According to archival sources, M.S. VII. He was the commander of a naval unit in the Muawiyah Army during the Islamic raids in the 19th century. Ömer attacked the northern coast of the island with his soldiers. In the battle that took place where the soldiers landed, Commander Ömer and his six friends were martyred by local Byzantine soldiers and their bodies were put in coffins and buried in a cave here. After the conquest of the island by the Turks in 1571, these graves were found, their remains were removed from the cave and buried where they are now, and a mausoleum and a mosque were built over them. Hz. whose body is in this tomb. Caliph Hz. Omar, one of the companions of our Prophet. He has no close or distant connection with Omar. According to Islamic belief, a martyr can be buried in the place where he was martyred and the place where the martyr lies is considered holy land. Hz. In addition to the information found in archive sources about the construction of Ömeri Tomb and Masjid, there are also different legendary stories circulating among the public.
Folk Legend 1
According to legend, long ago, pirates would plunder the coasts and kidnap women and girls. One day, while a shepherd named Hacı Hasan was grazing his flock there, he saw a bare-masted ship approaching the shore.
He realizes that they are pirates and hides behind the rocks. Meanwhile, he begins to pray to God to save people from the hands of pirates. At that moment, seven bearded cavalrymen riding on red h
nto the sea. As they make their way towards the ship on the sea and reach it, the ship and the cavalry disappear. Seeing this, Hacı Hasan comes out of his hiding place, goes to the rocks and sees the horseshoe prints on them. He returns to the village and tells this incident to the villagers. The villagers do not believe Hacı Hasan and come to the shore and see the horseshoes on the rocks.
When they see the traces with their own eyes, they become convinced that the shepherd is telling the truth. After that day, when pirates did not come to this village again, the villagers said; In order to express their gratitude to the seven cavalrymen, they built a tomb and a mosque on the rock where the horseshoe prints are located, with the money they collected.
orses appear. After looking at the shepherd and the approaching ship, the cavalrymen shoot their horses with fire from their horseshoes and ride them from the rocks on the seashore i
Folk Legend 2
According to a second legend, the commander of the Arab Army, Omar, came to Cyprus as an officer. In order to protect himself from the Byzantines, he and his six friends raided a cave to the southeast of the current tomb. Ömer and his friends are martyred in the conflict inside the cave. Two years later, their bodies were found intact and buried in the same place by the public. The cave in question; Until 1974, it was considered sacred by Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots and was visited for votive purposes. Location and Situation of the Tomb of Hazrat Omer. When we proceed to the beach about a kilometer from Çatalköy, we see Hz. Ömer Tomb has two floors, and there is a portico-shaped entrance on the lower floor, to the south of the place where the tomb is located. From here you can go down to the tomb and the mosque. The tomb with seven graves to the right of the entrance is covered with a dome, and the other parts are covered with a flat ceiling. On the second floor, there are rooms for visitors divided by arches. The interior and exterior walls were plastered with lime. It was damaged by the destruction of the Greeks in 1963 and by lightning in 1974. As a result of an unconscious repair carried out in 1978, it partially lost its real character.