The majestic church-turned-mosque-turned-museum, and now turned-mosque again, has stood the test of time and war for almost 1,500 years.-
By Jehan Alfarra, Middle East Eye
At the heart of the Old Town of Istanbul stands a true manifestation of the marvellous city which has long bridged Europe and Asia, East and West, and a striking testimony to the tremendous histories of Islam and Orthodox Christianity — Hagia Sophia.
The majestic church-turned-mosque-turned-museum, and now turned-mosque again, has stood the test of time and war for almost 1,500 years, surviving centuries of conquest and serving as the main religious building for two of history’s greatest empires: the Byzantine and the Ottoman.
Built as the patriarchal cathedral of the imperial capital of Constantinople in 537, Hagia Sophia — Latin for ‘Holy Wisdom’ — was hailed as the epitome of Byzantine architecture and remained the largest church in all of Christendom for nearly 1,000 years.
With the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror proclaimed Hagia Sophia as the new imperial mosque of the city which he renamed ‘Isranbul’. He established a charitable endowment to restore and preserve the monument, with a significant annual income of 14,000 gold pieces per year.
In marked contrast with the looting, desecration and damage the monument had suffered by western Christian crusaders during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the Sultan ordered that the Christian interior of Hagia Sophia be preserved and that new decorations be added to reflect its new Islamic identity. A wooden minaret, a tower used for the summons to prayer, was added to the exterior of the building, as well as a pulpit and a mihrab indicating the direction of Makkah. The original wooden minaret did not survive and a new minaret made from red brick was erected in its place at the southeast corner. The brick minaret can be seen today along with three other minarets that were added over the next few centuries.
1800s St. Sophia Church in Constantinople Istanbul [Cushing/ClassicStock/Getty Images]
As you step inside, you are immediately taken aback by Hagia Sophia’s grand suspended dome reaching over fifty metres high and over thirty metres in diameter, with light reflecting through the windows all around its base. Beneath you are met with eight reinforcing Colinthian columns brought from Baalbak in Lebanon after the original dome had collapsed in an earthquake.
The interior is also laden with great columns taken from the Temple of Artemis, the Greek Goddess of the Hunt and the Moon. A unique column, dubbed the ‘crying column’ or the ‘wishing column’, sits at the northwest of the building with a hole in the middle covered by bronze plates. The column is said to carry supernatural healing powers. According to legends, it dampens when touched and the moisture cures many illnesses.
![A general view inside the Haghia Sofia (Aya Sofya) on February 23, 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey [Dan Kitwood/Getty Images]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Haghia-Sofia.jpg?resize=933.5%2C622&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
A general view inside the Haghia Sofia (Aya Sofya) in Istanbul, Turkey on 23 February 2012 [Dan Kitwood/Getty Images]
Hagia Sophia’s walls are donned with lavish Christian mosaics, Islamic calligraphy and even runic inscriptions presumed to have been left by Viking members of the Varangian Guard, an elite unit of the Byzantine army.
Each wall, inscription and tile in Hagia Sophia tells a fascinating story of the civilisations it has witnessed and everything it had endured.
Damaged and missing mosaics desecrated and looted during the Latin occupation in the Fourth Crusade [BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images]
Hagia Sophia served as a mosque for nearly 500 years, until the Republic of Turkey was declared in 1923 following the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in World War I and the abolition of the Sultanate. The first President of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, turned the Great Mosque of Hagia Sophia into a museum in 1935 as a symbol of ‘secularism’.
In 1985, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been one of Turkey’s most popular tourist destinations, attracting millions of visitors every year.
Gli the cat who has made Hagia Sophia her home in Istanbul, on 10 July 2020 [OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images]
On 10 July 2020, a Turkish court repealed the 1934 order which turned the monument into a museum, deeming the decree ‘illegal’ and restoring its status as a mosque. New carpets were rolled out as it opened to Mulsim worship, but it remains open to tourists and the public.
What constitutes a jewel of the Byzantine Empire for some has been revered as a symbol of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople for others and a key icon of Turkish heritage and culture.
