Amazing Place!

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia; from the Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, "Holy Wisdom"; Latin: Sancta Sophia or Sancta Sapientia; Turkish:Ayasofya) is a former Greek Orthodox patriarchal basilica (church), later an imperial mosque, and now a museum (Ayasofya Müzesi) in Istanbul, Turkey. From the date of its construction in 537 until 1453, it served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and seat of thePatriarchate of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under theLatin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931. It was then secularized and opened as a museum on 1 February 1935.

This was a chucrh before taken from the Ottomans.Constantinople was taken by the Ottomans on 29 May 1453. In accordance with the custom at the time Sultan Mehmet II allowed his troops three days of unbridled pillage once the city fell, after which he would claim its contents himself.[28][29] Hagia Sophia was not exempted from the pillage, becoming its focal point as the invaders believed it to contain the greatest treasures of the city.[30] Shortly after the city's defenses collapsed, pillagers made their way to the Hagia Sophia and battered down its doors.[31] Throughout the siege worshipers participated in the Holy Liturgy and Prayer of the Hours at the Hagia Sophia, and the church formed a refuge for many of those who were unable to contribute to the city's defense, such as women, children and elderly.[32][33] Trapped in the church, congregants and refugees became spoils to be divided amongst the Ottoman invaders. The building was desecrated and looted, and occupants enslaved, violated or slaughtered;[30] while elderly and infirm were killed, women and girls were raped and the remainder chained and sold into slavery.[31] Priests continued to perform Christian rites until stopped by the invaders.[31] When the Sultan and his cohort entered the church, he insisted it should be at once transformed into a mosque. One of the Ulama then climbed the pulpit and recited the Shahada.[27][34]

Fountain (Şadırvan) for ritual ablutions

The mihrab located in the apse where the altar used to stand, pointing towards Mecca
As described by several Western visitors (such as the Córdoban nobleman Pero Tafur[35] and the Florentine Cristoforo Buondelmonti),[36] the church was in a dilapidated state, with several of its doors fallen from their hinges; Mehmed II ordered a renovation as well as the conversion. Mehmet attended the first Friday prayer in the mosque on 1 June 1453.[37] Aya Sofya became the first imperial mosque of Istanbul.[38] To the corresponding Waqf were endowed most of the existing houses in the city and the area of the future Topkapı Palace.[27] From 1478, 2,360 shops, 1,300 houses, 4 caravanserais, 30 boza shops, and 23 shops of sheep heads and trotters gave their income to the foundation.[39] Through the imperial charters of 1520 (AH 926) and 1547 (AH 954) shops and parts of the Grand Bazaar and other markets were added to the foundation.[27]

Before 1481 a small minaret was erected on the southwest corner of the building, above the stair tower.[27] Later, the subsequent sultan, Bayezid II (1481–1512), built another minaret at the northeast corner.[27] One of these collapsed after the earthquake of 1509,[27] and around the middle of the 16th century they were both replaced by two diagonally opposite minarets built at the east and west corners of the edifice.[27]

In the 16th century the sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–1566) brought back two colossal candlesticks from his conquest of Hungary. They were placed on either side of the mihrab. During the reign of Selim II (1566–1574), the building started showing signs of fatigue and was extensively strengthened with the addition of structural supports to its exterior by the great Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan, who is also considered one of the world's first earthquake engineers.[40] In addition to strengthening the historic Byzantine structure, Sinan built the two additional large minarets at the western end of the building, the original sultan's lodge, and the Türbe (mausoleum) of Selim II to the southeast of the building in 1576-7 / AH 984. In order to do that, one year before parts of the Patriarchate at the south corner of the building were pulled down.[27] Moreover, the golden crescent was mounted on the top of the dome,[27] while a respect zone 35 arşin (about 24 m) wide was imposed around the building, pulling down all the houses which in the meantime had nested around it.[27] Later his türbe hosted also 43 tombs of Ottoman princes.[27] In 1594 / AH 1004 Mimar (court architect) Davud Ağa built the türbe of Murad III (1574–1595), where the Sultan and his Valide, Safiye Sultan were later buried.[27] The octagonal mausoleum of their son Mehmed III (1595–1603) and his Valide was built next to it in 1608 / 1017 H by royal architect Dalgiç Mehmet Aĝa.[41] His son Mustafa I (1617–1618; 1622–1623) converted the baptistery into his türbe.[41]

Murad III had also two large alabaster Hellenistic urns transported from Pergamon and placed on two sides of the nave.[27]


Hagia Sophia during its time as a mosque. Illustration by Gaspare Fossati and Louis Haghe from 1852.
In 1717, under Sultan Ahmed III (1703–1730), the crumbling plaster of the interior was renovated, contributing indirectly to the preservation of many mosaics, which otherwise would have been destroyed by mosque workers.[41] In fact, it was usual for them to sell mosaics stones – believed to be talismans – to the visitors.[41] Sultan Mahmud I ordered the restoration of the building in 1739 and added a medrese (a Koranic school, now the library of the museum), an Imaret (soup kitchen for distribution to the poor) and a library, and in 1740 a Şadirvan (fountain for ritual ablutions), thus transforming it into a külliye, i.e. a social complex. At the same time a new sultan's lodge and a new mihrab were built inside.


Medallions and pendant chandeliers

Circa 1900 photograph, from its time as a mosque.
The most famous restoration of the Aya Sofya was ordered by Sultan Abdülmecid and completed by eight hundred workers between 1847 and 1849, under the supervision of the Swiss-Italian architect brothers Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati. The brothers consolidated the dome and vaults, straightened the columns, and revised the decoration of the exterior and the interior of the building. The mosaics in the upper gallery were uncovered and cleaned, although many were recovered "for protection against further damage". The old chandeliers were replaced by new pendant ones. New gigantic circular-framed disks or medallions were hung on columns. These were inscribed with the names of Allah, the Prophet Muhammad, the first four caliphs Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, and the two grandchildren of Mohammed: Hassan and Hussain, by the calligrapher Kazasker Mustafa İzzed Effendi (1801–1877). In 1850 the architect Fossati built a new sultan's lodge or loge in a Neo-Byzantine style connected to the royal pavilion behind the mosque. They also renovated the minbar and mihrab. Outside the main building, the minarets were repaired and altered so that they were of equal height.[42][43] A timekeeper's building and a new madrasah were built. When the restoration was finished, the mosque was re-opened with ceremonial pomp on 13 July 1849