The Hagia Sophia (pronounced Ay-ah Soh-feeh-yah) is enormous, and was, in fact, the world’s largest interior space for nearly a thousand years. But what is even more staggering is that it is so old, standing here in Istanbul for nearly 1,500 years.
Built between 532 and 537 by the Emperor Justinian I (ruled 527-565), it was originally the heart of Eastern Christianity until the Fall of Constantine in 1453.
At this point, perhaps I should mention that the city we now know as Istanbul actually has three names. Originally, it was called Byzantium when it was founded in 780 BCE by Greeks from Megara. In 330 CE the Emperor Constantine made it his new Imperial Capital, and so it became known as Constantinople. In 1453, the victorious Turks renamed it Istanbul, a name related to Constantinople, perhaps a corruption of that name.
In any event after the Turkish victory of 1453, under the young (but brilliant) Sultan Mehmed II, it became a mosque. Interestingly enough, the shape of the building made it perfect for being a mosque, for unlike the famous gothic churches of Western Europe which are tall, narrow and hierarchical, the shape of the Hagia Sophia is round and egalitarian.
The Hagia Sophia remained a mosque until 1934, when its function changed under the rule of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (circa 1881-1938.)
Ataturk was a remarkable man. He was a highly-westernized Turkish gentleman who had spent a great deal of time in Paris, and although nominally a Muslim was, in fact, an atheist. He became leader of the Secular Republic of Turkey in 1923, remaining in power until his too-early death in 1938.
Ataturk rose to prominence when he secured the Turkish victory at Gallipoli in 1915 during World War I. Unfortunately, Turkey was not on the winning side when the war ended in 1918, and so, by the Treaty of Sèvres, Turkey was dismembered and handed out to the Victorious Allies ~ Greece, Italy, France and Great Britain.
But Ataturk was there, and he almost single-handedly overturned that treaty. After a string of military victories against the Occupying Powers, he persuaded the Allies to return to the negotiating table and fashion a new treaty, the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923, which secured the borders of present-day Turkey.
As an atheist, Ataturk had no interest in the Hagia Sophia remaining a mosque. So in 1934, he issued a decree, declaring that it should be opened to the public as a museum. It continued in this new guise until 2020, when the new Sultan of Turkey (I refer to him as such, due to his untrammeled power) Recep Tayyip Erdogan reversed that 1934 decree, and it became a mosque again.
There was an outcry from the Secular and Christian worlds, which included Turkish opposition figures, UNESCO, the World Council of Churches and the International Association of Byzantine studies. But Sultans of Turkey do not have to pay attention to foreign voices, or even their own opposition. With the amount of power Erdogan had amassed by 2020, he could afford to ignore these voices as he cozied up to the Religious Right in a bid to hold onto Power.
And so, today, The Hagia Sophia is a Mosque. Which means that if you are a woman you need to wear below-the-knee clothing and a scarf in order to visit.
