tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/hagia-sophia-90089/articlesHagia Sophia – The Conversation2024-01-23T18:59:24Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2129622024-01-23T18:59:24Z2024-01-23T18:59:24ZHidden women of history: Olympias, who took on an emperor, dodged a second marriage and fought for her faith<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560321/original/file-20231120-25-33mqpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=398%2C802%2C3181%2C4174&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Olympias the Deaconess. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Print by Boëtius Adamsz. Bolswert in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Olympias was born to a wealthy family in the fourth-century CE, probably in the capital city of the Roman empire: Constantinople (now Istanbul).</p>
<p>Not to be confused with the mother of Alexander the Great (who lived around 800 years earlier), this Olympias is remembered in various texts as a patron of the church and a champion of female ascetics, a determined advocate for her friends, and a faithful and dedicated Christian. </p>
<p>A sad fact about the early Christian period is that very few texts written by women survive. Olympias was well educated and acquainted with bishops and even the emperor. We know she wrote letters to some of these men, but only the men’s letters to her remain. </p>
<p>There are stories about her life as well, and some about her monastery and her bodily remains after her death, but most of these were also written by men. Nevertheless, these sources can give us insight into the life of a formidable woman who opposed the emperor and fought for her way of life and her faith.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-enheduanna-princess-priestess-and-the-worlds-first-known-author-109185">Hidden women of history: Enheduanna, princess, priestess and the world's first known author</a>
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<h2>A husband chosen</h2>
<p>When Olympias was born, in the second half of the fourth century, the Roman Empire was rapidly becoming more Christian. The emperor Constantine (306-337) had converted to Christianity in 312, legalising the religion a year later and promoting it through patronage of the church. His nephew, the emperor Julian (361-363), briefly tried to restore the empire to Roman religion (“paganism”) but his reign was short and his religious campaign unsuccessful.</p>
<p>Olympias was orphaned as a child. When she was between the ages of 12 and 15, her guardian chose a suitable husband for her. Nebridius was the prefect of the city of Constantinople, roughly equivalent to a city mayor. This was his second marriage. According to some sources, his son from his first marriage was older than Olympias. She is unlikely to have had much say in the match.</p>
<p>Olympias’s family was wealthy and she would have taken a substantial dowry with her on marrying. The law decreed Nebridius had to keep that fortune safe for her as a dowry for a second husband in case of his death. And indeed, Nebridius lived less than two years after their marriage. Olympias was now a widow and probably only about 17.</p>
<p>When she was widowed, according to an anonymous <a href="https://sourceschretiennes.org/collection/SC-13">Life of Olympias,</a> the emperor Theodosius tried to marry her off to a relative of his named Elpidius. Her extensive wealth - she owned property all over the empire including palaces in Constantinople – made her quite a catch. </p>
<p>But Olympias refused, apparently declaring </p>
<blockquote>
<p>if the Lord Jesus Christ had wanted me to live with a man, he would not have taken away my first husband.</p>
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<h2>A celibate life</h2>
<p>She told the emperor she wanted to live a celibate life as a monastic rather than marry again.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560323/original/file-20231120-29-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560323/original/file-20231120-29-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560323/original/file-20231120-29-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560323/original/file-20231120-29-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560323/original/file-20231120-29-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560323/original/file-20231120-29-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560323/original/file-20231120-29-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560323/original/file-20231120-29-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Olympias the deaconess.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
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<p>This, at least, is the way the Life presents it. We cannot be certain this is an accurate representation of Olympias’s interactions with the emperor. Given the life she went on to lead, it seems clear she had a particular devotion to God and a strong desire to live an ascetic, celibate life. </p>
<p>But there are other reasons in this period why a young widow might not want to marry again. Mortality rates for women in childbirth were high, as were infant mortality rates. If she married again, she might die in childbirth, or her child might die soon after. </p>
<p>There were good theological reasons to remain unmarried too. There were debates in the early church about whether a second marriage counted as adultery and many theologians encouraged women to remain a <em>univira</em> – a “one-man woman”. </p>
<p>Perhaps Olympias was also keen to maintain some financial independence. Another marriage would bring her squarely under the authority of another man. Perhaps she hoped by remaining a widow she could use her wealth as she saw fit.</p>
<p>If this was her aim, she was disappointed. When Olympias refused to marry Elpidius, the emperor Theodosius commanded the prefect of the city, Clementius, be guardian of all her possessions until Olympias turned 30. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mythbusting-ancient-rome-did-all-roads-actually-lead-there-81746">Mythbusting Ancient Rome -- did all roads actually lead there?</a>
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<h2>A determined young woman</h2>
<p>The Life gives Olympias a pithy reply in which she says she is glad to be relieved from the burden of her wealth and begs Clementius to distribute her wealth to the poor and the churches.</p>
<p>This fifth century CE text presents Olympias as a determined young woman who is not afraid to advocate for herself and fight to live her chosen way of life.</p>
<p>A few years later, Theodosius relented when he saw how dedicated Olympias was to the ascetic life, restoring her fortune. This enabled Olympias to establish a monastery or holy house for women in Constantinople. </p>
<p>She built it right next to the cathedral church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) and lived there with many other female ascetics. The proximity of the monastery to the church is likely one of the reasons that Olympias became such close friends with <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08452b.htm">the bishop John Chrysostom</a>. John, who became archbishop (Patriarch) of Constantinople, was given the name “Chrysostom” (“Golden-Mouth”) because he preached fabulous sermons. Over 700 of his sermons survive.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560326/original/file-20231120-25-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560326/original/file-20231120-25-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560326/original/file-20231120-25-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560326/original/file-20231120-25-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560326/original/file-20231120-25-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560326/original/file-20231120-25-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560326/original/file-20231120-25-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560326/original/file-20231120-25-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An early Byzantine mosaic from the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia depicting Saint John Chrysostom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johnchrysostom.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>Olympias was ordained a deaconess by the archbishop Nectarius when only around 30. (It was unusual to be made a deaconess before the age of 60.) Such a role gave Olympias the authority to act for, and on behalf of, women in the church, as the guide and protector of the women who came to join her in her holy house. </p>
<p>She used her wealth and new status as deaconess to support the poor and the works of the church, becoming a strong advocate for Chrysostom. She became a patron and friend of other bishops too.</p>
<p>When Gregory of Nyssa, theologian and bishop in Cappadocia, wrote a commentary on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_Songs">Song of Songs</a>, around the year 394, he <a href="https://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/pubs/061613P.front.pdf">dedicated it to Olympias</a>. She had suggested he should write it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You have enjoined upon me, both in person and by your letters, a study of the Song of Songs, and I have undertaken it because it is suited to your holy life and your pure heart.</p>
</blockquote>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-hagia-sophia-remains-a-potent-symbol-of-spiritual-and-political-authority-143084">Why Hagia Sophia remains a potent symbol of spiritual and political authority</a>
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<h2>An advocate for her friend</h2>
<p>When Chrysostom was sent into exile, for reasons that remain a bit unclear, he wrote regularly to Olympias. Seventeen of his letters to her survive, more than from him to any other person. She kept advocating for him and was angry with those who had deserted him. </p>
<p>Chrysostom told her Jesus’ friends had also deserted him. He was impressed by Olympias’s perseverance even under suffering – her ill health didn’t stop her from being a “tower”, a “haven” and a “wall of defence”.</p>
<p>Perhaps he was referring to the protection Olympias gave to monks who had been banished for their support of Chrysostom. When an ally was imprisoned, Chrysostom wrote to Olympias to strategise about how to get him released.</p>
<p>These actions, protecting the supporters of the exiled bishop, were ultimately Olympias’s downfall. She was persecuted, wrongfully accused of causing a fire in the city and sent into exile to Nicomedia (modern Izmit, Turkey) where she died, probably in 409.</p>
<h2>A significant figure</h2>
<p>Although she died in exile, Olympias was a significant figure who fought against the mould women were supposed to fit into, supporting a lot of people along the way. </p>
<p>The anonymous Life describes her as practising hospitality in a similar way to the Old Testament patriarch Abraham, fighting for self-control like Joseph, suffering patiently and faithfully like Job and being martyred like <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14564a.htm">the legendary early Christian, Thecla</a>.</p>
<p>In the seventh century, a woman named Sergia became the leader of Olympias’s monastery in Constantinople. Sergia <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jerome-Chrysostom-Friends-Translations-Religion/dp/0889465428">wrote about</a> finding Olympias’s bones in the wreckage of another monastery and bringing them back to her own. </p>
<p>When a later Patriarch anointed the remains, Sergia says, they bled until his hands were full of blood. </p>
<p>This rather frightening miracle had a big impact on the assembled audience. Sergia records many people were cured of diseases by Olympias’s remains after this bloody episode. </p>
<p>Such miracle stories, which seem so strange to us, show Olympias’s continued importance in the monastery she founded and the city which was her home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212962/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Gador-Whyte does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A formidable woman born in the second half of the fourth century and widowed at around 17, Olympias was not afraid to advocate for herself – or her friends.Sarah Gador-Whyte, Research Fellow in Biblical and Early Christian Studies, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag: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>
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<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>
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<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/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>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<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/1429662020-08-11T19:32:03Z2020-08-11T19:32:03ZHagia Sophia controversy goes beyond Muslim-Christian tensions to treatment of ‘paganism’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350719/original/file-20200802-14-own4h3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3703%2C2272&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Muslims offer their prayers during the Eid al-Adha prayer, backdropped by Hagia Sophia, July 31, 2020. Some believe the building stands on an ancient pagan site. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Yasin Akgul)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent uproar <a href="http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Kemalist-theologians:-Political-exploitation-of-Hagia-Sophia-irreparable-error%27-and-anti-Islamic--50627.html">from within Turkey</a> and globally about changes to <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-greece/hagia-sophia">Hagia Sophia — a 1,500-year-old</a> <a href="https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-statement-hagia-sophia-istanbul">UNESCO World Heritage Site</a> of religious significance to both <a href="https://www.livescience.com/42158-history-of-the-byzantine-empire.html">Christians</a> <a href="https://time.com/5871204/hagia-sophia-reopens-mosque/">and Muslims</a> — is justified and understandable. </p>
<p>A Turkish <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/30/ayasofya-the-mosque-turned-museum-at-the-heart-of-an-ideological-battle">court revoked the site’s status as a museum</a> while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the space open for Muslim prayer. The move effectively <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/opinion/hagia-sophia-turkey-mosque.html">claimed Hagia Sophia as a mosque</a> and is seen as part of Erdogan’s push to <a href="https://mirrorspectator.com/2020/07/23/would-the-prophet-muhammad-convert-hagia-sophia">assert his version of an exclusionary religious Islamic identity in Turkey</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hagia-sophia-turning-this-turkish-treasure-into-a-mosque-is-at-odds-with-its-unesco-status-143372">Hagia Sophia: turning this Turkish treasure into a mosque is at odds with its Unesco status</a>
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<p>The Greek Foreign Ministry characterized the changes as the “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-hagiasophia-greece/turkey-and-greece-exchange-harsh-words-over-hagia-sophia-prayers-idUSKCN24Q097">religious and nationalist fanatic ramblings of today’s Turkey</a>.” Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual head of many Orthodox Christians, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-museum-preview/orthodox-patriarch-says-turning-istanbuls-hagia-sophia-into-mosque-would-be-divisive-idUSKBN24130F">said the change would be divisive</a> and Pope Francis <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-07/angelus-pope-remembers-seafarers.html">expressed sadness and disappointment</a>. UNESCO says revoking the museum status undermines an important “<a href="https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-statement-hagia-sophia-istanbul">symbol for dialogue</a>.” </p>
<p>But missing from this debate is acknowledgement that the controversy implies more than the need for deeper Christian-Muslim dialogues. Some believe that the Hagia Sophia, first a Christian <a href="https://mymodernmet.com/hagia-sophia/">cathedral</a> in the eastern Roman Empire, was built on the site of an <a href="https://hagiasophiaturkey.com/history-hagia-sophia">ancient pagan temple</a>. </p>
<p>Today, while there are <a href="https://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/2016/10/22/pagan-scholarship-from-a-pagan-perspective/">contentious scholarly debates about how to understand contemporary efforts to study or reconstruct older pagan religions</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/opinion/christianity-paganism-america.html">and their meaning</a>, pagan refers to those who <a href="https://www.paganfederation.org/what-is-paganism/">follow a polytheistic or pantheistic nature-worshipping religion</a>. Some contemporary people follow <a href="https://ca.paganfederation.org/paganism-information/">forms of paganism</a>. (In Canada’s 2001 census, <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/dp-pd/dt-td/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=0&GID=0&GK=0&GRP=0&PID=105399&PRID=0&PTYPE=105277&S=0&SHOWALL=0&SUB=0&Temporal=2013&THEME=95&VID=0">more than 25,000 people identified as pagan</a>.) But the pagan label is also continually used to inaccurately lump together an arguably diverse group of non-Abrahamic belief systems. </p>
<p>We believe that with the right will and attitude, global communities could channel the Hagia Sophia controversy to push for deepening dialogues among the <a href="https://www.bl.uk/sacred-texts/articles/the-abrahamic-religions">major Abrahamic religions</a> about how their religious histories have intersected with what they viewed as paganism, and what this means today. Such dialogues would rightly also mean a much-needed critical and fresh global engagement with Indigenous rights, justice issues and spiritualities.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Visitors inside Hagia Sophia in front of Jesus Christ's mosaic" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351654/original/file-20200806-18-16t5c4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351654/original/file-20200806-18-16t5c4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351654/original/file-20200806-18-16t5c4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351654/original/file-20200806-18-16t5c4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351654/original/file-20200806-18-16t5c4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351654/original/file-20200806-18-16t5c4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351654/original/file-20200806-18-16t5c4l.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">Visitors look at one of the ancient Christian mosaics inside the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia (‘Holy Wisdom’), in Istanbul, October 2010. The mosaics will be covered with curtains during Muslim prayer, officials have said.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Abrahamic faiths and pagans</h2>
<p>Archeologists and historians have demonstrated that historically, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/classical-studies/classical-studies-general/modern-greek-folklore-and-ancient-greek-religion-study-survivals?format=PB&isbn=9781107677036">for various reasons, including to encourage new converts, some Christian churches were built on top of ruins of sacred pagan sites or nearby</a>. </p>
<p>The practice of <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Egyptology-The-Missing-Millennium-Ancient-Egypt-in-Medieval-Arabic-Writings/El-Daly/p/book/9781598742800">using ancient pagan ruins was also continued with the building of some early mosques</a>.</p>
<p>Egyptologist Jan Assmann sees in the roots of Abrahamic monotheism the emergence of an unprecedented worldview and ethical values that were accompanied by a binary mindset. He contends that this “Mosaic distinction,” associated with the time of Moses moving forward, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2928707">repudiated everything that went before and everything outside itself as ‘paganism’</a>.”</p>
<p>Mostly negative depictions <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300225884/paul">of pagan</a> practices, idol worshipping and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/ca/academic/subjects/history/middle-east-history/idea-idolatry-and-emergence-islam-polemic-history?format=PB">their equivalents</a> appear throughout the holy scriptures of the Abrahamic religions.</p>
<p>Judaism sought to distinguish <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/idolatry-the-ultimate-betrayal-of-god/">loyalty to the one God</a> and so repudiated worship of <a href="https://theconversation.com/popular-christian-novel-the-shack-finds-a-surprising-solution-to-the-problem-of-evil-polytheism-135668">gods from the ancient Isrealite milieu</a>. Early Christians <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300225884/paul">sought to distinguish their practices</a> amid <a href="https://www.history.com/news/inside-the-conversion-tactics-of-the-early-christian-church#:%7E:text=The%20triumph%20of%20Christianity%20over,also%20social%2C%20political%20and%20cultural.&text=And%20yet%2C%20within%20three%20centuries,count%20some%203%20million%20adherents">Roman polytheism</a>. Islam <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ROF57nr4QboC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=islam+history&ots=sWagokLH72&sig=fb_l7xaNd41gDKE09npbn0nfeZE#v=onepage&q=islam%20history&f=false">sought to challenge and distance itself from its contemporary and powerful Arabian peoples seen as pagan idol worshippers.</a></p>
<p>Throughout history, the pagan label continued to be used to diminish not only non-Abrahamic traditions, but various Abrahamic religions and denominations. For instance, historically, some <a href="https://doi.org/10.1046/j.0963-9462.2002.00108.x">Christians have denigrated Judaism by typing Jews as pagans</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, some Christian groups have accused Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians of adopting pagan beliefs and practices, suggesting this makes them fundamentally less Christian. Heated debates aiming to <a href="https://www.catholic.com/tract/is-catholicism-pagan">fend off</a> <a href="http://saintandrewgoc.org/home/2018/6/21/new-idolatry-new-paganism">such accusations</a> show the negative stigma the Abrahamic tradition associates with paganism. </p>
<h2>Texbook accounts</h2>
<p>Some of our research found that K-12 school curricula in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2016.1276500">Canada</a>, <a href="https://madamasr.com/en/2018/12/21/opinion/u/reconciling-egyptians-with-their-ancient-past/%22%22">Egypt</a> and <a href="https://www.espaciotiempoyeducacion.com/ojs/index.php/ete/article/view/137/104">Greece</a> — lack a detailed and balanced account of the ancient and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2016.1263961">existing</a> non-Abrahamic — or pagan — traditions. We found that curricula inadequately examined the influences and contributions of these traditions to humanity as well as to Abrahamic traditions specifically. </p>
<p>In the case of the studies of curricula <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2017.1398352">in Egypt</a> and Canada, we also found that where one Abrahamic religion is dominant, there is a clear <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2016.1263961">need for fuller representation</a> of other Abrahamic religions in addition to pagan traditions — for example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3167/jemms.2011.030102">depictions of Islam</a> <a href="https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/books/article/viewArticle/BOOK-594-641-1">and Judaism</a> in the curricula in Québec.</p>
<p>Further, the textbooks we analyzed largely whitewash historical violence or any forced conversions committed in the names of Christianity and Islam. This very likely gives students the impression of voluntary and peaceful conversions, implying these religions’ superiority and sophistication over other beliefs. Such omissions also forestall the opportunity to critically engage with religious-based violence and historical injustices.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="In the centre, a mosaic of the Virgin Mary and Jesus." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351655/original/file-20200806-16-2qbygw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351655/original/file-20200806-16-2qbygw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351655/original/file-20200806-16-2qbygw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351655/original/file-20200806-16-2qbygw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351655/original/file-20200806-16-2qbygw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351655/original/file-20200806-16-2qbygw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351655/original/file-20200806-16-2qbygw.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 interior of Hagia Sophia shows its layered history as both a church and a mosque. Here, a mosaic of The Virgin Mary and Jesus, surrounded by calligraphic Arabic lettering. Throughout Hagia Sophia, some ‘roundrels’ on the walls bear names of Allah.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Misrepresenting Indigenous spiritualities</h2>
<p>An exclusionary and binary “us versus pagans” paradigm can be seen <a href="https://fulcrum.bookstore.ipgbook.com/pagans-in-the-promised-land-products-9781555916428.php">in how
European powers interpreted and acted towards Indigenous belief systems when colonizing Indigenous lands and societies</a>. This worldview <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/why-religion-1.4934033/indigenous-activist-urges-the-vatican-to-revoke-500-year-old-documents-1.4940937">justified dominating Indigenous Peoples</a>. Indigenous worldviews, cast as <a href="https://www.facinghistory.org/stolen-lives-indigenous-peoples-canada-and-indian-residential-schools/chapter-3/role-churches">“pagan superstition,” were interpreted as incompatible with moral western civilization, which was associated with Christianity</a>. </p>
<p>Among the most organized of these efforts to “civilize” through religion were <a href="https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historyfacpub/20/">government-sanctioned and supported</a> <a href="http://www.trc.ca/about-us/trc-findings.html">residential school systems</a>. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools">Canada, those schools were managed by the Roman Catholic, Anglican, United and Presbyterian churches</a> (before some Methodist and Presbyterian formed the United Church in 1925, the Methodist Church was an operator of schools).</p>
<p>Survivors, scholars and activists alike have rightly focused on holding <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools">specific government entities and religious institutional propagators</a> accountable for these historical injustices.</p>
<p>However, to arrive at more far-reaching and sustainable resolutions, it is crucial to also take a more historical approach to understanding the history of ideas that shape <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/world/americas/british-columbia-pipeline-wetsuweten.html">ongoing tensions</a> and injustices. </p>
<p>This historical approach would include key Abrahamic institutions engaging in critical self-reflection about how they have represented and acted vis-à-vis those non-Abrahamic belief systems and spiritualities. Central to that process would be engaging the relevant institutions and followers in these faiths in constructive dialogues about religious pluralism and respect, as well as the global struggles for Indigenous rights.</p>
<h2>Improved education</h2>
<p>Both public and religious schools must take to heart the task of producing well-rounded, critical, open-minded and tolerant citizens.</p>
<p>Canada’s <a href="http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf">Truth and Reconciliation Commission</a> has called for curricula in publicly funded schools to teach histories of residential schools and to acknowledge injustices committed against Indigenous Peoples.</p>
<p>To achieve that, curricula and classroom discussions need to encourage more in-depth engagement with global religions — including ancient and existing pagan traditions and Indigenous traditions. This entails providing fuller historical analyses and better contextualization, while exposing students to multiple perspectives. Pagan traditions’ contributions — including exchanges with, and influences on, the Abrahamic tradition — need also be better acknowledged and emphasized.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nixing-plans-to-add-indigenous-content-to-ontario-curriculum-is-a-travesty-99886">Nixing plans to add Indigenous content to Ontario curriculum is a travesty</a>
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<p>Further, students should be supported in developing the capacity to critique ideologies and worldviews which bypass respectful engagement and insist on the right to dominate in various ways, <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/sasklr68&div=21&id=&page=">including undermining particular beliefs and cultural practices</a> <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2012/hr5088.doc.htm">or controlling resources</a>. This would help students take a critical stance that resists religiously based or ideologically inspired exclusionary extremism and violence.</p>
<p>Together, we could find in the Hagia Sophia controversy inspiration for true wisdom to create a more tolerant, peaceful, harmonious, equitable and sustainable world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142966/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 organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Beyond inter-religious dialogues, religions need to examine how their histories intersect with Indigenous People’s rights and spiritualities.Ehaab D. Abdou, Department of Global Studies, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityTheodore G. Zervas, Professor of Education, North Park UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1433722020-07-29T12:11:24Z2020-07-29T12:11:24ZHagia Sophia: turning this Turkish treasure into a mosque is at odds with its Unesco status<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349579/original/file-20200727-35-nr0cyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=75%2C46%2C3806%2C2438&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Hagia Sophia has been converted into a mosque.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hagia-sophia-largest-church-built-by-1688671507">Murat Can Kirmizigul/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Hagia Sophia has just <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-53506445">opened to receive</a> Sunni Muslim worshippers for the first time since 1931. The decision to convert the building in Istanbul, Turkey from a museum back into a mosque has divided opinion. Many Turkish inhabitants commend the transformation while mostly secular Turkish inhabitants and much of the international community find it inconceivable.</p>
<p>Strategically located for more than two millennia on the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Bosporus">Bosporus</a> between Europe and Asia, between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, Istanbul has been the site of major religious, political and artistic events in world history. </p>
<p>The Hagia Sophia, originally a Byzantine church built in the sixth century, and for a short period in the 13th century a Catholic church, was converted into a mosque in 1453. It became a symbol of the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul by Mehmed II, also known as the conqueror.</p>
<p>The building owes its splendour to the Ottoman architect of Armenian origin, <a href="https://www.dailysabah.com/feature/2018/04/12/mimar-sinan-master-architect-who-shaped-ottoman-lands">Mimar Sinan</a>. Between 1566 and 1574, Mimar Sinan extensively strengthened the Byzantine structure by adding two more minarets, securing its status as a monument that amalgamates symbols of both Christianity and Sunni Islam. This made the building something quite unique in the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Domed interior of the Hagia Sophia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349580/original/file-20200727-23-945um7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349580/original/file-20200727-23-945um7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349580/original/file-20200727-23-945um7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349580/original/file-20200727-23-945um7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349580/original/file-20200727-23-945um7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349580/original/file-20200727-23-945um7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349580/original/file-20200727-23-945um7.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 interior of the Hagia Sophia when it was a museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hagia-sophia-sofia-ayasofya-interior-istanbul-81513439">Artur Bogacki/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The beginning of the end for the Hagia Sophia’s previous period as a mosque came in 1928 when <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/ataturk-versus-erdogan-turkeys-long-struggle">the Amendment</a> of the Turkish constitution defined the relationship between the state and religion. This was followed by the reforms of Turkey’s first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, which set up a political grounding of the modern, democratic and secular state. As a result, the Hagia Sophia was closed to worship in 1931. After extensive renovation, in 1934 it was converted into a museum – an act which symbolised Turkey’s secularism.</p>
<p>However, religious sentiments from both <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/a-monumental-struggle-to-preserve-hagia-sophia-92038218/">Christian Orthodox and Sunni Islam</a> started to become more prominent at the beginning of the 21st century, with both demanding that the building should be returned to their religious worhsip. In 2006, a small room in the complex was used for prayer for Christian and Muslim employees on the site. In 2007 a Greek-American politician, <a href="http://pravoslavie.ru/4770.html">Christos Spirou</a>, launched an international campaign to restore the Hagia Sophia to a Christian church. Political campaigns both internal and external to Turkey have focused upon who rightfully owns the Hagia Sophia.</p>
<p>On July 10 2020, Turkey’s administrative court, the council of state, ruled to annul the 1934 decree. Later that day, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed a presidential decree turning the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque and opening it as a place of prayer and worship.</p>
<h2>Who does it belong to?</h2>
<p>Converting the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque has very challenging consequences within Turkey but also on a transnational level. The Hagia Sophia is a <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/356">Unesco World Heritage Site</a>, inscribed as a part of the historic areas of Istanbul in 1985.</p>
<p>Being a world heritage site ratifies a site as highly prestigious and culturally precious to the territory in which it is located. However, an important question is: <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2167/jht056.0">to whom</a> does such a site belong? Is it to the nation where it is situated or does its beauty, value and significance go beyond national ownership?</p>
<p>If named as a world heritage site, it arguably belongs to the whole world. This is a very debatable issue, and may seem controversial, but for those who believe this, the question which comes to the fore is whether the Turkish government has the right to convert the Hagia Sophia and mess with its intangible heritage context such as its legacy of being a museum. </p>
<p>Many world heritage sites are used in national politics, national branding and promotion. But when this involves linking or indexing these sites to aspects of national and international ideology and identity, one always needs to “other” someone else. There exists an exclusionary aspect to this promotional activity. </p>
<p>The Taj Mahal, for instance, is often linked with divisions about ownership in the population of India. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-41813339#:%7E:text=%22Taj%20Mahal%20is%20not%20a,%2C%20and%20Islamic%20architectural%20styles%22">Is it a</a> Mughal-Islamic monument, or a Hindu monument? It might be argued that in essence, the Taj Mahal supersedes these religious and national extremes. It is a world heritage site with global currency and status.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The Taj Mahal in India at dawn." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349582/original/file-20200727-17-h7abe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349582/original/file-20200727-17-h7abe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349582/original/file-20200727-17-h7abe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349582/original/file-20200727-17-h7abe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349582/original/file-20200727-17-h7abe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349582/original/file-20200727-17-h7abe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349582/original/file-20200727-17-h7abe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Taj Mahal is another heritage site at the centre of conversations of religous ownership.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/taj-mahal-ivorywhite-marble-mausoleum-on-400068991">Yury Taranik/Shutterstocl</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>In a similar vein, the Hagia Sophia is being used by the Turkish government in the context of the de-secularisation of the country. Reprising its role as a mosque, it has become a symbol of the modern Turkish nation where Turkish flags and the symbols of Sunni Islam <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2015/04/01/the-arab-worlds-multiplying-flags">are seen</a> hand in hand. This brings the religion and state together.</p>
<h2>Divisions</h2>
<p>Turkey is a state where Sunni Islam dominates, while other denominations, such as Alevism (<a href="https://www.refworld.org/docid/4f71a67011.html">around 15% to 25%</a> of the population), are silenced and “othered” by this turn towards de-secularisation. With the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque, secular Turkish citizens are “othered” as well. The conversion is therefore very challenging in a multi-religious and multi-ideological society.</p>
<p>It also brings back <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333824525_Orientalism_Balkanism_and_Europe's_Ottoman_Heritage">east-west binaries</a> over the building, where the Christian and secular world is seen as mostly in dismay about the decision and the religious Muslim world is in total acceptance. In sum, this decision has unnecessarily created division.</p>
<p>Focusing at the national level, secular inhabitants of Istanbul and Turkey fear that the Hagia Sophia will never again be a museum. Given that there seems to be a clear push towards <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/hagia-sophia-reopens-mosque-erdogan-koran-prayer-a9635986.html">religion in politics</a> in the country, it may be very difficult to achieve. Even if the opposing political forces win in the future, they may never dare to change it back to a museum because religious stability is very fragile and extremely vulnerable in Turkey.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143372/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Senija Causevic does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Hagia Sophia is important in Turkey as a symbol of nation’s changing identity since the Byzantine empire. However, it also holds significance globally as a Unesco site and tourist attraction.Senija Causevic, Senior Lecturer in marketing, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed 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>
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</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.