The Hagia Sophia Is Now a Mosque

The Hagia Sophia in Constantinople was built by the Byzantines in the sixth century AD as a Christian church. It was the largest and arguably the most famous Christian church in the world for nearly a thousand years. After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, it was converted into a mosque and, after the establishment of the modern Republic of Turkey, it was converted into a museum.

Then, on 10 July 2020, amidst international outcry, the Turkish government officially converted it back into a mosque. On 21 August 2020, the Chora Church, another famous Byzantine church in İstanbul that had previously been converted into a mosque and then a museum, was converted back into a mosque as well.

These decisions, in particular the decision regarding the Hagia Sophia, have triggered a great deal of international debate. Unfortunately, there is a very long and complex history behind this discussion that is often left out. In order to fully understand this debate, we need to talk about the history of the Hagia Sophia, who built it, why it was turned into a mosque to begin with, and why it was later turned into a museum.

The ancient tradition of appropriating places of worship

Before we talk about the Hagia Sophia itself, we should cover a little bit of historical background. There is actually a very ancient tradition of adapting old places of worship to new religions. For instance, as I discuss in this article I published in April 2020, early Christians converted many ancient Greek and Roman temples into Christian churches.

The Parthenon on the Athenian Akropolis was originally constructed between 447 and 432 BC as a temple to the Greek virgin goddess Athena, but, in the late sixth century AD, it was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Similarly, the Temple of Hephaistos in the Athenian Agora, which was originally constructed between 449 and 415 BC, was converted into a Christian church dedicated to Saint Georgios Akamates in around the late seventh century AD.

The Pantheon in Rome was originally constructed between 113 and 125 AD as a temple to all the Roman deities (hence the name, which means “Of All Deities” in Greek). In 609 AD, however, it was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and all the Christian martyrs. It remains in use as a Catholic Church to this day.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the exterior of the Pantheon in Rome, which was originally built as a Roman temple, but is used today as a Roman Catholic church

In the seventh century AD, Muslims began conquering lands that had previously been ruled by Christians. Naturally, they did the same thing that Christians had done before them and converted buildings that had been previously used as Christian churches into mosques. For instance, the Umayyad Mosque in the Old City of Damascus was constructed between 706 and 715 AD on the site that had previously been occupied by a Byzantine church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist.

The result of this is that some sacred sites have been repurposed so many times that no one is really sure who owned the site first. For instance, in around 600 AD or thereabouts, the Visigoths built a Christian basilica in the city of Córdoba in southern Spain dedicated to Saint Vincent of Lérins. Some people think that this basilica may have been built on a site that had been previously occupied by a Roman temple, but we don’t really know for certain because the site can’t be excavated.

In 711 AD, the city of Córdoba was conquered by the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate. Consequently, the Visigothic basilica was split between Christians and Muslims, with the Christians using one half of the basilica and the Muslims using the other half. In 784 AD, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān I bought the Christian half of the basilica, demolished it, and used the site to built the Great Mosque of Córdoba.

Then, in 1236, Córdoba was conquered by the Kingdom of Castile under the rule of King Ferdinand III and the Great Mosque was converted into a Catholic cathedral. It remains a cathedral to this day. This continues to be a source of controversy, since there are many who believe it should either be restored as a mosque or converted into a museum.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the Great Mosque/Cathedral of Córdoba

The Hagia Sophia under the Byzantines

This brings us to the Hagia Sophia. Of all the religious buildings on earth, the Hagia Sophia undoubtedly has one of the most complicated histories. The building itself is infused with pagan, Christian, and Islamic elements.

The Hagia Sophia that exists today is actually the third church built on the site. The original church on the site was consecrated in 360 AD during the reign of Emperor Constantius II. That building, however, was destroyed during a riot in 404 AD. The church was rebuilt under the orders of Theodosios II and consecrated in 415 AD. That church, however, was almost completely destroyed in January 532 AD during the Nika riots.

Emperor Justinian I ordered the construction of the present-day Hagia Sophia in February 532 AD. The cathedral was designed by the brilliant architects Isidoros of Miletos and Anthemios of Tralleis. It was completed in the year 537. The Hagia Sophia remained the most important church in the city of Constantinople for the entire remaining history of the Byzantine Empire. Nonetheless, the Hagia Sophia underwent many significant changes during its time as a church.

During the reign of Leon III the Isaurian (ruled 717 – 741 AD), the veneration of icons was banned and all images of religious figures contained within the Hagia Sophia were destroyed. The veneration of icons was legalized again with the Second Council of Nikaia in 787 AD during the regency of Eirene Sarantapechaina, but it was banned again during the reign of Leon V the Armenian (ruled 813 – 820 AD). Ultimately, the veneration of icons was legalized for the final time during the regency of Theodora (ruled as regent 842 – 855 AD), who had been the wife of the previous emperor Theophilos.

As a result of the iconoclast periods of Byzantine history, all the surviving images of Christian religious figures in the Hagia Sophia date to after the reign of Theodora. The oldest mosaic currently housed within the Hagia Sophia is the mosaic from the apse of the cathedral depicting the infant Jesus resting on the lap of the Virgin Mary, which was dedicated on 29 March 867 by Patriarch Photios I during the reign of the emperors Michael III and Basileios I.

ABOVE: Mosaic from the apse of the Hagia Sophia depicting the infant Jesus resting on the lap of the Virgin Mary, dedicated on 29 March 867

After the Sack of Constantinople by the Latin Crusaders in 1204, the Hagia Sophia was converted from an Eastern Orthodox cathedral into a Roman Catholic cathedral. In July 1261, the Byzantines managed to take back the city of Constantinople from the Latins and the Hagia Sophia resumed its former status as an Eastern Orthodox church.

The famous Deësis mosaic in the imperial enclosure in the upper gallery of the Hagia Sophia, depicting Jesus Christ enthroned in majesty with the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist supplicating on either side of him, was most likely installed in 1261 in celebration of the cathedral’s return to Orthodoxy.

ABOVE: Photograph of the famous Deësis mosaic in the imperial enclosure in the upper gallery of the Hagia Sophia, dated to c. 1261

Ottoman conquest

The Byzantine Empire managed to survive for an astoundingly long time, but, over that time, its power gradually waned. By the early fifteenth century, it was a shadow of its former self, having lost nearly all its former territories.

On 6 April 1453, the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Sultan Mehmed II laid siege to the city of Constantinople. The city held out for fifty-three days. On 21 May, Mehmed II offered Emperor Konstantinos XI Palaiologos the opportunity to surrender the city, but Konstantinos XI refused. On 26 May, the Ottomans began preparing for their final assault. The last official Christian ceremony ever held in the Hagia Sophia was held on the evening of 28 May, with the emperor himself in attendance.

Finally, on 29 May, the Ottomans launched their final assault. The city fell. Islamic law at the time held that, if a Christian city surrendered, its churches and other buildings would be allowed to remain churches. If a city had to be taken by force, however, the law dictated that all its churches and religious buildings were forfeit and that they could be looted and converted into mosques by the conquerors.

ABOVE: Painting by the Greek painter Theofilos Chatzimichail of the final battle for the city of Constantinople on 29 May 1453

Because Constantinople had to be taken by force, all the churches in the city were automatically forfeit to the Ottomans by right of conquest. Mehmed spared many of the churches in the city, allowing them to continue operating as churches under the pretext that the districts of the city that they were located in had surrendered to his forces after the Theodosian walls were breached.

The Hagia Sophia, however, he immediately converted into a mosque. Over the following centuries, the church bells, the altar, the iconostasis, the ambo, the baptistry, and other distinctively Christian parts of the church were torn out. The Christian mosaics depicting figures such as Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and various saints and emperors were plastered over. Four minarets, a mihrab, and a minbar were added.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the mihrab of the Hagia Sophia, which stands in the apse where the altar, the ambo, and the iconostasis used to be

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the Hagia Sophia’s southeast minaret, which is the oldest of the building’s four minarets

Elements from traditional Greek and Roman temples in the Hagia Sophia

Thus, the Hagia Sophia has been used as an Eastern Orthodox church, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and a Muslim mosque. The religious identity of the building is further complicated by the fact that, although the Hagia Sophia was originally built as a church and we don’t have concrete evidence that there was ever a pagan temple on the site, the building as it exists today incorporates a large number of pieces taken from much older Greek temples and other religious structures.

The Beautiful Gate in the south exit of the inner narthex of the Hagia Sophia was incorporated into the cathedral in the year 838 during the reign of the iconoclast emperor Theophilos. It was salvaged from a Greek temple in the city of Tarsos in Asia Minor and is believed to date to the second century BC, making it the oldest part of the building.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the Beautiful Gate of the Hagia Sophia, which was salvaged from ancient Greek temple and is believed to date to the second century BC

Two colossal marble lustration urns taken from an ancient Greek temple in Pergamon were placed in the Hagia Sophia during the reign of Sultan Murad III. The urns are believed to date to around the second century BC or thereabouts.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a marble lustration urn originally from an ancient Greek temple in the city of Pergamon dated to around the second century AD on display inside the Hagia Sophia

In the outer narthex of the Hagia Sophia, there is an altar carved from red porphyry that was probably made during the reign of Diocletian (ruled 284 – 305 AD) to be used for traditional rituals in honor of the Roman deities. I can’t find any sources about how it wound up in the Hagia Sophia, but it’s there.

ABOVE: Photograph taken by Ken Grubb of Turkey Central of the porphyry altar that stands in the Hagia Sophia’s outer narthex

Even more overtly pagan elements can be found in the Basilica Cistern, which is located underground, about 150 meters southwest of the Hagia Sophia itself. Two columns in the cistern reuse ancient blocks carved with the image of the Gorgon Medousa. The exact origin of these carved blocks is unknown, but they were most likely removed from a building that was originally constructed during the late Roman period.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of one of the ancient blocks in the Basilica Cistern carved with the face of Medousa

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the other ancient block in the Basilica Cistern carved with the face of Medousa

The Hagia Sophia as a museum

The Hagia Sophia does not fully belong to practitioners of any one religion because it has enormous significance for practitioners of many different religions, including Eastern Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholics, Muslims, and even pagans. It also has tremendous secular political significance as well.

In the aftermath of World War I, the Ottoman government of Turkey was overthrown and, on 29 October 1923, Turkey was proclaimed a republic. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who had been the most significant figure in the founding of the Turkish republic, became Turkey’s first president. Atatürk instituted radical reforms, pushing Turkey in a secular nationalist direction.

In 1931, the Hagia Sophia was closed as a mosque. In 1934, the Council of Ministers of the new Turkish Republic decided to reopen the building as a museum. This was a very deliberate, symbolic act done to show that Turkey had rejected the Islamic imperialist ideology associated with the Ottoman Empire and that it was a modern secular nation-state.

The carpet covering the floor of the Hagia Sophia was removed and the original Byzantine marble floor decorations were exposed. Likewise, the white plaster covering the Christian mosaics was removed. The museum was officially opened in 1935 and, for the first time in centuries, members of the general public were able to see the Byzantine marble flooring and mosaics.

ABOVE: Portrait of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who is widely considered the most important figure in the founding of the modern Republic of Turkey

The conversion of the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque

Not all Turks agreed with the secularist ideology promoted by Atatürk’s government, however; even at the time, many Turks wanted the Hagia Sophia to remain in use as a mosque. Starting in the 1990s, Turkish leaders began taking steps that resulted in the gradual erosion of the Hagia Sophia’s status as a museum.

In 1991, the Turkish government allowed a pavilion on the Hagia Sophia’s grounds to be used for Islamic prayers and, in 2013, loudspeakers in two of the Hagia Sophia’s minarets began being used to issue the adhan, the Islamic call to prayer. On 1 July 2016, a muezzin issued the adhan from inside the Hagia Sophia itself for the first time in eighty-five years.

In October 2016, the Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs appointed an imam named Önder Soy as the official prayer leader for the Hagia Sophia, despite the fact that it was still technically a museum. At the time of his appointment, Soy mainly operated from the Hünkar Kasri, next door to the Hagia Sophia, but he did use loudspeakers in the Hagia Sophia’s minarets to issue the adhan.

ABOVE: Photograph from this article from Hurriyet Daily News of a muezzin issuing the adhan inside the Hagia Sophia for the first time in eighty-five years on 1 July 2016

These measures helped paved the way for more extreme transformation. In 2018, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan began seriously talking about fully converting the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, probably at least partly to distract from the currency and debt crisis that was going on in Turkey at the time.

On 10 July 2020, the Turkish Council of State overturned the Council of Ministers’ 1934 decision to convert the Hagia Sophia into a museum, ruling that the building could not legally be used “for any other purpose” than as a mosque. Minutes later, President Erdoğan signed a decree officially transferring control of the Hagia Sophia from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to the Directorate of Religious Affairs and ordering for the monument to be converted into a mosque as soon as possible.

On 23 July 2020, Islamic Friday prayers were held in the Hagia Sophia for the first time since 1931. The mosaic of the infant Jesus resting on the lap of the Virgin Mary that decorates the apse of the building was temporarily covered by a white shroud during the service, since the mosaic faces in the direction of prayer and, in Islam, it is considered idolatrous to pray while facing an image of a religious figure.

ABOVE: Photograph from this article from NPR of Turkish Muslims praying in the Hagia Sophia on Friday, 23 July 2020

What “converting” the Hagia Sophia and the Chora Church means

On the surface, as far as the buildings themselves are concerned, the Turkish government’s decisions to convert the Hagia Sophia and the Chora Church back into mosques means very little.

The Turkish government has clarified that both buildings will remain open to all visitors of all faiths free of charge. The Christian mosaics and artwork decorating the interiors of the buildings will continue to be preserved, although some mosaics will be covered by curtains during Friday prayers. Aside from the fact that the buildings will now be used for Islamic prayers, not much else is expected to physically change.

Despite this, Erdoğan’s decision to convert the Hagia Sophia and the Chora Church back into mosques is still hugely significant—not because the conversion will result in significant change to the buildings themselves or to who can access them, but rather because of what the conversion means symbolically.

In converting the Hagia Sophia and the Chora Church into mosques, Erdoğan is effectively doing two things. First, he is making an unambiguous statement about what kind of nation Turkey is. He is rejecting Atatürk’s philosophy of secular anti-imperialism and embracing Mehmet II’s philosophy of Islamic imperialism. He is declaring for the whole world that Turkey is an imperialist nation and that the Turkish government accepts the right of conquest as legitimate.

ABOVE: The Entrance of Mehmed II into Constantinople, painted by the Italian historical painter Fausto Zonaro (lived 1854 – 1929)

That’s not all Erdoğan is doing, though; he’s also giving a huge middle finger to Greece, Greek people, and Orthodox Christians around the world. Although the Hagia Sophia has not actually been used as a church for centuries, Orthodox Christians—especially Orthodox Christians of Greek ethnic background—around the world continue to regard it as the mother church. The Hagia Sophia has close to the same significance for Orthodox Christians that Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome has for Catholics. By converting it back into a mosque, Erdoğan is being overtly and deliberately antagonistic.

Naturally, Greek people have responded to Erdoğan’s policies with outrage. In a written statement issued on 10 July, Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni condemned the decision to convert the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque as “an open provocation to the civilized world.” She went on to assert that “the nationalism displayed by Erdogan … takes his country back six centuries” and that the fact that the Turkish court ruled in favor of this decision “absolutely confirms that there is no independent justice” in Turkey.

On that same day, Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides issued a tweet from his official Twitter account stating:

“Cyprus strongly condemns Turkey’s actions on Hagia Sophia in its effort to distract domestic opinion and calls on Turkey to respect its international obligations.”

It wasn’t long before non-Greek Christians started weighing in as well. On 11 July, the World Council of Churches, a Christian ecumenical organization representing members of 349 different denominations, issued an open letter to President Erdoğan in which they warned:

“The decision to convert such an emblematic place as Hagia Sophia from a museum back to a mosque will inevitably create uncertainties, suspicions and mistrust, undermining all our efforts to bring people of different faiths together at the table of dialogue and cooperation. Moreover, we greatly fear that it will encourage the ambitions of other groups elsewhere that seek to overturn the existing status quo and to promote renewed divisions between religious communities.”

On 12 July, during the weekly recitation of the Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis remarked, “Penso a Santa Sofia, a Istanbul, e sono molto addolorato,” which means, “I think of Sancta Sophia, of İstanbul, and I am very saddened.”

On 14 July, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the conservative prime minister of Greece, declared, “With this backward action, Turkey is opting to sever links with western world and its values.” He called on the European Union to issue sanctions against Turkey, declaring that Turkey “seeks to be a regional troublemaker” and that it “is evolving into a threat to the stability of the whole south-east Mediterranean region.”

I think that a lot of this rhetoric is overblown and unnecessarily belligerent. In particular, Mendoni’s assertion that Turkey is somehow not part of “the civilized world” is ridiculous; whatever else you may think of Turkey, it is definitely civilized. Meanwhile, with regard to Mitsotakis’s claims about “western values,” as I discuss in this article I published in February 2020, the idea that there is a single, unique “western civilization” with a single set of unique and coherent values is nothing but a modern conservative fantasy.

Nonetheless, I fully understand why people like Mendoni and Mitsotakis are so upset. Turning the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque after it having been a museum for over eighty years is clearly a blatant act of provocation.

ABOVE: Photograph of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who has called for sanctions against Turkey

Why Erdoğan is doing this

This brings us to the question of why Erdoğan is doing this. There’s no practical reason why the Hagia Sophia or the Chora Church should be turned into mosques. Turkey certainly has no shortage of mosques. A count taken in 2013 found that there were 82,693 mosques in the country of Turkey and 3,113 mosques in the city of İstanbul alone.

Moreover, the Hagia Sophia is literally right next to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque, which is one of the largest and most beautiful mosques in the world. Indeed, as I discuss in my article from June 2020 about why the Byzantines are historically significant, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque is clearly modeled after the Hagia Sophia and the two buildings look so much alike that visitors often get them confused.

The reason why Erdoğan is doing this is clearly because his popularity in Turkey is declining—primarily as a result of his incompetent handling of both the 2018 currency crisis and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic—and he is desperately trying to appease his devout Muslim supporters by doing something he thinks they will like. In other words, he’s using a tactic that is beloved by President Donald Trump: provoking international outrage in order to appease his base.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the exterior of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in İstanbul

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the interior of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in İstanbul

A foolish pipe dream of mine

If I’m honest, I don’t really have a problem with Muslims using the Hagia Sophia for prayer; the difficulty comes from the official designation of the Hagia Sophia as a mosque and the fact that Muslims are the only ones who are allowed to use it for religious services.

I think that, if the Turkish government is going to let Muslims use the Hagia Sophia for religious services, then they should at least let Christians do the same thing. In effect, what I’m saying is that Christians and Muslims could conceivably share the Hagia Sophia. It could be used for Muslim prayer on Fridays and Christian church services on Sundays. Rather than being a point of international contention, it could be a symbol of religious cooperation.

Before you dismiss me as insane, let me stress that this isn’t a totally ridiculous idea. After all, the Visigothic basilica of Saint Vincent of Lérins in Córdoba was shared peacefully between Christians and Muslims for seventy-three years until it was torn down to build the Great Mosque. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem has been shared between six different Christian denominations since 1757 and, despite a few fights that have broken out over the years, the situation has been mostly peaceful.

Unfortunately, I know this will probably never happen. It certainly won’t happen under the current Turkish administration. It is, however, an idea that I think is at least worth considering.