Recently, there was news that Turkey intended to convert the Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul into a mosque. As soon as this news broke, it caused a stir among countries, and “Romanophiles” were deeply saddened. Greece promptly protested, stating that this was a sacred site of the Eastern Orthodox Church and couldn’t be changed so easily. However, Turkey paid no heed.
This matter has not been finally decided yet, but it’s said that Muslims will be able to perform prayers there on July 24. Let’s wait and see.
The Hagia Sophia is a human architectural marvel on a par with the Great Wall. Moreover, it has had many different identities throughout history. Each transformation was accompanied by significant changes in the course of history.
It served as a cathedral for 900 years, a mosque for 600 years, and a museum for over 80 years. Initially, in 325 AD (during the Western Jin Dynasty in China), the Roman Emperor Constantine I built the Hagia Sophia. At first, he suppressed Christianity. But once, before going to war, he had a dream one night. In the dream, God told him to draw crosses on all the military flags. After waking up, he ordered his subordinates to do so. As a result, in that battle, the Roman soldiers were invincible, as if they had the power of Guan Yu. They defeated an enemy twice their number. From then on, Constantine began to convert to Christianity. There’s another saying that his mother was a Christian, so he converted too. Later, he summoned archbishops from various places to compile the Bible, unified the basic doctrines of Christianity, and established the concept of the Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. After that, he built the Hagia Sophia.
Why is this church named “Hagia Sophia”? In the West, many churches and place names have the word “Saint” in them, such as Saint Louis, Saint Nicholas, Saint Patrick, Saint John, Saint George, etc. These “Saints” refer to people who were canonized as “saints” by the church because they either died as martyrs or made great contributions to the church during their lifetimes. However, the Hagia Sophia is not named after a “saint” named Sophia. “Hagia Sophia” means “wisdom” in Greek. So, if translated literally, it should be called the “Church of the Holy Wisdom.”
Unfortunately, not long after the Hagia Sophia was completed, it was burned down by a fire. Later, in 395 AD, the Roman Empire split into two, and Constantinople became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. After that, the Hagia Sophia was rebuilt several times, but it eventually became ruins during a riot.
In 527 AD, Justinian I, the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, ascended the throne. He was determined to rejuvenate the empire and was successful in both military and cultural affairs. He launched attacks on the Sasanian Empire in the east and conquered the Vandal Kingdom and the Ostrogothic Kingdom in the west. His military power reached its peak. Justinian I believed he had made great achievements and decided to rebuild the Hagia Sophia around the time of the Southern and Northern Dynasties in China.
The rebuilt cathedral was entirely made of brick and stone. Its highest point reached 55 meters. The Eastern Roman Empire spared no effort, collecting the most luxurious and exquisite building materials from all over, and even dismantling materials from ancient buildings. Many marble columns from pagan temples became part of this church. When you visit the church now, you’ll notice that the colors of the columns and the floor are not uniform.
For example, there are four dark green columns that date back to the Pharaoh era and were taken from Egyptian temples. Many of the columns and marble floors in the church were also taken from the churches of conquered regions. Thanks to such efforts, this magnificent cathedral was completed in 5 years. In contrast, the Milan Cathedral in Italy took 501 years to build, the Cologne Cathedral took 600 years, and the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, started construction in the late 19th century and is still unfinished. Later, the Hagia Sophia was surpassed by St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, St. Paul’s Cathedral in the UK, and the Milan Cathedral, and it is now the fourth – largest cathedral in the world.
After the completion of the church, Justinian was extremely proud. King Solomon in the Bible built a magnificent palace, and Justinian thought he could compare himself to Solomon. He stood in the main hall of the church and shouted, “Solomon, I have surpassed you.”
When you enter the church and look up at the dome, you’ll immediately feel the vastness of heaven, the greatness of God, and the insignificance of humans, which makes visitors feel deeply impressed. There’s a well – known historical event called the Baptism of Rus’. At that time, the Kievan Rus’ 公国 decided to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Hagia Sophia played a crucial role. The Kievan Rus’ was gradually becoming stronger, and the original polytheistic religion could no longer meet the ruling needs, so they planned to switch to a monotheistic religion. They had three choices: Judaism, Islam, and Eastern Orthodoxy.
At that time, the Christian Church was divided into Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, and Constantinople was the center of Eastern Orthodoxy. So, Prince Vladimir of the Kievan Rus’ wanted to learn more about different religions and sent 9 groups of envoys to neighboring countries to investigate. The envoys who went to Constantinople to investigate Eastern Orthodoxy attended the religious ceremonies in the Hagia Sophia. They were deeply impressed by the magnificent church and the solemn religious rituals. After returning, they reported to Prince Vladimir that they had completely forgotten whether they were on earth or in heaven. After discussing with the nobles, Prince Vladimir decided to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy. However, there was a problem. In the eyes of the Eastern Romans, the Kievan Rus’ seemed like barbarians. Prince Vladimir worried that converting to Eastern Orthodoxy might seem like flattering the Eastern Romans and make them look down on the Kievan Rus’. What should he do? His solution was simple: attack them to show the barbarians’ strength.
So, in 988 AD, Prince Vladimir led his army to attack the Eastern Roman Empire. He proposed a condition that he wanted to marry a princess of the Eastern Roman Empire. If he couldn’t marry the princess, he would attack Constantinople and leave no one alive. Emperor Basil II of the Eastern Roman Empire accepted the marriage proposal but required Prince Vladimir to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy because the princess could only marry an Eastern Orthodox believer. Prince Vladimir naturally agreed. He and his subordinates were baptized and then held a wedding with the princess.
To show respect for Basil II, Prince Vladimir took the baptismal name Basil after being baptized. Today, the fact that the East Slavs believe in Eastern Orthodoxy is undoubtedly closely related to the Hagia Sophia. When visiting Catholic and Eastern Orthodox cathedrals in European countries, people often feel a strong sense of shock, which is rarely felt in synagogues, Protestant churches, or Islamic mosques.
In the following centuries, the cathedral suffered various damages from natural disasters and wars, but fortunately, it was not completely destroyed, and its overall structure was preserved. In 1204, Constantinople was occupied by the Venetians, and the church briefly became a Catholic church. In 1453, the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople, ending more than a thousand years of Christian civilization in this area. It’s said that on the day the city was conquered, a priest was praying by the church wall with a cross in his hand. He told the people around him that he would reappear when Christianity once again ruled Constantinople, and then he disappeared into the wall.
Subsequently, Mehmed II, the conqueror, led his Janissaries into the church on horseback. As soon as he entered the door, he dismounted, prostrated himself on the ground, and praised Allah. He ordered to convert the church into a mosque, built four minarets around it, covered the original murals on the walls and the dome with mud, and removed the Christian icons and relics from the church. However, by chance, the mud actually protected the murals to a large extent. For a long time after that, this place was the most important mosque in Islam.
Although the Ottoman Turks converted the church into a mosque, their religious policy was quite tolerant compared to that of Catholic countries at that time. At its peak, non – Muslims accounted for one – third of the country’s population. Muslim soldiers, if they got along well with their captives, could even overlook ethnic and religious differences, eat, live together, and become sworn brothers. Muslims living in Athens would go to the Parthenon to pray for rain during a long drought. Once, a governor was removed from office for blowing up a pillar of the Temple of Zeus to build a mosque.
If you could travel back in time and ask an Eastern European peasant what he believed in, he would cross himself on his chest and answer, “We believe in the Prophet Muhammad, but we also revere the Virgin Mary.” It might sound absurd, like a Taoist holding a cross and chanting Buddhist scriptures, but it was a fact at that time.
In contrast, the attitude of Catholic countries in Europe towards other religions was much worse. Venice once occupied the Peloponnese Peninsula in Greece and forced the local people to convert to Catholicism, which caused great public anger. After the Venetians were driven out by the Ottoman Turks in 1715, the people of the Peloponnese welcomed the Ottoman army with food and drinks, celebrating their return to the Ottoman Empire.
However, after hundreds of years, the situation changed. Christian civilization, through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, became more humanistic. In contrast, Turkey, with its Islamic beliefs, became more conservative. In the 19th century, Turkey became a target for European countries, like a piece of fat that everyone wanted to take a bite of. Turkey was one of the three empires that were attacked by many countries in the 19th century, the other two being China and Spain.
Finally, during World War I, the Ottoman Empire couldn’t hold on. After the war, it disintegrated. Mustafa Kemal, the founding father of Turkey, established a secular country. In the 1930s, after serving as a mosque for 500 years, the Hagia Sophia was restored to its original state and converted into a museum.
Kemal did this to show Western countries that he didn’t want to be the leader of Muslim countries. This move was very popular among Western countries. Since then, Turkey has been accepted by Western countries and even joined the NATO camp during World War II. The appearance of the Hagia Sophia has remained the same until today.
Today, Turkey is the most Westernized and secular Muslim country, and Islam is not its state religion – there is no such stipulation in Turkish law. However, 98% of the country’s population believes in Islam. So, in Turkey, you can buy alcohol on the street. You rarely see people wearing headscarves or fez hats. Instead, Western – style clothing is more common.
Today, the Hagia Sophia is not only a tourist attraction and a religious site but also a symbol of Turkey’s abandonment of Islam as its state religion. However, in recent years, the extreme religious forces in Turkey have been on the rise. President Erdogan has supported conservative Islamic policies more than once. This time, the plan to convert the cathedral back into a mosque is self – explanatory.