AKHİSAR (THYATEİRA)
EXPLANATION ABOUT AKHİSAR BİG MOSQUE
(CONQUER)
THE ACCEPTANCE OF
AKHISAR ULUCAMI AS IT IS ONE THE HOLLY PLACE OF SEVEN CHURCH IN ANATOLIA. As known the Seven Church is a pilgrmage holy place for the Christianity.
The religious tours operated in Turkey by sightseeing of Theatre . Therefore the
Seldjukian Architectural and The Seven
Churches is taking an important place in the religious tours.The photo of AKHISAR ULUCAMI
( Theatre ) hereunder taked by ALI OSMAN MUŞ on 18
August 1998.Akhisar Ulucami is converted from a church into
a mosque. As the legend it was built as a
temple.The exact constucting date is unknown .The rock blocks holded to each other by a special concrete namely ( horasan).
That
it has been used by Romains as a shopping
area.During The Christianity time it has been converted
into a church. The priest sermon area ( arbisis ) is steel remaing as a half circle
ABOVE MOSQUE INSCRIPTION
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This
ancient building was transformed to a mosque in 1400's. The year of construction is
unknown but it is evident that the building was formerly a Roman temple and a Byzantine
church. There is even a possibility for the building to be one of the famous Seven
Churches of Christianity. |
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THE
PHOTOS OF INSIDE MOSQUE |
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AKHİSAR
(THYATEIRA) |
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THE CHURCH IN THYATEIRA
The Message to Thyatelra
To the angel of the church in Thyateira write: This is the message from the Son of
God, whose eyes blaze like fire; whose feet shine like polished brass:
I Know what you do. I know your love, your faithfulness, your service, and your patience.
I know that you are doing more now than you did at first. But there is what I have against
you; you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a messenger of God.She teaches and
misleads my servants into committing immoraffty and eating food that has been offered to
idols.
I have given her time to turn from her sins, but she does not wish to turn from her
immorality.
And so I will throw her on a bed where she and those who committed adultary with her will
suffer terribly. I will do this now, unless they repent from the wicked things they did
with her.
I will also kill her followers, and all the churches will know that I am. He who knows
men's thoughts and wishes. |
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I will repay each one of you
according to what you have done.
But the rest of you in Thyateira have not followed this evil teaching; you have not
learned what the other call the deep secrets of Satan'. I will say to you that I will not
put any other burden on you.
But you must hold firmly to what you have until I come.
To those who win the victory, who continue to do what I want until the very end, I will
give the same authority that I received from my Father. I will give them authority over
the nations to rule them with an iron rod and to break them to pieces like clay pots. I
will also give them the morning star.
If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches! Rev.2, 18-28. |
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The town was also crowded with the trade and commerce from AsiaMinor to the East. So.
first and foremost.Thyateira was a great commercial center. It lay in an open valley; this
situation made the town strategically a most important frontier town and a center of
missonary activities to buiId the fourth church here. |
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| Thyateira
had no special religious significance. The town was not a center of early Ceasar worship
or that of Greek or Anatolian deities. The local hero-God was called Tyrimus; he appears
on the deities. The focal hero- God was called Tyrimus; he appears on the local coins
sitting on horseback and armed with a battle axe and a club. The only thing worth
notifying about this town from the regilious point of view was a fortunetelling shrine; a
female oracle called the Sambathe. It is certain that no threat of prosecution hung over
the church in Thyateira. |
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Left; Thyateira
column ruins. Right; Thyateira, the building with apsis of wall ruins. |
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In ancient times. Thyateira was an important center of activity. It was on the
ancient road from Bosphorus (Istanbul) to Pergamum-Bergama) via Prousa (Bursa) and then to
Sardeis fsart) and Laodicea (Denizli). This route was extending to Persia. There was an
alternative route to Sardeis via Gordos which implied the importance of the transportation
between Lydia capital Sardeis and Thyateira Roads coming from Ephesos (Efes). Smyrna
flzmir) and Magnesia ad Spilum (Manisa) were all making a busy intersection at Thyateira.
(Akhisar) |
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As an
important Lydian city, Thyateira was at the center of many small towns and villages
administratively and politically bound to itself. The most notable towns of Thyateira were
Attaleia (Selcikli, Hadrianapolis Siledik), Yortan (Bostancı). Kalanda (Gelenbe). Nakrasa
İlyaslar).
In 1 st and 2nd centuries
AD, when Christianity popularity, Roman Emperors were ruthless against the first
Christians. The churches were ruined ansi Christianity was prohibited. Despite all these
counteractions, Christianity was spreading Art Westearn Anotolia by the help and
leadership of apostles like Stiean and St. Paul. |
A Monogram on destuctived
columns in Thyateira
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| Thyateira is 100
kms from Izmir. Former .Thyateira was probably founded in the Lydian Period. Later it was
captured by Selencus, diadoch King of Syria and Mesopotamia after the death of Alexander
the Great.. In the third century B.C. after the defeat of'Antiochus II in the Battle of
Magnesia against the Roman in I 90. the town became part of the Kingdom of Pergamum,
and later a Roman possession in 133. Later on, Christianity spread here very rapidly and
the town is mentioned amongst the Seven churches of the Apocalypse (book of Revelation). |
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| Emperor Caracalla
stayed here for some time. In the Byzantine period the town flourished, but no historical
particulars are known about it. |
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Roman period, an Eros figure in Thyateira. But
the wars that broke out towards the end of Byzantine times caused the downfall of the
town. In about 1313 AD, it was occupied by Saruhan, the Seljuk Emir of Manisa, And in 1425
The Plain of Akhisar became the scene of a battle against the Turkish adventurer.Cunait.
(Cüneyt Bey) |
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After Cunaits defeat. Thyateira, now named Akhisar, was occupied by the Ottomans who made
it part of their Empire. Today, despite of its long past, Akhisar is a prosperous modem'
city and an important commercial center of the Aegean Region. But in present Akhisar there
are only a very few remains left from the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine times. |
| Akhisar, former Thyateira, lies
in the long valley through which leads a highway to the West, to Pergamum and far beyond
to the Aegean Sea. Westwards, this main road leads to ancient Philadelphia, Sardis and
Laodicea, where it links up with the roads both to Smyrna and Ephesus in the West, and
with Byzantium and Nicea in the North. |
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| So the town was on
the gateway from the East to Pergamum, the capital of the province, so it was on the road
upon which the imperial post travelled. |
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Left and right;
Thyateira ruins |
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The Acts of the Apostles reads; We set sail from Troas, making a straight run for
Samothrace, and on the next day to Neapolis, and from there to Philip pi, a leading city
in that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We spent some time in that city. On the
sabbath we went outside the city gate along the river where we thought there would be a
place of prayer. We sat and spoke with the women who had gathered there. One of them, a
woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of Thyateira, a worshiper of
God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying.
After she and her household had been baptized, she offered us an invitation, If you
consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home,' and she prevailed on us. |
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To the angel of the
church in Thyateira, write this:
The Son of God, whose eyes
are like a fiery flame and whose feet are like polished brass, says this: "I know
your works, your love, faith, service, and endurance, and that your last works are greater
than the first. Yet I hold this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who
calls herself a prophetess, who teaches and misleads my servants to play the harlot and to
eat food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent, but she refuses to repent
of her harlotry. So I will cast her on a sickbed and plunge those who commit adultery with
her into intense suffering unless they repent of her works. |
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I will also put her children to death. Thus shall all the churches come to know that I am
the searcher of hearts and minds and that I will give each of you what your works deserve.
But I say to the rest of you into Thyateira, who do not uphold this teaching and know
nothing of the so- called deep secrets of Satan: on you I will place no further burden,
except that you must hold fast to what you have until I come. |
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