Byzantine Churches in Constantinople: Their History and Architecture — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Byzantine Churches in Constantinople: Their History and Architecture
John Stuart Mill · en
A second consideration in support of this identification is the
statement made by Achmed Rifaat Effendi, that before the church became a
mosque it was known by the name of its founder, 'Isakias.' For it is a
matter of history that the church of S. Thekla was restored by the
Emperor Isaac Comnenus[338] in the eleventh century. The association of
his name with the building was therefore perfectly natural, if the
building is indeed the old church of S. Thekla, otherwise it is
difficult to account for that association.
There is, however, one objection to this identification that must not be
overlooked. According to Byzantine authorities, the church of S. Thekla
stood in the palace of Blachernae ([Greek: entos tôn basileiôn; en tô
palatiô tôn Blachernôn][339]). That palace occupied the heights above
Aivan Serai, on which the quarter of Egri Kapou and the mosque of Aivas
Effendi now stand, within the walls that enclose the western spur of the
Sixth Hill. Toklou Ibrahim Dedé Mesjedi, however, does not stand within
that enclosure, but immediately to the north of it, on the level tract
that stretches from the foot of the Sixth Hill to the Golden Horn. If
the reasons in favour of regarding the mosque as S. Thekla were less
strong, this objection would, perhaps, be fatal. But the strip of land
between the northern wall of the palace enclosure and the sea is so
narrow, and was so closely connected with the life of the imperial
residence, that a building on that tract might with pardonable
inaccuracy be described, as 'in the palace.'[340]