Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia opens as mosque for Muslim prayers
ISTANBUL — Fulfilling a dream of his Islamic-oriented youth, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined hundreds of worshippers Friday for the first Muslim prayers in 86 years inside Hagia Sophia, the Istanbul landmark that served as one of Christendom’s most significant cathedrals, a mosque and a museum before its conversion back into a Muslim place of worship.
Thousands of other Muslim faithful came from across Turkey and quickly filled specially designated areas outside of the Byzantine-era monument to join in the inaugural prayers. Many others were turned away, while Orthodox Christian church leaders in Greece and the U.S. announced a “day of mourning” over Hagia Sophia’s return as a mosque.
The prayers began with Mr. Erdogan reciting from the Quran. The head of Turkey’s religious authority, Ali Erbas, led the ceremony and prayed that Muslims would never again be “denied” the right to worship at the internationally celebrated 6th-century structure.
As many as 350,000 people took part in Friday’s prayers, the president said.
Brushing aside international criticism, Mr. Erdogan issued a decree restoring the iconic building as a mosque earlier this month, shortly after a Turkish high court ruled that the Hagia Sophia had been illegally made into a museum more than eight decades ago. The structure, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, has since been renamed “The Grand Hagia Sophia Mosque.”
The move sparked dismay in Greece, the U.S. and among Christian churches who had called on Mr. Erdogan to maintain it as a museum as a nod to Istanbul’s multireligious heritage and the structure’s status as a symbol of Christian and Muslim unity. Pope Francis expressed his sadness.
Built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in 537, Hagia Sophia was turned into a mosque with the 1453 Ottoman conquest of Istanbul. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding leader of the secular Turkish republic, converted the structure into a museum in 1934.
Although an annex to the Hagia Sophia, the Sultan’s pavilion, has been open to prayers since the 1990s, religious and nationalists groups in Turkey have long yearned for the nearly 1,500-year-old edifice, which they regard as the legacy of Ottoman Sultan Mehmet the Conquerer, to be reverted into a mosque.
“This is Hagia Sophia breaking away from its captivity chains. It was the greatest dream of our youth,” Mr. Erdogan said last week. “It was the yearning of our people, and it has been accomplished.” Mr. Erdogan also described its conversion into a museum by the republic’s founding leaders as a mistake that is being rectified.
In neighboring Greece, bells tolled and flags flew at half-staff at hundreds of churches across the country in protest at the decision to convert Hagia Sophia into a mosque. The Greek Orthodox Church leader, Archbishop Ieronymos, held a special service at Athens Cathedral later Friday. Churches in Athens, Greece’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki, also organized vigils.