RECONCIDERING ORIENTALISTS CLAIMS REGARDING UMAYYAD MOSQUE OF DAMASCUS AND THE GREAT MOSQUE OF D？YARBAKIR UNDER THE LIGHT OF K.A.C. CRESWELL’S ANSWERS1

During the last few centuries, majority of European (orientalist) researchers have been (and still) claiming through their publicaitons and repeated at every opportunity that many of the mosques (with basilical plans) had been Christian churhes before the cities they were in conquered by Muslims in early years and these church buildings had been co-used with Christians till they were converted to mosques at later stages. This claim has been supported with an example that the very building of the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus was the Church of St. John the Baptist, which was in courtyard of the Roman / Pagan Temple of Jupiter (so called Temenos building) in the center of Damascus. This legend about ‘Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, was carried on and repeated quite seriously with an addition of the Great Mosque of Diyarbakir by the co-authors C. Warzinger and K. Wulzinger in their book titled ‘Damascus I’, published in 1921, was also tried to establish it as “the legend, nearest to the truth” behind the history of these buildings. These views with no trustworthy historic or architectural evidences, were transphered via the summarised translation works from the European books in late 1940’s, acquired the top place in Türkish literatures and were repeated in all later publications as the truest “legend” without an alternative. Against these claims, English researcher Keppel Archibald Cameron Creswell (1879-1974), in his famous books titled ‘Early Muslim Architecture’ published in 1932 (updated and re-printed in 1969), put forward few historic and architectural evidences which invalidated these claims. Unfoutunately his replies and the valuable information he put forward, have not been given the space and voice they deserved in Turkish publications as yet. In this article, these orientalist claims, and Mr. Creswell’s replies have been put forward with hope and intentions that these alternative informations may find their way into study materials, future publications and discussion circles of Islamic architecture as well as History of Arts education at all levels in Turkey