It's official, Istanbul's Hagia Sophia is being converted back into a mosque

It is now certain: the Hagia Sophia basilica in Istanbul will become a mosque again, after 85 years. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, has won his battle to get the building back as a place of worship. It was 1934 when the founder of present-day Turkey, Kemal Atatürk, decided that St. Sophia would become a museum, signing the transformation decree on Nov. 24 of that year that allowed the basilica to become a cultural institution the following year: it was the most recent chapter in the building’s long history, which had seen it become the first Greek Catholic cathedral since its construction under Emperor Justinian (who inaugurated St. Sophia in 537 together with Patriarch Eutychius) and until 1054, then an Orthodox Christian church until 1204, then Roman Catholic for about fifty years, from 1204 to 1261, then Orthodox again until the fall of the Eastern Empire in 1453, and then a mosque for five centuries, until 1931, when the basilica was deconsecrated to be turned into a museum.

ErdoÄŸan had long pursued the idea of restoring St. Sophia’s cultic functions. As early as 2018, in defiance of the bans, he recited some verses from the Quran inside it, and then declared in March 2019 his willingness to convert the basilica back from a museum to a mosque, believing that turning it into a cultural institution had been a big mistake. Now, the latest chapter in the story: yesterday, July 10, 2020, the Turkish Council of State revoked Atatürk’s decree sanctioning the transformation into a museum, allowing St. Sophia to become a mosque again. It all stemmed from an appeal filed in 2016 by a small Islamist association that believed the conversion to a museum was illegitimate: judges at the 10th branch of Turkey’s highest administrative court agreed with the group. And President ErdoÄŸan wasted no time, immediately issuing, just an hour after the council’s decision, a presidential decree to reopen St. Sophia to worship (later also circulated on Twitter, greeted with the comment “Hayırlı olsun,” or “congratulations”).

The decision thus erases eighty-five years of history by turning back the hands of the clock, before Atatürk, with his act, wanted to give a clear signal to transform Turkey into a modern secular state, starting with one of the country’s most symbolic buildings. And now there are fears for art as well: the works preserved inside (frescoes and mosaics depicting Christian saints that are among the highest masterpieces of Byzantine art) could be covered up as not compatible with the dictates of Islam, but according to some rumors an automatic curtain system is being studied that should leave them uncovered when the rites are not being officiated.

For ErdoÄŸan, the conversion to a mosque represents a “sovereign right” of Turkey. During his address to the nation last night, the Turkish president said that St. Sophia will continue to welcome “everyone,” but that to ask that St. Sophia remain a museum would be like closing St. Peter’s Basilica to worship. The first prayer is likely to be held on July 24.

The conversion will cost Turkish coffers as much as 30 million euros a year (so much was the ticketing revenue that St. Sophia used to guarantee, which it will no longer see). And then there are the international reactions: for Athens, ErdoÄŸan’s decision is simply a "provocation.“ Very harsh is the reaction of UNESCO, which in a note ”deeply regrets the decision of the Turkish authorities, taken without discussion." Saint Sophia, said Unesco Director-General Audrey Azoulay, “is an architectural masterpiece and a unique testimony to the exchanges between Asia and Europe over the centuries. Its status as a museum reflects the universal nature of its heritage, and makes it a powerful symbol of dialogue.”

Image: the basilica of St. Sophia. Ph. Credit Adli Wahid

It's official, Istanbul's Hagia Sophia is being converted back into a mosque

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