catalogue of Byzantine seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, v. 6 (Washington DC, 2009), 217;  J. Bardill, Brickstamps  of Constantinople,  2 vols (Oxford, 2004),  i, index,  420;

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1. Bogdanovic, The framing of sacred space: the canopy and the Byzantine church (Oxford, 2017), index.