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| Piri Osman Pasha Mosque |
Piri Osman Pasha mosque is found in the upper part of
Lefke. The
mosque was a church in Byzantian time which was known as Ayyorgi. After Cyprus was joined to Roman
Empire, the empire divided into two parts and that
time Cyprus became part of East Rome called Byzantium. Cyprus was
ruled by Byzantium for 789 years and the church was built in that period.
But the exact day had not known. And the church was turned into mosque
one of the Arab raids in 963 AD. And that time Byzantium and Arabs had
an agreement. And there was an important point in that agreement which
said that Byzantium did not destroy the holy places which were belong to islam. Byzantium was keept their words, and they didn’t give any damage
to Islam's holy places. So that, Islam’s holy places remained stood. And
Piri Pasha mosque is the one of these places. The mosque was ruined from
lack of good care until the ottoman time. Cyprus was occupied by ottoman
in 1570-71. One of the Kanuni Sultan Suleyman’s (the Magnificent) viziers was the grandchild
of Piri Osman pasha who was known as Mehmet Bey and he joined this occupation
too. Mehmet Bey was a governor of Paphos sancak and he helped the Turks
to settle their own rules and Lefke joined to this sancak too. When Mehmet
Bey visited Lefke he saw this neglected mosque and he rebuilt it. And also
he gave his grandfather’s name to this mosque which was known as Piri Osman
Pasha. The mosque also known as Minareli mosque, Orta mosque and also it's
old name Ayyorgi. One medrese opened beside this mosque but it ruined
from day by day.
The mosque carries Ottoman’s architecture style so it has three arches
in front of it and five arches beside of it. Front arches stand on the
column and beside arches stand on archaic. Only Piri Osman pasha mosque
has dome in Lefke. They used hewn stone when they built it and it has only
one gallery of a minaret. The bottom of the mosque is setting on the octagon
body.
In front of the Piri Osman Pasha Mosque there are graves. But you
can find only two of them today. One of them belongs to Vizier Osman Pasha
and the other belongs to Huseyin Aga.
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