tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/emperor-justinian-68198/articlesEmperor Justinian – The Conversation2022-07-28T12:25:31Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1871402022-07-28T12:25:31Z2022-07-28T12:25:31ZRussia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens a cultural heritage the two countries share, including Saint Sophia Cathedral<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476146/original/file-20220726-20-oe7xmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C57%2C5475%2C3367&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Saint Sophia Cathedra as seen from a surrounding wall tower in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 26, 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RussiaUkraineWar/d505840b588c4cb7a8e78b997e1dd163/photo?Query=saint%20sophia%20kyiv&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=10&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/damaged-cultural-sites-ukraine-verified-unesco?hub=66116">160 Ukrainian cultural sites have been damaged or destroyed</a> since Russia invaded the country in February 2022, according to UNESCO. </p>
<p>The Ukrainian government <a href="https://culturecrimes.mkip.gov.ua/">claims the number of damaged sites is far higher</a>. Russia <a href="https://russiaun.ru/en/news/arria_150722">denies these charges</a>. </p>
<p>Ukrainian officials accuse Russia of deliberately targeting cultural sites, half of which are churches, monasteries, prayer houses, synagogues and mosques. Such a targeting would be a <a href="https://en.unesco.org/protecting-heritage/convention-and-protocols/1954-convention">violation of international law</a>. </p>
<p>As a scholar who has spent over <a href="https://vimeo.com/328307361">30 years studying Russian and Ukrainian religion and culture</a>, I’m deeply concerned about the cultural destruction of this war, which has already claimed <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61987945">thousands of lives</a> and has turned <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-60555472">over 12 million Ukrainians into refugees</a>. </p>
<p>An important monument under threat is <a href="https://www.medievalists.net/2022/02/cathedral-saint-sophia-kyiv/">Saint Sophia Cathedral</a> in Kyiv. Built in the 11th century, <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/ua">the church is one of Ukraine’s seven World Heritage sites</a> recognized by the United Nations. It represents the common Orthodox Christian faith that many Russians and Ukrainians share.</p>
<h2>Saint Sophia and the Byzantine model</h2>
<p><a href="https://youtu.be/SxM9JkYK41A">Saint Sophia Cathedral</a> was built under the reign of Grand Prince <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Yaroslav-the-Wise">Yaroslav the Wise</a>, whose father, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vladimir-I">Volodymyr – also known as Vladimir – had adopted Orthodox Christianity in 988</a>. </p>
<p>According to a legend in <a href="https://www.mgh-bibliothek.de/dokumente/a/a011458.pdf">the early 12th-century “Primary Chronicle,</a>” Volodymyr chose Orthodoxy for the beauty of its worship services. The envoys he sent to Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, visited the famous Church of Holy Wisdom, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hagia-Sophia">Hagia Sophia</a>. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3822741">Built by Emperor Justinian in the sixth century</a>, the Hagia Sophia is devoted to the <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Two-Hymns-to-Wisdom%3A-Proverbs-8-and-Job-28-Bakon/c155480e2ce6ee0b7774ffb97d5f5f66ce869e79#citing-papers">Divine Wisdom, who is personified as a woman in the biblical “Book of Proverbs</a>.” Convinced by his envoys’ favorable report, Volodymyr decided to be <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/25776328">baptized and to convert</a> his subjects. </p>
<p>After Volodymyr’s death, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00043079.2009.10786155">Yaroslav invited Byzantine architects and artists</a> to build an impressive cathedral for Kyiv just like the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2847951">Yaroslav, who had fought a civil war to succeed his father</a>, deliberately <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41048427">imitated the Byzantine capital</a> to buttress his legitimacy. His new cathedral, Saint Sophia, even took its name from the imperial church in Constantinople.</p>
<h2>Christian symbolism in the Cathedral</h2>
<p>With <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-4181(81)90035-X">13 cupolas and a central dome that rises 29 meters</a> (about 95 feet) into the air, Saint Sophia is an imposing structure that served as a testament to the power and piety of its ruler. Elaborate mosaics decorate the sanctuary and dome. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004307742_015">Portraits of Yaroslav</a> and his family are prominently displayed in the cathedral’s princely gallery, where the ruler attended services.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476147/original/file-20220726-17-208ufd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Mosaics adorning the inner walls of Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476147/original/file-20220726-17-208ufd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476147/original/file-20220726-17-208ufd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476147/original/file-20220726-17-208ufd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476147/original/file-20220726-17-208ufd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476147/original/file-20220726-17-208ufd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476147/original/file-20220726-17-208ufd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476147/original/file-20220726-17-208ufd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A view of the interior of Saint Sophia Cathedral.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXRussiaUkraineWar/47d4fac432414ee59951102df858e51b/photo?Query=saint%20sophia%20kyiv&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=10&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A <a href="http://sofiyskiy-sobor.polnaya.info/en/mosaics_st_sophia_cathedral.shtml">mosaic of the Virgin Mary</a>, the Mother of God, stands in the apse above the altar. Raising her hands in prayer, Mary is framed by a Greek inscription from <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+46%3A5&version=AKJV">Psalm 46</a>: “God is in the midst of Her; She shall not be moved.”</p>
<p>The imagery and language are borrowed from Byzantium. Just as she was seen as a powerful divine protector of Constantinople, so now <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-war-rages-some-ukrainians-look-to-mary-for-protection-continuing-a-long-christian-tradition-178394">Mary protects Kyiv</a>. The tall <a href="http://sofiyskiy-sobor.polnaya.info/en/sofia_cathedral_mosaics_and_frescoes.shtml">central dome is adorned with a mosaic of an all-powerful image of Christ, known as “Christ Pantokrator</a>,” who gazes down from his throne at his worshipers. </p>
<p>The art historian <a href="https://las.depaul.edu/academics/history-of-art-and-architecture/faculty/Pages/elena-boeck.aspx">Elena Boeck</a> calls Saint Sophia “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40645508">the most ambitious Orthodox Church built in the 11th century</a>.”</p>
<h2>Decline and restoration</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Saint_Sophia_Cathedral,_Kyiv/">Saint Sophia Cathedral</a> was consecrated in <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/126054">1049</a> and completed around 1062. As the power and importance of Kyiv declined, the church suffered from external attacks and internal neglect.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41036277">1169</a>, the northern prince Andrei Bogolubskii of Vladimir sacked Kyiv – an event that the leader of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, <a href="https://risu.ua/en/metropolitan-epifaniy-calls-on-all-ukrainians-to-protect-the-state-from-russian-aggression_n126323">Metropolitan Epifaniy, has compared to the current Russian invasion</a>. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5699/slaveasteurorev2.94.4.0702">Mongol attacks in 1240</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/130324">1416</a> and <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/41035860">1482</a> further damaged the cathedral. </p>
<p>Restoration work in the 17th century in the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41036455">baroque</a> style radically changed the cathedral’s outward appearance. The outer walls were plastered and whitewashed. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/126054">The church was bombed during the Russian civil war in 1918</a>. Under Soviet rule, the Communists plundered its treasury and secularized the building, which became a museum. In the 1940s, the church again suffered under <a href="https://networks.h-net.org/node/3180/reviews/6282/prusin-berkhoff-harvest-despair-life-and-death-ukraine-under-nazi-rule">German occupation</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.medievalists.net/2022/02/cathedral-saint-sophia-kyiv/">Saint Sophia Cathedral</a> stands as a monument to the East Slavic cultural heritage that Russians and Ukrainians share. Its extraordinary <a href="http://sofiyskiy-sobor.polnaya.info/en/sofia_cathedral_mosaics_and_frescoes.shtml">Byzantine mosaics and frescoes</a> have survived nearly a millennium.</p>
<p>Today, as during the Second World War, Ukraine has been invaded by a foreign army that <a href="https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1e/k1egkow771">threatens this heritage</a>. Although Russia has assured the United Nations that its armed forces are taking “<a href="https://russiaun.ru/en/news/arria_150722">necessary precautions</a>” to prevent damage to <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/527/">World Heritage sites, such as Saint Sophia</a>, war is destructive and unpredictable. Whether Saint Sophia Cathedral remains undamaged during this latest invasion remains an open question.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187140/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>J. Eugene Clay has received funding from the International Research and Exchanges Board, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Humanities Center, and the Social Science Research Council.</span></em></p>Saint Sophia Cathedral was built under the reign of Grand Prince Yaroslav, whose father, Volodymyr, converted the region to Christianity.J. Eugene Clay, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1789472022-03-10T13:25:21Z2022-03-10T13:25:21ZRussian church leader puts the blame of invasion on those who flout ‘God’s law,’ but taking biblical law out of its historical context doesn’t work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451033/original/file-20220309-30-92b50z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C13%2C4385%2C3091&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Russian President Vladimir Putin, accompanied by Patriarch of Russia Kirill and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (in background), at a monastery outside Moscow in 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/russian-president-vladimir-putin-accompanied-by-patriarch-news-photo/874480208?adppopup=true">Alexey Nikolsky/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/moscow-patriarch-stokes-orthodox-tensions-war-remarks-83322338">preached a sermon</a> on March 6, 2022, in which he suggested the violation of “<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/russian-orthodox-church-leader-blames-invasion-ukraines-gay-pride-1685636">God’s law</a>” provided divine license for the war against Ukraine. </p>
<p>In particular, Kirill pointed to Ukrainian acceptance of gay rights and the promotion of <a href="https://www.thebulwark.com/blaming-russias-ukraine-invasion-on-the-gays-putin-patriarch-kirill/">gay pride parades</a> as specific examples of behavior that goes against God’s law. “This is a sin that is condemned by the Word of God - both the Old and the New Testament,” <a href="http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/5906442.html">he said during his sermon</a>.</p>
<p>Yet few readers of the Bible realize that the laws in biblical times worked differently than today. </p>
<h2>Legal collections in the ancient world</h2>
<p>In my <a href="https://colorado.academia.edu/SamBoyd">research</a> on the Bible and its legal material, I have come to the conclusion that much of the modern debate about the Bible in political discourse could be ascribed to mistaken literary genres.</p>
<p>For example, laws from the Code of Hammurabi, an often-cited legal collection from King Hammurabi of ancient Babylon, have the familiar structure of modern, practiced law: If someone does something wrong, then that person is guilty according to the details of the law.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A relief showing King Hammurabi standing before a seated god of justice, Shamash." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448625/original/file-20220225-31520-37lbi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448625/original/file-20220225-31520-37lbi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=662&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448625/original/file-20220225-31520-37lbi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=662&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448625/original/file-20220225-31520-37lbi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=662&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448625/original/file-20220225-31520-37lbi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448625/original/file-20220225-31520-37lbi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448625/original/file-20220225-31520-37lbi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stele of Hammurabi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:F0182_Louvre_Code_Hammourabi_Bas-relief_Sb8_rwk.jpg">Department of Near Eastern Antiquities of the Louvre, Iraq, via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, Hammurabi himself <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3684684.html">rarely referenced</a> the collection. At times, his own royal decrees were in violation of what the inscription says should happen.</p>
<p>The Code of Hammurabi was not simply a reflection of law in everyday Mesopotamia. Instead, it was likely a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-laws-of-hammurabi-9780197525401?cc=us&lang=en&">collection</a> of possible legal cases and scenarios assembled by royal scribes. </p>
<p>These cases demonstrate a range of hypothetical legal responses that could ensure maximal justice in society. They may <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-laws-of-hammurabi-9780197525401?cc=us&lang=en&">resemble</a> real law, but they are not a direct representation of what happened in every case. </p>
<p>The laws were placed on a rock monument that contained an image of King Hammurabi seated before the god of justice, Shamash. The presentation of these laws on the inscription was for the purpose of making the king look good through <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-laws-of-hammurabi-9780197525401?cc=us&lang=en&">propaganda</a>, but, as research shows, not in order to codify practiced law. </p>
<p>Scholars believe that the Code of Hammurabi influenced some of the legal collections in the Bible, such as in the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/inventing-gods-law-9780195304756?cc=us&lang=en&">book of Exodus</a>, the second book of the Bible traditionally attributed to Moses. There is evidence that, like Hammurabi’s law code, laws in the Bible were not necessarily practiced. </p>
<p>For example, a law in the book of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2021%3A18-21&version=NIV">Deuteronomy</a>, the fifth book of the Bible, also believed to have been written by Moses, says that if a son is persistently rebellious against his parents and gets drunk, the parents will bring the son to the town elders. The men of the town then stone the son to death.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/bi/28/1/article-p15_2.xml">what counts</a> as “rebellious,” and how drunk would qualify the son to be deemed guilty? </p>
<p>The Bible does not say. <a href="https://jbqnew.jewishbible.org/assets/Uploads/294/294_neverwas.pdf">Ancient rabbis</a> viewed the passage as not able to be practiced at all. The prophet Jeremiah applied the law <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0198266995.001.0001/acprof-9780198266990">metaphorically</a> to Jerusalem’s destruction in 586 B.C., but there is no evidence that the law was actually practiced.</p>
<p>There is another story of one ancient rabbi, <a href="https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789047423096/Bej.9789004162921.i-836_044.xml">Hananiah ben Hezekiah</a>, who locked himself in his room, burning 300 barrels of oil to keep his light on in order to figure out how the laws of the Bible worked together. This incredible amount of exertion highlights how different these laws actually are and how they cannot be reconciled into one simple legal vision.</p>
<h2>Laws, the Bible and ancient Israel</h2>
<p>While there is evidence that some sense of legal <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27924979?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">reality</a> in ancient Israel looked like some of the biblical laws, the relationship was not exact.</p>
<p>It seems, instead, that the genre of <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/6865/an-introduction-to-biblical-law.aspx">legal collections</a> in the Bible functioned according to the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/theory-and-method-in-biblical-and-cuneiform-law-9780567353214/">literary conventions</a> of its day. </p>
<p>The fact that laws in the Bible look like other ancient Near Eastern laws does not mean that the laws in the Bible have no unique features. Scholars have noted an <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/legal-revision-and-religious-renewal-in-ancient-israel/6C15540D333A89CA590C3F27A4D35692">innovation</a> that occurred in the laws in the Bible: There is no king who acts as the lawgiver.</p>
<p>All of the other laws in the ancient Near East were given by the king. The Mesopotamian god of justice, Shamash, endowed Hammurabi with wisdom, but Hammurabi himself derived the laws. </p>
<p>Yet the earliest legal collection in the Bible, in the book of Exodus, lacks the role of the king as a lawgiver for the first time in the history of the ancient Near East. The biblical laws, instead, come directly from God.</p>
<p>The original intent of some of these legal collections may have been to emphasize the need for freedom against <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/inventing-gods-law-9780195304756?cc=us&lang=en&">larger dominant imperial forces</a>. They were used as statements expressing convictions about justice, divinity and society, but without recourse to ancient Near Eastern kings. </p>
<p>In fact, one law in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2017%3A14-20&version=NIV">Deuteronomy</a> relegates the king to a much <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300167511/deuteronomy-and-pentateuch">smaller role</a> than royalty otherwise occupied in ancient society. This law stipulates that the primary job of a king is to study the legal material in the Bible. It also commands that the king not act arrogantly toward other Israelites.</p>
<p>Given these historical observations, “God’s law,” at least in the Bible, limits royal authority and provides a statement against imperialism, all of which would seem to undermine Kirill’s use of divine statutes to promote war and support Putin’s agenda. </p>
<p>But one can only see such functions of these laws when understood in their ancient context.</p>
<h2>How and when the perception changed</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448626/original/file-20220225-32670-1sj1d3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A mosaic showing Roman Emperor Justinian flanked by two men on either side." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448626/original/file-20220225-32670-1sj1d3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448626/original/file-20220225-32670-1sj1d3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448626/original/file-20220225-32670-1sj1d3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448626/original/file-20220225-32670-1sj1d3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448626/original/file-20220225-32670-1sj1d3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448626/original/file-20220225-32670-1sj1d3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448626/original/file-20220225-32670-1sj1d3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Byzantine Emperor Justinian brought about legal reforms in the sixth century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/detail-of-byzantine-mosaic-of-emperor-justinian-and-royalty-free-image/583742730?adppopup=true">Richard T. Nowitz/Collection The Image Bank via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The modern sense of legal collections as practiced law derives in some manner from the legacy of the Byzantine Emperor <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-the-age-of-justinian/AFDFB4B6F50063DE2A3B4A7115E17D6E">Justinian</a>. He inaugurated an expansive <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199593309.001.0001/acprof-9780199593309">legal reform</a> in the Roman Empire in the sixth century. </p>
<p>It included precepts such as “innocent until proved guilty,” which would become a maxim for many later legal systems, such as the notion of “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” in America. </p>
<p>Modern Christian thinkers tried to identify three enduring uses of the law in the Bible, the <a href="https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/threefold-use-law">second</a> of which applies a civil relevance to these statutes. The idea is that when a civil code that includes God’s laws is used in society, it should, in theory, curb evil.</p>
<p>One can find such sentiments in statements by modern legislators in America, such as Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s comments at The King’s College in New York in a <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/june-web-only/age-of-pelagius-joshua-hawley.html">commencement address</a> in 2019. </p>
<p>There, he blamed what in his view is America’s current moral bankruptcy on a fourth-century Christian belief called Pelagianism that highlights free will in humanity. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Hawley claimed that such a Pelagian attitude was at the root of a 1992 court case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which the individual was ruled to have the “right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” </p>
<p>For Hawley, this sentiment contradicts the belief that all humanity should be subject to God’s rule, evidenced in the need for a personal relationship with God.</p>
<p>For Kirill, the use of “God’s law” in the war in Ukraine is an attempt to provide a divine mandate for Putin’s actions. Yet such a claim presupposes that biblical law was enacted in history and should be implemented in modern society. </p>
<p>Moreover, this sort of argument envisions a legal authority over Ukraine from the Russian Orthodox Church, a claim that has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-church-conflict-in-ukraine-reflects-historic-russian-ukrainian-tensions-175818">vigorously contested</a> by many who think that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church should be independent from oversight in Moscow.</p>
<p>Yet the Bible’s laws and its vision of society were more complex than such a direct application that Kirill in Russia or Hawley in the U.S. advocate. </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of a piece that <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-translating-gods-law-to-government-law-isnt-easy-177310">was first published on March 1, 2022</a></em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178947/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel L. Boyd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Bible and its laws were complex and not practiced in the way many of us think about laws today.Samuel L. Boyd, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1456192020-10-22T02:28:01Z2020-10-22T02:28:01ZThe power of the grand final crowd recalls ancient times<p>The year has been a strange one for sports lovers. </p>
<p>We’ve seen athlete protests here and <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/27/world/gallery/sports-protests/index.html">around the world</a>. Where big gatherings have been permitted in the US, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/the-nfls-discordant-return">discordant NFL crowds</a> have highlighted America’s divisions.</p>
<p>Australian stadium rules have <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-30/nrl-grand-final-to-host-40k-fans-with-move-to-anz-stadium/12716378">varied from state to state</a> and the AFL Grand Final will be played before a smaller than normal crowd <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-02/afl-grand-final-brisbane-gabba-tickets-coronavirus-restrictions/12621194">at the Gabba rather than the MCG</a>. Sunday’s NRL Grand Final, meanwhile, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-30/nrl-grand-final-to-host-40k-fans-with-move-to-anz-stadium/12716378">will bring 40,000 fans together</a>. </p>
<p>Sport can unite people with a common sense of purpose and identity. The sporting crowd can also vent community concerns and express social dissatisfaction. </p>
<p>This power of cheering — or jeering — goes back to ancient times.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thucydides-and-the-plague-of-athens-what-it-can-teach-us-now-133155">Thucydides and the plague of Athens - what it can teach us now</a>
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<h2>Blues versus Greens</h2>
<p>By the late Roman Republic, prominent statesmen were expected to provide public entertainments, which also served to keep the masses content and under control. </p>
<p>Like his predecessors, emperor <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/augustus/">Augustus</a> organised gladiatorial games but also a number of athletic events, taking his inspiration from the Greek Olympic Games. </p>
<p>To commemorate his victory against Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BC at the naval battle of Actium, Augustus established the Actian Games, which took place every four years in emulation of the Olympic Games.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-kyniska-the-first-female-olympian-123909">Hidden women of history: Kyniska, the first female Olympian</a>
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<p>Notably, in his <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Augustus/deeds.html">Res Gestae</a>, the public summation of his reign, Augustus rejoiced in his games alongside his conquests. In each of the events he attended, the leader and his public barracked in chorus and their harmony represented the harmony of the state. </p>
<p>The same could not be said of the chariot races between rival teams — the Blues and the Greens — in Constantinople in 532 AD. Emperor <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Justinian_I/">Justinian</a>, an unpopular ruler, was watching at the <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/article/1158/the-hippodrome-of-constantinople/">hippodrome</a> with up to 100,000 spectators at one of the 70-odd races held there annually. Then the crowd turned on him. </p>
<p>The amphitheatre had already been the scene of chaos in 501 AD, when the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/blue-versus-green-rocking-the-byzantine-empire-113325928/">Greens ambushed the Blues</a> and massacred 3,000 people. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363896/original/file-20201016-13-1l24rte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Mosaic of ancient ruler Justinian" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363896/original/file-20201016-13-1l24rte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363896/original/file-20201016-13-1l24rte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363896/original/file-20201016-13-1l24rte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363896/original/file-20201016-13-1l24rte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363896/original/file-20201016-13-1l24rte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363896/original/file-20201016-13-1l24rte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363896/original/file-20201016-13-1l24rte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mosaic of Justinianus, Basilica San Vitale Ravenna.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Mosaic_of_Justinianus_I_-_Basilica_San_Vitale_%28Ravenna%29.jpg/512px-Mosaic_of_Justinianus_I_-_Basilica_San_Vitale_%28Ravenna%29.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet in 532 AD, the fans, upset by Justinian’s high taxes and poor response to their political demands, along with widespread corruption among his officials, put sporting rivalries aside to chant “Nika!” in unison, meaning “Conquer!” A slogan typically used to cheer on charioteers, was now directed against the emperor.
Massive civic unrest erupted for a week; the city was torched, its major church (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia">Agia Sophia</a> burnt, and thousands murdered.</p>
<p>Justinian’s reign went on to be marred by disaster: from 541 to 549 AD, Constantinople suffered the first old world <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/article/782/justinians-plague-541-542-ce/">pandemic</a>. In 542 AD alone, 5,000—10,000 deaths occurred daily, until one third of the population was wiped out. Justinian was infected and although he survived the plague, he remained unpopular.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dying-old-dying-young-death-and-ageism-in-the-times-of-greek-myth-and-coronavirus-137496">Dying old, dying young – death and ageism in the times of Greek myth and coronavirus</a>
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<hr>
<h2>Chanting to power</h2>
<p>At sporting events and other large crowd spectacles in the ancient world, people could pitch requests and voice socioeconomic <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/297505">grievances</a>. </p>
<p>It was customary for high officials — the emperor, his ministers, or local authorities — to be present, and they were expected to respond to such petitions. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363898/original/file-20201016-17-gmhtah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black and while illustration of ancient Roman chariot race scene" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363898/original/file-20201016-17-gmhtah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363898/original/file-20201016-17-gmhtah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363898/original/file-20201016-17-gmhtah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363898/original/file-20201016-17-gmhtah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363898/original/file-20201016-17-gmhtah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363898/original/file-20201016-17-gmhtah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363898/original/file-20201016-17-gmhtah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chariot races brought rulers into close proximity with athletes and the masses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=chariot+race&title=Special:Search&go=Go&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1&searchToken=hcat63h46y9ud5ai2lcduoc6#%2Fmedia%2FFile%3AGreat_Men_and_Famous_Women_Volume_1_-_ROME_UNDER_TRAJAN%E2%80%94A_CHARIOT_RACE.jpg">Wikimedia/Ulpiano Checa</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 362 AD, the people of <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Antiochia/">Antioch</a>, in Roman Syria, greeted the emperor Julian in the hippodrome with the chant, “Everything is plentiful, everything is dear,” <a href="http://www.attalus.org/translate/misopogon.html">protesting the high prices of grain</a> in the city.</p>
<p>In first century Alexandria, meanwhile, which was home to a large Jewish population, racial tension, combined with racially-based tax exemptions and civic rights, found expression at sports grounds and public events. Violence <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Philo/in_Flaccum*.html">consumed the city in 38</a> and <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/war-2.html">again in 66</a>. It began at the <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Gymnasium/">gymnasium</a> and the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09523369608713960?casa_token=2fXh5d5gehEAAAAA:ZRbUdIV1J0twaH0QKBWBP4z-uvdoXRfFpEvjjU2g3JcsDI-qiCTyvdh65WPsccl3PsJcTIg9pwy3">theatre</a>. </p>
<p>The importance of sport for cementing authority was also reflected in 540 AD when the Sasanian king <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Khosrow-I">Khosrau I</a> tried to oversee chariot racing in a captured Roman city in Asia Minor. According to the <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16764/16764-h/16764-h.htm">historian Procopius </a>, Khosrau demanded that the Blues lose the race because he knew they were Justinian’s favourite team! </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/leaders-as-healers-ancient-greek-ideas-on-the-health-of-the-body-politic-135028">Leaders as healers: Ancient Greek ideas on the health of the body politic</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<hr>
<h2>Sport and civics today</h2>
<p>Although we now interpret political legitimacy differently to the ancients, aspects of our sporting events are the same. </p>
<p>There is the conspicuous <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/prime-minister-scott-morrison-defends-watching-sharks-football-game-during-pandemic/news-story/4d24b39de9cfcf9a243ba3c30b3dbeb3">presence of politicians</a>, singing of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-06/arlc-scraps-national-anthem-for-all-stars/11941234">anthems</a>, the over-the-top <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv_6qiFAoP0&ab_channel=NFLFilms">displays of military might</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pILCn6VO_RU">performances</a>. </p>
<p>And, as in ancient times, symbolic or vocal protests in venues and at events laden with national significance are hard to ignore. When these actions are witnessed by thousands and speak to raw existential conflict, such as famine (in the past) or racism (today), they become even more powerful. </p>
<p>This year’s grand final has already been mired in <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-queensland-afl-grand-final-brisbane-move-from-victoria-matt-canavan/91cc6ff0-b1f8-428f-909a-c96618a1d3fe">political point-scoring</a>. How the crowd behaves remains to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145619/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew O'Farrell receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Theodore de Bruyn receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Crowds, albeit smaller ones, will again watch the AFL and NRL grand finals. Crowds can bring people together but, since the time of the Roman republic, they have also expressed political dissent.Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides, Associate Professor in Ancient History, Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1440422020-08-18T12:16:45Z2020-08-18T12:16:45ZHagia Sophia has been converted back into a mosque, but the veiling of its figural icons is not a Muslim tradition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352815/original/file-20200813-24-tugb2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=154%2C73%2C4765%2C3172&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People pray inside the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, with sail-like drapes covering mosaic figures of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Turkey-Hagia-Sophia/2655787d5c544c30ae1e979303b39098/3/0">AP Photo/Yasin Akgul</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ever since the reversion of Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, the Muslim call to prayer has been resounding from its minarets.</p>
<p>Originally built as a Christian Orthodox church and serving that purpose for centuries, Hagia Sophia was transformed into a mosque by the Ottomans upon their conquest of Constantinople in 1453. </p>
<p>In 1934, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/hagia-sophia-a-shifting-symbol-in-turkey-once-again-opens-up-to-islamic-prayers-11595585919">it was declared a museum</a> by the secularist Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. </p>
<p>As of June 24 of this year, Hagia Sophia’s icons of the Virgin Mary and infant Christ are covered by fabric curtains as the edifice yet again changes functions.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o_e42l4d0Uk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/ibrahim-kalin-acikladi-ayasofyadaki-ikonlar-nasil-kapatilacak-41568112">Turkish officials have stated</a> that the veiling of the images, especially the <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/early-europe-and-colonial-americas/medieval-europe-islamic-world/v/hagia-sophia-apse">interior mosaics</a>, is necessary to transform the interior into a Muslim prayer space.</p>
<p>As historians of <a href="https://lsa.umich.edu/histart/people/faculty/paroma.html">Byzantine</a> and <a href="https://lsa.umich.edu/histart/people/faculty/cjgruber.html">Islamic</a> art, we argue that in their rush to reassert the monument’s Islamic past, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his associates have inadvertently – and superficially – emulated certain Orthodox Christian practices. </p>
<p>Images of Mary and Christ were often ritually veiled and unveiled in Byzantium, while later Ottoman Muslim rulers did not engage in such practices. </p>
<h2>Images of Mary and Jesus in Islam</h2>
<p>When Sultan Mehmed II, known as the “Conqueror” or Fatih, took over Constantinople, he headed straight to Hagia Sophia, declared it a mosque and ordered it protected in perpetuity. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352997/original/file-20200814-14-yb4gfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352997/original/file-20200814-14-yb4gfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352997/original/file-20200814-14-yb4gfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352997/original/file-20200814-14-yb4gfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352997/original/file-20200814-14-yb4gfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352997/original/file-20200814-14-yb4gfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352997/original/file-20200814-14-yb4gfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352997/original/file-20200814-14-yb4gfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mosaic of the Virgin Mary and infant Jesus in Hagia Sophia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apse_mosaic_Hagia_Sophia_Virgin_and_Child.jpg">Myrabella</a></span>
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<p>He did not order the ninth-century mosaic of Mary and Christ in the interior removed or covered. Instead, Ottoman historians tell us that <a href="https://henrymatthews.com/hagia-sophia/">he stood in awe</a>, feeling that the eyes of the Christ child followed him as he moved about the structure.</p>
<p>Although images of humans are almost never found in mosque architecture, the depictions of Mary and Jesus <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/hagia-sophia-a-shifting-symbol-in-turkey-once-again-opens-up-to-islamic-prayers-11595585919">remained uncovered</a> in the mosque of Hagia Sophia until 1739. At that time, the mosaic was plastered over. The plaster was later removed during the building’s 1934 conversion into a museum.</p>
<p>The centuries-long display may have been <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/what-would-muslim-want-portrait-christ-758008">a gesture</a> in appreciation of the Prophet Muhammad, who is said to have preserved an icon of the Virgin and Christ when he destroyed the pagan statues at the Kaaba, Islam’s holy sanctuary, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>In this and other cases, Muslim rulers clearly understood <a href="https://www.academia.edu/42914508/Idols_and_Figural_Images_in_Islam_A_Brief_Dive_into_a_Perennial_Debate">that religious figures can be used for devotional purposes</a> without necessarily being idolatrous. This nuance <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/how-ban-images-muhammad-came-be-300491">has been lost</a> as of late in the more recent debates surrounding representations of the Prophet Muhammad.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352802/original/file-20200813-20-3mwv5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352802/original/file-20200813-20-3mwv5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352802/original/file-20200813-20-3mwv5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352802/original/file-20200813-20-3mwv5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352802/original/file-20200813-20-3mwv5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352802/original/file-20200813-20-3mwv5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352802/original/file-20200813-20-3mwv5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352802/original/file-20200813-20-3mwv5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">European print of the Virgin Mary and Christ Infant included in an Ottoman album around 1600.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451972">The Metropolitan Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From the medieval period onward, Mary and Christ are in fact <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/what-would-muslim-want-portrait-christ-758008">a recurring motif in Islamic art</a>. They are depicted in <a href="https://www.academia.edu/33184072/The_Freer_Canteen_Reconsidered_pdf">metalwork</a>, on <a href="https://art.thewalters.org/detail/30576/beaker/">glassware</a> and <a href="https://www.academia.edu/36857348/Mughal_Occidentalism_Artistic_Encounters_Between_Europe_and_Asia_at_the_Courts_of_India_1580_1630">book paintings</a>. </p>
<p>European prints of the mother-and-child pair <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691189154/the-album-of-the-world-emperor">were also collected into albums</a> by the Ottoman elites of Constantinople in the 17th century. Not shunned or destroyed, these images were sought after, safeguarded and even <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451972?searchField=All&amp;sortBy=Relevance&amp;what=Albums&amp;ft=Bellini+album&amp;offset=0&amp;rpp=20&amp;pos=8">embellished with colorful paints</a>.</p>
<h2>Veiling icons in Christianity</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353212/original/file-20200817-24-7f5t8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353212/original/file-20200817-24-7f5t8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353212/original/file-20200817-24-7f5t8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353212/original/file-20200817-24-7f5t8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353212/original/file-20200817-24-7f5t8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353212/original/file-20200817-24-7f5t8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353212/original/file-20200817-24-7f5t8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Byzantine-era casket. On the lid is a composition showing Christ enthroned in majesty, flanked by the Virgin Mary, archangels and Apostles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/464238">The Metropolitan Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the history of Christianity, covering images, and revealing them at significant moments, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/36610230/ArcA_ArcArum_Nested_Boxes_aNd_the_dyNamics_of_sacred_experieNce_ArcA_ArcArum_cajas_aNidadas_y_la_diN%C3%A1mica_de_la_experieNcia_sagrada">often testified to their power</a>. The wrapping, encasing, framing and veiling of the most precious images and objects signaled and guaranteed their divine qualities. </p>
<p>Thus relics were stored in <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/464238">containers</a> and icons strategically <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1988-0411-1">enshrouded</a>. Sometimes, paintings of Mary and Christ in medieval Western European manuscripts were screened by <a href="http://ica.themorgan.org/manuscript/page/55/158726">veils sewn onto folio pages</a>.</p>
<p>Lifting these cloth “shields” enabled viewers a full visual and tactile experience of the divine depiction <a href="https://www.academia.edu/6433354/_Raising_the_Curtain_on_the_Use_of_Textiles_in_Manuscripts_">beneath</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352804/original/file-20200813-14-sdjr1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352804/original/file-20200813-14-sdjr1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352804/original/file-20200813-14-sdjr1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352804/original/file-20200813-14-sdjr1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352804/original/file-20200813-14-sdjr1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352804/original/file-20200813-14-sdjr1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352804/original/file-20200813-14-sdjr1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352804/original/file-20200813-14-sdjr1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A medieval icon depicting a painted image of of the Virgin Mary and Christ Infant flanked by fabric veils.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1988-0411-1">The British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Virgin Mary, or Theotokos, as she was known in Byzantium, is closely associated with veils. The “<a href="https://www.academia.edu/2576259/Threads_of_Authority_The_Virgin_Marys_Veil_in_the_Middle_Ages">maphorion</a>,” or the cloth with which she is believed to have covered her head and shoulders, was housed in Constantinople. It was said to be invested with protective powers and believed to ward off enemies. </p>
<h2>A Byzantine miracle</h2>
<p>Turkish officials claim that the curtains covering the mosaics are on an electronic rail system and that they shall be lowered to cover the icons only <a href="https://www.haberler.com/ayasofya-daki-mozaik-ve-freskler-bir-dakikada-13436830-haberi/">during prayer times</a>. </p>
<p>But if the strips of cloth covering the Mary and Christ mosaic are to be raised intermittently and nonmanually between prayers as proposed, then a startling – if purely cursory – coincidence would emerge. </p>
<p>[<em>You’re too busy to read everything. We get it. That’s why we’ve got a weekly newsletter.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybusy">Sign up for good Sunday reading.</a> ]</p>
<p>It would resemble somewhat a well-known 11th-century Christian miracle in Constantinople. The story goes that <a href="https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/5584.elizabeth-a-fisher-michael-psellos-on-symeon-the-metaphrast-and-on-the-miracle-at-blachernae">each Friday evening</a>, the veil covering an icon of Mary and Christ would rise by itself after prayers. It would remain lifted until the following day when it fell again – on its own.</p>
<p>The raised veil was interpreted, among other things, <a href="https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/5584.elizabeth-a-fisher-michael-psellos-on-symeon-the-metaphrast-and-on-the-miracle-at-blachernae">as a sign of the tangible interface</a> between the divine and mortal worlds and, more specifically, as the Virgin Mary’s embrace of her devotees.</p>
<h2>The paradox of the past</h2>
<p>The rich symbolism of the 11th-century miracle and other instances of Orthodox practice is certainly lost in the current strategy of veiling at Hagia Sophia. Ideological struggles over this world heritage structure since 1934 reveal the extent to which the monument serves as a symbol for the staking of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-hagia-sophia-remains-a-potent-symbol-of-spiritual-and-political-authority-143084">political power and religious authority</a> among Christians, Muslims and secularists in Turkey and beyond.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352814/original/file-20200813-24-ci8h5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=64%2C0%2C6010%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352814/original/file-20200813-24-ci8h5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=196&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352814/original/file-20200813-24-ci8h5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=196&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352814/original/file-20200813-24-ci8h5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=196&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352814/original/file-20200813-24-ci8h5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352814/original/file-20200813-24-ci8h5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352814/original/file-20200813-24-ci8h5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The mosaic, left, depicts The Virgin Mary and Jesus in the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia. On the photo on the right, the mosaic is covered with sail-like drapes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Turkey-Hagia-Sophia/e0d5c6f6620341549067f1b7e4dccf01/13/0">AP Photo/Emrah Gurel/Yasin Akgul</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This time around, rather than maintain Hagia Sophia as a <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/hagia-sophia-must-stay-monument-coexistence-opinion-1514802">monument of coexistence</a>, the Turkish government’s actions have <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/turkeys-decision-to-turn-hagia-sophia-into-a-mosque-dismays-christians-neighbors-historians-11594419524">sharpened an already tense ideological divide</a> between pious and secular Turks, and between Muslims and Christians worldwide.</p>
<p>But beyond the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/11/from-reformer-to-new-sultan-erdogans-populist-evolution">political and religious posturing</a>, we argue that Erdoğan and his team have also accidentally, and speciously, brought back the fabric veiling of icons, one of the practices of Byzantine Orthodoxy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144042/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In reconverting Hagia Sophia to a mosque, Turkish officials have emphasized veiling of Christian icons to create a Muslim prayer space. Experts explain why the veiling is in fact a Byzantine practice.Christiane Gruber, Professor of Islamic Art, University of MichiganParoma Chatterjee, Associate Professor of History of Art, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1430842020-07-24T12:28:55Z2020-07-24T12:28:55ZWhy Hagia Sophia remains a potent symbol of spiritual and political authority<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349418/original/file-20200724-33-1y01ajj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=243%2C29%2C4647%2C3245&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The first Muslim prayers were held on Friday inside the Hagia Sophia in 86 years.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Turkey-Hagia-Sophia/f4660c89a4ff45f0bb0c55da84da3ef2/3/0">AP Photo/Yasin Akgul</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since its origins in the sixth century A.D, the <a href="https://muze.gen.tr/muze-detay/ayasofya">Hagia Sophia</a> has served as a church, a mosque, and, since 1934, a museum. But on July 10, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/world/europe/hagia-sophia-erdogan.html">Turkish government declared</a> that from now on it would serve as a mosque and be open for all visitors when not in use for the five daily prayers. </p>
<p>The first “namaz,” or the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0Ybhk9ZcQ0">Muslim prayer</a>, to take place under the building’s <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hagia_Sophia_(228968325).jpeg">soaring dome</a> in 86 years was held on July 24. </p>
<p>The move to change the status of one of Istanbul’s most recognizable landmarks has drawn strong reactions.</p>
<p>It is worth considering why so many have, for so long, cared so much about the fate of the Hagia Sophia as responses <a href="https://english.alresalah.ps/new/post.php?id=6910&t=Hamas-lauds-Turkish-decision-to-reopen-Ayasofya-Mosque">praising</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-13/eu-urges-turkey-to-reverse-hagia-sophia-reconversion-plan">condemning</a> the decision have come in from around the world. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://religiousstudies.stanford.edu/people/anna-bigelow">scholar</a> specializing in Islam, I have studied the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jaar/article-abstract/87/3/725/5538806?redirectedFrom=fulltext">power of sacred spaces</a>, <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/istanbul/9780813589091">including the Hagia Sophia</a>, to unify and divide communities. </p>
<p>For almost a millennium and a half Hagia Sophia has embodied both possibilities. </p>
<h2>A sixth century cathedral</h2>
<p>Built in the sixth century by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Justinian-I">Byzantine Emperor Justinian</a>, this marvel of architecture and aesthetics was never just a religious enterprise. </p>
<p>The emperor needed a spectacular means of <a href="http://www.byzconf.org/nika-revolts/">establishing his authority</a> and quelling <a href="http://www.bauhanpublishing.com/shop/saint-sophia-at-constantinople/">internal rebellions</a> that threatened his rule. </p>
<p>Justinian, called “the builder of the world” by his chronicler <a href="https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/id/53419/">Procopius</a>, hoped the monument – a cathedral – would help establish his political domain and unify <a href="https://ehrmanblog.org/tag/christology/">a fractious Christian church</a> divided by theology and competing regional power bases. </p>
<p>Only a great ruler could build such an edifice, and only a great empire could sustain it.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348034/original/file-20200716-37-xxffi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348034/original/file-20200716-37-xxffi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348034/original/file-20200716-37-xxffi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348034/original/file-20200716-37-xxffi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348034/original/file-20200716-37-xxffi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348034/original/file-20200716-37-xxffi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348034/original/file-20200716-37-xxffi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Byzantine mosaic of Jesus Christ in Hagia Sophia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/byzantine-mosaic-of-jesus-christ-in-hagia-sophia-royalty-free-image/691350146?adppopup=true">nikolaradic/iStock / Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Ottoman conquest</h2>
<p>The first shift in the building’s identity occurred during the <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/%7Egrout/encyclopaedia_romana/circusmaximus/sack.html">Fourth Crusade</a>. Frankish holy warriors occupied Constantinople from 1204 to 1261, looting the Hagia Sophia of its many treasures. </p>
<p>By that time the Eastern Orthodox church based in Constantinople and the Western Catholic church based in Rome had <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-28/1054-east-west-schism.html">broken apart</a> in the great schism of 1054 A.D. After the Byzantine reconquest of Constantinople, it <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/gnecipoglu/files/hagia_sophia.pdf">took some convincing</a> for the population to return to the cathedral that had been despoiled by the crusaders.</p>
<p>The next major shift occurred almost 200 years later with the Ottoman conquest in 1453 A.D. that saw Constantinople renamed as Istanbul and Hagia Sofia converted into a mosque. Sultan <a href="http://www.theottomans.org/english/campaigns_army/Mehmed-the-Conqueror.asp">Mehmed II</a>, who lived from 1432 to 1481 A.D., established an endowment in perpetuity providing the Hagia Sophia mosque with the necessary support and staff. At the same time, he <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/gnecipoglu/files/hagia_sophia.pdf">encouraged his Muslim subjects</a> to pray there. </p>
<p>After the conversion, an alcove facing Mecca, known as the “<a href="https://www.needpix.com/photo/1089580/hagia-sofia-reading-church-mosque-library-architecture-turkey-istanbul">mihrab</a>” was added, making it possible for Muslims to know the proper orientation for the five time daily prayers. </p>
<p>A pulpit or “<a href="https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-xezll">minbar</a>” for giving the Friday sermon was also installed. Eventually <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Interior_of_Hagia_sophia.JPG">calligraphic medallions</a> of the names of God, Muhammad, and the first four caliphs of Islam, were added to this monument. </p>
<p>The many mosaics of Christian figures such as <a href="https://www.pikist.com/free-photo-iraqg">Jesus</a>, <a href="https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-oempc">Mary</a>, the apostles and saints, as well as <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comnenus_mosaics_Hagia_Sophia.jpg">various Byzantine rulers</a> were mostly left intact and not completely plastered over until the 1840s when Sultan Abdülmecid II hired the Italian <a href="http://www.turkishculture.org/architecture/architects/the-fossati-brothers-959.htm">Fossati Brothers</a> to renovate and restore the building. </p>
<p>At that time, many cracks were repaired in the dome, a new platform for the sultan’s prayer space was built, and the mosaics were cleaned. Though <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/gnecipoglu/files/hagia_sophia.pdf">initially the sultan preferred to have them on display</a>, religious sensibilities that objected to praying in the direction of human images meant that the mosaics with such depictions were plastered over, even as they were preserved.</p>
<h2>Symbol of secularism</h2>
<p>After the demise of the Ottomans in the early 20th century, the new Republic of Turkey, founded on <a href="http://www.hri.org/docs/turkey/part_i.html#article_2">secular principles</a> and seeking legitimacy in international institutions, renovated the Hagia Sophia as a museum. </p>
<p>The founder and leader of the new Turkish Republic, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/ataturk_kemal.shtml">Mustafa Kemal Atatürk</a> promoted <a href="https://sites.psu.edu/global/2018/02/08/mustafa-kemal-ataturk-and-his-reforms/">numerous projects to minimize the public role of religion</a> in society, from changing the script of the language from Arabic to Roman to outlawing public displays of religiously marked clothing. He also banned the popular and powerful Sufi mystical orders such as the <a href="https://sufism.org/origins/mevlevi/the-mevlevi-order-2">Mevlevis</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bektashi">Bektashis</a>. </p>
<p>Turning the Hagia Sophia into a museum demonstrated that the building’s composite history could exemplify the power of secular modernity. This involved <a href="https://www.doaks.org/newsletter/hagia-sophias-hidden-history">restoration of the structure</a>, removal of the plasters over the mosaics, and, eventually, adding a gift shop and ticket booth. </p>
<p>At its peak, <a href="https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/hagia-sophia-visitors-to-reach-three-million-threshold-in-2019-147818">3 million people a year</a> passed through the complex with foreign visitors paying the equivalent of US$10 to enter; Turkish nationals could visit at reduced rates. </p>
<p>The Turkish government has said <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-hagiasophia-erdogan/hagia-sophia-mosaics-will-be-covered-with-curtains-during-prayers-turkish-presidential-spokesman-idUSKCN24K0OS">it will make few changes</a> to the building after its conversion into a mosque, though curtains will cover the mosaics depicting Christian divine and saintly figures that are visible to those offering the Muslim prayers. After the prayers are completed, the curtains can be removed so visitors can see them. </p>
<p>There will no <a href="https://www.iletisim.gov.tr/english/haberler/detay/presidential-decree-on-the-opening-of-hagia-sophia-to-worship-promulgated-on-the-official-gazette-of-the-republic-of-turkey">longer be a fee</a> for anyone to enter the Hagia Sophia.</p>
<h2>Contested territory</h2>
<p>Every time the Hagia Sophia has transformed over the last 1,500 years, the change has been incomplete and contested in some way. </p>
<p>Even before these developments, proponents of the church <a href="https://www.pallasweb.com/deesis/hagiasophia.html">set up</a> <a href="http://www.new-byzantium.org/KrkstsCnstpl.html">websites</a> with <a href="https://www.pallasweb.com/deesis/hagiasophia.html">images of the minarets erased</a> and a cross reinstalled on the crest of the dome. These advocates hoped to restore the <a href="http://www.new-byzantium.org/newbyz.html">lost Byzantine Empire</a>.</p>
<p>There are also those who desire to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-perspectives-on-turkey/article/between-neoottomanism-and-ottomania-navigating-stateled-and-popular-cultural-representations-of-the-past/E4D2845778365100F7D975926673D89A/core-reader">bring back</a> a <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-01-02/turkey-seeking-neo-ottoman-empire">new Ottoman Empire</a>. Advocates for the mosque argue that the conversion to a museum was <a href="https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkeys-nationalist-party-seeks-prayers-in-the-hagia-sophia-57632">illegitimate</a> as the change was never published in Turkey’s <a href="https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/">Official Gazette</a> – a requirement to register any official act.</p>
<p>For some Muslims, the Hagia Sophia was always linked to Islam. <a href="https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-many-legends-of-the-hagia-sophia-72796">Legend</a> has it that when the dome collapsed in the late sixth century it coincided with the birth of Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, and was only reparable with the addition of his saliva to the cement. </p>
<h2>Changes over the years</h2>
<p>The desire of some Turkish Muslims to pray in the Hagia Sophia was partially realized in the early 1990s when a <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/search-list?contributor=anna-bigelow">prayer space was opened</a> in a passageway through a minaret. </p>
<p>Over the years considerable resources were invested in improving and decorating this space, which also housed the office of the Hagia Sophia’s prayer leader, or an Imam, a position supported by Sultan Mehmet’s original endowment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348032/original/file-20200716-33-1csdj18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348032/original/file-20200716-33-1csdj18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348032/original/file-20200716-33-1csdj18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348032/original/file-20200716-33-1csdj18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348032/original/file-20200716-33-1csdj18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348032/original/file-20200716-33-1csdj18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348032/original/file-20200716-33-1csdj18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Muslims offer their evening prayers outside the Hagia Sophia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Turkey-Hagia-Sofia/3ecc7a0f83634c11aaf9c1b0ec984dc4/18/0">AP Photo/Emrah Gurel</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/morning-prayer-held-before-hagia-sophia-to-demand-re-conversion-into-mosque--83229">Enormous crowds have gathered annually</a> on May 31, the anniversary of the Ottoman conquest, to pray in the streets and plazas outside the Hagia Sophia. <a href="https://www.christiantimes.com/article/greece-slams-turkey-for-using-christian-basilica-site-for-quran-reading-during-ramadan/56777.htm">Quran recitations</a> and <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/2015/06/12/battle-over-hagia-sophia-338091.html">calligraphy exhibitions</a> have been held in the building as well. </p>
<p>As recently as March 2019, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/turkey/we-know-what-to-do-erdogan-on-demands-to-open-hagia-sophia-for-prayers-25011">expressed opposition</a> to the change, but the groundswell that came to fruition in 2020 has been long underway.</p>
<h2>A potent symbol</h2>
<p>There are many Turkish citizens, both <a href="https://sat7.org/post/turkey-a-unique-and-valuable-christian-heritage">non-Muslim</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/opinion/hagia-sophia-mosque.html">Muslim</a>, who are opposed to these developments. These include Turkey’s Christians who form <a href="https://theconversation.com/christians-have-lived-in-turkey-for-two-millennia-but-their-future-is-uncertain-127296">0.5% of the population</a>. However, they have little recourse.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Following the decision to reconvert the monument to a mosque, the UN’s cultural heritage organization UNESCO said in a statement that it “<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/07/1068151">deeply regrets</a>” the move. Christian leaders too have stated that they are “<a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-07/angelus-pope-remembers-seafarers.html">are very saddened</a>” by the “<a href="https://www.goarch.org/-/fourth-ecumenical-council-homily-2020">regrettable and lamentable</a>” change. </p>
<p>Governments including <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-museum-verdict-greece/greece-condemns-turkeys-decision-to-convert-hagia-sophia-into-mosque-idUSKBN24B2UF">Greece</a> and the <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/press-releases/turkey-statement-hagia-sophia">United States</a> have lodged their objections. </p>
<p>This disquiet over the change in its status is a reminder that as a potent symbol of authority, the Hagia Sophia has shifted identity with every change in power and will likely continue to do so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143084/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Bigelow received funding from the Carnegie Scholars Program and the American Academy of Religion. </span></em></p>The first Muslim prayer in 86 years was held on July 24 inside Hagia Sophia, recently reconverted to a mosque. For over a millennium, this grand monument has wielded enormous power.Anna Bigelow, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Stanford UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1131692019-03-21T10:45:30Z2019-03-21T10:45:30ZNuns were secluded to avoid scandals in early Christian monastic communities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263231/original/file-20190311-86696-hlxu4z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Margareta, head of the women's community at Lippoldsberg (in modern-day Germany) clasps hands with an Augustinian monk as he hands her a book.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lippoldsberg Evangeliary. Kassel, Landesbibliothek, MS theol. 2o 59, f. 73v.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis recently stated that Catholic nuns in various parts of the world, including Africa, Europe, India and Latin America, have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/05/world/europe/pope-nuns-sexual-abuse.html">suffered sexual abuse</a> at the hands of priests and bishops. </p>
<p>In his comments during a news conference held aboard the papal plane, Pope Francis referred to a high-profile scandal within the <a href="http://csjohn.org/family-saint-john/#">Community of St. John</a> – a religious congregation comprising both men and women based in France. In 2013, the Community of St. John officially confirmed allegations that its founder Marie-Dominique Philippe, who died in 2006, had engaged in “<a href="https://brothers-saint-john.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2019/02/letter-to-brothers.pdf">gestures contrary to chastity</a>,” including with <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/20/europe/catholic-france-order-women-abuse-intl/index.html">nuns in his spiritual care</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264946/original/file-20190320-93028-kjb3kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264946/original/file-20190320-93028-kjb3kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264946/original/file-20190320-93028-kjb3kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264946/original/file-20190320-93028-kjb3kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264946/original/file-20190320-93028-kjb3kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264946/original/file-20190320-93028-kjb3kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264946/original/file-20190320-93028-kjb3kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marie Dominique Philippe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie-Dominique_Philippe#/media/File:Marie-Dominique_Philippe.jpg">Herwig Reidlinger</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such problems are certainly not new. As scholars of <a href="http://studiumanistici.uniroma3.it/mgiorda/">ancient</a> and <a href="http://www.abeach.org">medieval monasticism</a>, our research reveals that sexual contact between the sexes has been a source of anxiety – and even scandal – from the time of the earliest Christian monasteries to the present. </p>
<p>In many cases, scandal, or even fear of scandal, resulted in tighter restrictions on contact between religious women and men.</p>
<h2>Women and men in the desert</h2>
<p>Aspiring nuns and monks are required to reject private property, marriage and biological family ties. Celibacy – abstinence from sexual relations – is implicit in the rejection of marriage and procreation and has always been central to the monastic ideal. </p>
<p>The monastic path has not been open to celibate women on their own, however. In late antiquity and the Middle Ages, the Church generally <a href="https://www.uscatholic.org/articles/201211/get-facts-order-history-womens-leadership-26594">excluded women from the priesthood</a>. Some branches of Christianity continue this practice today. And because a priest was always needed to administer the sacraments of the Communion, penance and last rites, no woman could avoid all contact with men. </p>
<p>One solution was to form double monasteries, sometimes also called dual-sex, twin, or brother and sister communities. This type of community is first mentioned in written sources from fourth-century Egypt and Cappadocia, in Turkey. They still <a href="http://archive.osb.org/gen/brosis.html">exist in various forms today.</a></p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264955/original/file-20190320-93054-h4o899.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264955/original/file-20190320-93054-h4o899.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264955/original/file-20190320-93054-h4o899.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264955/original/file-20190320-93054-h4o899.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264955/original/file-20190320-93054-h4o899.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264955/original/file-20190320-93054-h4o899.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264955/original/file-20190320-93054-h4o899.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mosaic of Emperor Justinian in the church of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Juris_Civilis#/media/File:Mosaic_of_Justinianus_I_-_Basilica_San_Vitale_(Ravenna).jpg">Petar Milošević</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the exact living arrangements in the earliest double houses are not clearly explained in written sources, men and women tended to have their own quarters, divided in some cases by a river or a mountain. </p>
<p>From the beginning, double monasteries attracted negative attention. In fact, many of the earliest historical sources that refer to them call for their restriction or prohibition. The sixth-century law <a href="https://www.uwyo.edu/lawlib/blume-justinian/ajc-edition-2/novels/121-140/novel%20123_replacement.pdf">code of the Emperor Justinian</a>, for example, prohibited the formation of new double communities in the Byzantine Empire. He ordered that women and men be separated within communities that were already established. Sexual contact between women and men was likely the most urgent cause for concern. </p>
<p><a href="https://orthodoxchurchfathers.com/fathers/npnf214/npnf2266.htm#P10643_2033545">The church council held in Nicaea in 787 A.D.</a> to discuss matters of Church doctrine and practice repeated the prohibition, stating that double monasteries had become “an offense and cause of complaint to many.” </p>
<p>The council ruled that “monks and nuns may not reside in one building, for living together gives occasion for incontinence. No monk may enter the woman’s quarter, and no nun converse apart with a monk.”</p>
<h2>Anxiety about contact with women</h2>
<p>Despite such legislation, double monasteries were never entirely eliminated. When they began to appear in greater numbers during the 12th century, they triggered renewed anxiety about contact between the sexes among both clerics and laypeople.</p>
<p>Clerics who wrote about these double communities often enumerated the strict rules in place to limit interaction between women and men. Direct physical contact between the sexes was carefully restricted to spiritual services such as hearing confessions and celebrating the mass. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264949/original/file-20190320-93063-1d3u2ho.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264949/original/file-20190320-93063-1d3u2ho.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264949/original/file-20190320-93063-1d3u2ho.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264949/original/file-20190320-93063-1d3u2ho.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264949/original/file-20190320-93063-1d3u2ho.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264949/original/file-20190320-93063-1d3u2ho.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264949/original/file-20190320-93063-1d3u2ho.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The women of Lippoldsberg could view the altar in their church only from a separate raised gallery of a church built in 1150.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alison I. Beach</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Within some communities, even brothers and sisters or mothers and sons had to get <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=I1M6DwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA77&ots=aay-U37T_O&dq=trauma%20of%20monastic%20reform%20brothers%20and%20sisters&pg=PA82#v=onepage&q=mothers%20and%20sons&f=false">special permission to meet face to face</a>.</p>
<p>The 12th-century monk Irimbert of Admont, located in what is modern Austria, claimed that his community’s women were locked within an enclosure <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UUX3PsZeGuoC&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=admont+door+lock&source=bl&ots=sD8WldtDjE&sig=ACfU3U2QR9kseGRFazdXEeMI51GIkhbtIg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiR9oiz9P_gAhWRGt8KHeINA3oQ6AEwDnoECAAQAQ#v=onepage&q=admont%20door%20lock&f=false">secured with a three-lock door</a>.</p>
<p>He stated that this door was only opened to admit a woman to the community, for a priest to enter to administer last rites to the dying, or to remove a nun’s body for burial.</p>
<p>Irimbert’s account may reflect the reality of life on the ground at 12th-century Admont, but he may also have been trying to avert criticism and deflect suspicion.</p>
<h2>Scandal at Watton</h2>
<p>One <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-church-history-subsidia/article/aelred-of-rievaulx-and-the-nun-of-watton-an-episode-in-the-early-history-of-the-gilbertine-order/5C0F49A3D7D6AA93101E5D51872085D9">notorious scandal</a> emerged during the same period in the Gilbertine Order of England. The Gilbertines organized religious houses with four subcommunities: two for women and two for men.</p>
<p>As the 12th-century monk Aelred of Rievaulx <a href="https://www.questia.com/read/1P3-912855531/the-nun-of-watton">tells the story</a>, a young nun at the monastery of Watton, whom he characterized as silly and lustful, conceived a child with one of the priory’s men. </p>
<p>When the pregnancy brought the affair to light, the nuns seized the man and forced the pregnant nun to castrate him. The nuns then shoved his severed testicles, <a href="https://www.questia.com/read/1P3-912855531/the-nun-of-watton">“still stinking with blood,”</a> into her mouth. Shortly after this horrific incident at Watton, Pope Alexander III investigated complaints made by a group of men within the broader community about the proximity of men and women in some of the order’s houses. </p>
<p>At least five bishops wrote to Alexander to assure him that men and women were now strictly segregated in the dual-sex Gilbertine communities within their dioceses. </p>
<p>As was common in the Middle Ages, Aelred laid the blame for the tragedy at Watton squarely at the feet of the nun. </p>
<h2>Age-old restrictions</h2>
<p>Returning to the present, however, both the current leader of the Community of St. John and Pope Francis have openly acknowledged that nuns were <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/pope-francis-first-time-acknowledges-sexual-abuse-nuns-priests-n967526">“preyed upon”</a> by founder Marie-Dominique Philippe. </p>
<p>Among the internal “reforms” in the Community of St. John, like those in the centuries before, were measures for stricter enclosure of the community’s contemplative women. </p>
<p>Scholars have no witness to the lived experience of the women of Watton or the women of any of the double communities restricted by earlier legislation.</p>
<p>But the reforms within the Community of St. John split the women’s community and led to the departure of many of the sisters from the order. For many, as one news site reported, stricter enclosure was <a href="http://www.kath.net/news/39982">not in keeping</a> with the character of the community they had chosen to enter for life. Their community was intended to be contemplative, not cloistered. </p>
<p>For the women who left the Community of St. John, seclusion was no longer an acceptable solution to a centuries-old problem.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113169/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pope Francis recently confirmed that clergy members abused nuns. Since the early days of monasticism, the presence of nuns led to restrictions that limited contact between men and women.Alison I. Beach, Associate Professor of History, The Ohio State UniversityMaria Chiara Giorda, Associate Professor, Roma Tre UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.