[i]

Recently Hagia Sophia, the great landmark of Istanbul lost its status of a museum from the past 80 years and got converted into a mosque. It is a 1500-year-old structure, one of the most important world heritage sites.  It was founded as the church inspired by the east and the west. Located at one of the highland sites in Istanbul its strong influence is visible from the Bosporus Sea. This decision faced a lot of opposing from all across the world declaring ruthless and harsh behavior of the government. Now here the question is, why only this particular structure and the city which is 3000 years old, is being used for the sole purpose of politics? 

Let’s look at the brief history of the structure and the location of today’s Istanbul. They both have a story to tell. Surrounded by the Bosporus Sea from three sides, the land being admired by humans started its adventure long back in the time of neo-gothic age. It served as the capital of three known biggest empires in the world. The land established by Greek King Byzas based on the prophecy of the Oracle of Delphi, which states ‘the new country you will establish will be across from the land of blind’ [ii] indicating the overlooked location across the Bosporus Sea and it’s called Byzantium. After being part of the Roman Empire for several years, around 300 BC, because of the vast development of the Roman Empire in the eastern part, the Romans declared it as the new center of art and culture, called Constantinopolis’ from the name of its founder Constantine. Because the city developed with the marvelous beauty of God & unique location, people used to say, ‘He who concurs Constantinople conquers the world.’[iii] With the great geographical location of connecting two larger continents, it became an important location and the land that everyone wanted to possess.

A half-century later Christianity became the official religion of Rome, & Constantinople became the capital of eastern Rome of the Byzantine Empire. In the time of Byzantine Emperor Justinian, the empire flourished. The culture got a true identity where Greek-Roman and Eastern culture melted together with Christianity. During this time Emperor decided to rebuild the old burnt church of Theodosius II with extraordinary size, which was damaged during the Nika revolt. He appointed two architects for the task: Isidoros & Anthemius. The structure was constructed from the materials from all over the region for almost six years. In 537 BC, the church got inaugurated by the Emperor saying ‘let’s praise the Lord for providing me the opportunity to construct such a wondrous place of worship’[iv] and named it HAGIA SOPHIA, which means holy wisdom.’ For another 50 years, the work of mosaics and rebuilding of a 7-meter higher and lighter dome with a pendentive system went on. It has phenomenal mosaics representing the catholic symbols and figures of emperors, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus. It served as the Greek Orthodox cathedral till the 14th C with several repairs and renovations.

In the glorious time of the Byzantine Empire Constantinople became one of the strongest capital. So many times, emperors tried to conquer it, but not until the Ottomans came! After the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, the first thing Mehmed the Conqueror did was going to Hagia Sophia and converting it into a mosque, to impact the people for adapting the new king and to make them believe in a new religion. This led to cover the symbolic mosaics with plaster, and the minarets were added. Later on, the city went through lots of development and the name changed to Istanbul. Several restorations by Ottomans under Mimar Sinan for the Hagia Sophia dome took place. By the end, many mosques were constructed in the city. Till the early 19th Century, The Ottoman Empire was ruling over the region of turkey with Istanbul as the capital of their empire.
After World War-I, because of the consequences of war, under the leadership of a military commander, Mustafa Kamal Pasha led the Turkish National Moment by forming the republic of Turkey. This ended almost 600 years of ottoman monarch rule. Mustafa Kamal became the first president of Turkey. He introduced many new laws and reforms demolishing old religious traditions and transferred it into a secular constitution for making the turkey more acceptable among European countries for positive modern development. It led to the conversion of the Hagia Sophia to a museum, as an act of secularism respecting both of the religious & the heritage value of the monument. The capital moved to Ankara, and Istanbul was developed as the major economic city and tourism hub. The people and community developed there were more liberal, open-minded, and free to new modern beliefs. In 1996 the Hagia Sophia Museum came under the monuments protected by UNESCO and was declared among the major world heritage sites. While serving as a museum it was open to exploring yet very well monitored and preserved for the visitors and students. The plaster cover over the mosaic was removed, which revealed very beautiful mosaics from the Byzantine era. Analytical learning happened by studying and researching the marvelous structure. The glory of the structure is preserved till now and I was blessed to witness that.  [v]