Editing Mosque (section)

===Inter-religious conversion===
{{see also|Conversion of non-Muslim places of worship into mosques|List of former mosques in Spain|List of former mosques in Portugal}}
[[File:Turkey-3019 - Hagia Sophia (2216460729).jpg|thumb|The [[Hagia Sophia]] in [[Istanbul]], Turkey, was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453]]

According to early [[List of Muslim historians|Muslim historians]], towns that surrendered without resistance and made treaties with the Muslims were allowed to retain their churches and the towns captured by Muslims had many of their churches converted to mosques.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Houtsma |first=M. Th. |title=E.J. Brill's First Encyclopedia of Islam, 1913–1936 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Va6oSxzojzoC&pg=PA321 |access-date=21 February 2013 |year=1993 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-09791-9 |page=320}}</ref> One of the earliest examples of these kinds of conversions was in [[Damascus]], Syria, where in 705 [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] [[caliph]] [[Al-Walid I]] bought the church of [[John the Baptist|St. John]] from the [[Christians]] and had it rebuilt as a mosque in exchange for building a number of new churches for the Christians in Damascus. Overall, [[Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan]] (Al-Waleed's father) is said to have transformed 10 churches in Damascus into mosques.<ref>Houtsma p. 21</ref>

The process of turning churches into mosques were especially intensive in the villages where most of the inhabitants [[Religious conversion|converted]] to Islam.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}} The [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] caliph [[al-Ma'mun]] turned many churches into mosques. [[Ottoman Turks]] converted nearly all churches, monasteries, and chapels in [[Constantinople]], including the famous [[Hagia Sophia]], into mosques immediately after [[fall of Constantinople|capturing the city in 1453]]. In some instances mosques have been established on the places of [[Judaism|Jewish]] or Christian sanctuaries associated with [[Bible|Biblical]] personalities who were also recognized by Islam.<ref name="Masdjid1">{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Hillenbrand |first=R |editor=P.J. Bearman |editor2=Th. Bianquis |editor3=[[Clifford Edmund Bosworth|C.E. Bosworth]] |editor4=E. van Donzel |editor5=[[Wolfhart Heinrichs|W.P. Heinrichs]] |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam]] Online |title=Masdjid. I. In the central Islamic lands |publisher=Brill Academic Publishers |issn=1573-3912}}</ref>

Mosques have also been converted for use by other religions, notably in southern Spain, following the conquest of the Moors in 1492.<ref>{{Cite book |title=How Islam Plans to Change the World |last=Wagner |first=William |publisher=Kregel Publications |page=[https://archive.org/details/howislamplanstoc0000wagn/page/99 99] |quote=When the Moors were driven out of Spain in 1492, most of the mosques were converted into churches |isbn=978-0-8254-3965-0 |year=2004 |url=https://archive.org/details/howislamplanstoc0000wagn/page/99 }}</ref> The most prominent of them is the [[Cathedral–Mosque of Córdoba|Great Mosque of Cordoba]], itself constructed on the site of a church demolished during the period of Muslim rule. Outside of the [[Iberian Peninsula]], such instances also occurred in southeastern Europe once regions were no longer under Muslim rule.