“Learn the whole truth about Muhammad.”

 Abdul Hamid ordered that the tomb of Muhammad, which was located next to the mosque, be opened in order to determine whether it had suffered any damage and to have any such damage repaired.

The tomb was therefore opened, and at a depth of three meters, an iron trapdoor was discovered. From there, a stone staircase led to the underground chamber of the Byzantine church. There, a marble tomb was found containing the embalmed body of Muhammad, identical to the portrait painted by the Italian painter Bellini, five months before the death of the Conqueror.

This fact alone constitutes, for many, the greatest evidence that Muhammad wished to be buried as a Christian and Byzantine emperor, among the other Byzantine emperors.

Sultan Abdul Hamid, who for political reasons had abandoned Bektashism at that time—that is, heterodox Islam, which he had previously followed and embraced—and had adopted Sunnism, namely orthodox Islam, was seized by panic and ordered that Muhammad’s tomb be immediately sealed.

The above events took place before 1908, and since then Muhammad’s tomb has never been reopened. For this reason, it is impossible today to verify the testimony attributed to Beyatlı.

Nevertheless, it constitutes the testimony of a prominent Turk who had no apparent ulterior motive and had no reason to portray Muhammad as a Christian.

Today, that area is forbidden, and no one—whether an archaeologist or a religious leader—is permitted to approach it, thus deepening the mystery surrounding the Byzantine imperial tombs as well as the tombs of the sultans of the Ottoman Empire.

It is a fact that similar testimonies have circulated from time to time in Turkey, but, for understandable reasons, they have never been given much publicity.

It is particularly noteworthy, however, that on December 19, 1996, the widely circulated Turkish weekly magazine Aktüel, belonging to the media group of the well-known newspaper Sabah, was published with the striking headline:

“Was the Conqueror a Christian?”

Underneath, it carried the subtitle:

“Historians have been unable to solve this mystery to this day, 540 years after the death of the great Fatih.”