More and more signs are pointing to Istanbul's famous Hagia Sophia, currently a museum, slowly returning to a past role as a mosque. During Ramadan, the Koran was read aloud for the second year in a row.
Image: picture-alliance/akg/Bildarchiv Steffens
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The once largest mosque in the world, Istanbul's landmark Hagia Sophia has again served as a place of religious Muslim practice. For the second Ramadan in a row, Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs organized services and a Koran reading from within what has been a museum since 1935. The event was televised.
Traces of Christian heritage: Priceless murals adorn the walls inside the Hagia SophiaImage: Getty Images
"The Hagia Sophia belongs to world heritage under UNESCO,” read a sharply worded statement from the Greek government. "The attempt to turn it into a mosque by way of Koran reading is an affront to the global community.” The Conference of European Churches (CEC) also expressed concern.
The Hagia Sophia has long been a tug of war among religious, political and cultural groups. It was a church for 1,000 years before being converted into a mosque in 1453. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk declared it a museum in 1935 as part of his campaign to secularize his modern-day Turkish Republic. However, not all Turks adopted secular society so easily, for whom Islam played a central role for centuries.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern secular TurkeyImage: AP
"The sad remnants of a dying culture were present everywhere,” wrote the secular Turkish author, Orhan Pamuk, born in 1952, about the former Islamic Ottoman era. "Europeanization seemed to speak less of a push towards modernization and more of the wish to be rid of the painful memories of a fallen empire as quickly as possible.”
Melancholy and misuse
Today's nationalist Islamic groups use this painful past for their purposes. The desire to return to the days when Islam, even in its most extreme form, was more publicly visible is a rallying cry for some political parties.
Both the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of President Recep Erdogan, who both woo conservative voters, have been supportive of the Hagia Sophia returning to religious functions. The National Turkish Student Union submitted a petition in 2013 to reestablish the museum as a mosque.
Museum, church or mosque? The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul
The Hagia Sophia, with its massive dome and four minarets, is nearly 1,500 years old. Turkey's top court has now paved the way for the museum to be reconverted to a mosque.
Image: picture-alliance/Marius Becker
Architectural milestone
In 532, Roman Emperor Justinian ordered the construction of an awe-inspiring church in his residence Constantinople — "one that has never existed since Adam's time, and one that will never exist again". Roughly 10,000 workers were involved in the construction work. For a millennium, the Bosporus basilica remained Christendom’s biggest church.
Image: imago/blickwinkel
The coronation church of Byzantium
Justinian is said to have invested almost 150 tons of gold into the construction of the Hagia Sophia. The building was in need of some corrections though: At first, the cupola was too flat and caved in during earthquakes. The Hagia Sophia — "Holy Wisdom" — soon came to be used as the Roman Empire's official church. From the 7th century onwards, almost all Byzantine emperors were crowned there.
Image: Getty Images
Transformation of a church into a mosque
The year 1453 saw the end of Byzantine rule in Constantinople. After conquering the City, Sultan Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire turned the Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Crosses were exchanged for crescents, bells and altars destroyed or removed, mosaics and frescoes painted over. The addition of the first minaret completed the transformation into a mosque.
Image: public domain
A mosque turned into a museum
The founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, turned the Hagia Sophia into a museum in 1934. During the very sumptuous restoration works, old Byzantine mosaics were excavated. On July 10, 2020, a Turkish top court annulled the 1934 decree, according to reports by state news agency Anadolu, clearing the way for it to be reconverted into a mosque.
Image: AP
Islam on a par with Christianity
The eventful history of the Hagia Sophia is visible everywhere. The letterings "Mohamed" (left) and "Allah" (right) flank the Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus on her lap (in the back). The Hagia Sophia has been a World Heritage Site since 1985.
Image: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images
Byzantian icons
The most splendid mosaic in the Hagia Sophia is a work of art from the 14th century which had been excavated on the wall of the southern gallery. Even though it could not be fully restored, the faces are clearly discernible: Jesus as the ruler of the world is depicted in the middle accompanied by Mary to his left and John to his right.
Image: STR/AFP/Getty Images
The Orthodox Christians' perspective
Bartholomew I, the Patriarch of Constantinople, and honorary head of all Orthodox Christians, has also laid claim to the Hagia Sophia. He is opposed to converting the building into a mosque. Since 1934 the Hagia Sophia has had the status of a museum, it should serve as a "place and symbol of meeting, dialogue and peaceful coexistence of peoples and cultures."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Soon a mosque again?
Turkey's top administrative court has annulled the decades-old government decree turning the Hagia Sophia into a museum, paving the way for the UNESCO World Heritage site building's restoration to mosque status, despite international warnings against such a move. It is one of the most visited monuments in Turkey.
Image: picture-alliance/Marius Becker
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The Hagia Sophia is not only an Istanbul landmark, but a "symbol of the Islamic conquest of Constantinople in 1453,” Ali Ugur Bulut, the Istanbul head of the Anatolian Youth Association (AGD), told Germany's Spiegel magazine in 2014. "It is our task to protect and pass on this Islamic legacy. The Hagia Sophia must be a mosque again.”
Empty mosques
Erdogan's government rebuked Greece's criticism of the Ramadan Koran reading at the museum, an apparent departure from a long-held AKP position. Years ago, President Erdogan said those who wanted the Hagia Sophia reinstated as a mosque should first work to support existing mosques. These often remain empty or under capacity during prayer times.
