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Conversion of non-Islamic places of worship into mosques

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ432241 ↗
Source-derived summary

The conversion of non-Islamic places of worship into mosques occurred after the life of Muhammad during subsequent and under historical Muslim rule. Hindu temples, Jain temples, churches, synagogues, and Zoroastrian fire temples have been converted into mosques.

Several such mosques in the areas of former Muslim rule have since been reconverted or have become museums, including the Parthenon in Greece and numerous mosques in Spain, such as Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba. Conversion of non-Islamic buildings into mosques influenced distinctive regional styles of Islamic architecture.

Islamic holy sites

Jerusalem

Upon the capture of Jerusalem, it is commonly reported that Umar refused to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in spite of a treaty. The architecturally similar Dome of the Rock was built on the Temple Mount, which was a destroyed site of the holiest Jewish temple, destroyed by the Romans in AD 70 and with consistent Jewish presence in Jerusalem has always been a site of religious prayer for Jews. Umar initially built there a small prayer house which laid the foundation for the later construction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by the Umayyads.

Conversion of church buildings

Europe

Albania

The Catholic Church of St. Nicholas (Shën Nikollë) was turned into a mosque. After being destroyed in the Communist 1967 anti-religious campaign, the site was turned into an open air mausoleum.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Conversion of non-Islamic places of worship into mosques” as wikimedia list article. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1967—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Conversion, non-Islamic and places can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as wikimedia list article. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q432241. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1967.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Conversion of non-Islamic places of worship into mosques”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Conversion of non-Islamic places of worship into mosques primary sources, Conversion of non-Islamic places of worship into mosques archive and Conversion research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Conversion of non-Islamic places of worship into mosques” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.