Hundreds Gather for Eid Muslim Prayers at Thessaloniki’s Yeni Mosque

Hundreds of faithful gathered on Wednesday for the Eid Muslim prayers at Thessaloniki’s Yeni Mosque which opened for the first time in more than 100 years in Greece.

Crowds were seen arriving to pray early in the morning at the iconic Mosque led by the Egyptian Imam Taha Abd El-Galil, a Greek citizen and member of the religious committee of the Islamic mosque in Athens.

The prayer, which concluded after half an hour, was conducted in Arabic, followed by a sermon in both Arabic and Greek.

The decision by Greek authorities to open the Mosque for Muslim prayers follows a period when relations with Turkey improved following the visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Athens last December.

History of the Mosque in Thessaloniki

The Yeni Mosque was built by Italian architect Vitaliano Poselli in 1902 for the city’s Dönmeh community, crypto-Jewish converts to Islam. .

After the Greco-Turkish war of 1919-22 and the Treaty of Lausanne, the Dönmeh along with the other Muslims living in Greece were “exchanged” with Christians in Turkey (i.e., Greece and Turkey agreed to take in each other’s religious refugees resulting from the terms of the treaty).

Its minaret — like most minarets in Thessaloniki — was subsequently demolished. Christian refugees from Asia Minor lived inside the Yeni Mosque in 1924, after which time it became the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.

In its courtyard, there is a rich collection of marble sculptures from the Roman era and the early Christian period (sarcophagi, funerary monuments, reliefs, honorary and funerary columns) from all over Thessaloniki. Today it serves as an exhibition center and hosts various cultural activities.

Thessaloniki has several Ottoman buildings that represent part of the history of the second-largest Greek city.

Several mosques have been preserved, such as the Hamza Bey Camii of 1467 – 68, the Alaca Imaret Camii of 1484, the Yeni Camii of the early 20th century, as well as other public buildings, such as the Bay Hamam, an impressive double bath of the mid 15th century, an inn and some fountains in the upper city.

Greece opens Rhode’s Suleymaniye Mosque for prayers

Given the preparations for Ramadan, Greece has also decided to open the Suleymaniye Mosque on Rhodes for Eid prayers.

It was originally built after the Ottoman conquest of Rhodes in 1522 and is named after Sultan Suleiman to commemorate his conquest. The mosque was reconstructed in 1808 and has been restored several times since. It is the most significant surviving Ottoman-era monument in Rhodes.

In Attica, apart from the Athens Mosque in Votanikos, there are 15 licensed mosques. Unofficial ones are estimated at 55 to 60. There are some 300 mosques operating in Thrace, and one each in Kos, Rhodes, Thiva and Thessaloniki.

Muslim Greeks number about 125,000 and live primarily in Thrace. In Attica, Muslim refugees and migrants are estimated at 250,000.