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Arapahmet Mosque

Arapahmet Mosque

Arapahmet Mosque
Built in the 16th century on the site of an old Latin church, Arapahmet Mosque is named after Arapahmet Pasha who was one of the commanders of the 1571 Ottoman expedition to Nicosia and the Governor General of Rhodes. In the Arab Ahmet Quarter of Nicosia it's the only mosque in the city with a classical Ottoman dome plus 3 smaller domes to protect its entrance and 4 more at the corners.

Outside is a garden with a fountain, cypress trees and graves including that of Turkish Cypriot Mehmet Kamil Pasha, born in Nicosia in 1833. He became Grand Vizier in the Ottoman empire, the only Cypriot ever to do so. In 1913, Kamil Pasha unexpectedly died of syncope (fainting) and was buried in the court of the Arab Ahmet Mosque.

Sir Ronald Storrs, British Governor from 1926 to 1932, produced a memorial to be raised over Kamil Pasha’s grave for which he also composed the English inscription, carved on the headstone. It reads, “His Highness Kiamil Pasha, Son of Captain Salih Agha of Pyroi, Born in Nicosia in 1833, Treasury Clerk, Commissioner of Larnaca, Director of Evqaf, Four times Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, A Great Turk and A Great Man.” The site once hosted a Latin church, of which a few fragments still survive. A lintel from a door has a shield carved on it of two lions. 14th century gravestones of prominent Veneto families such as Francesco Cornaro (1390), Antonio de Bergamo (1394), and Gaspar Mavroceni (1402) also survive. Arab Ahmet was restored in 1845 and again in the 1990’s, and the mosque remains in use to this day.

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