Muslims flock to Turkish shrine
ISTANBUL — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sealed his long-stated desire to restore the historic Hagia Sophia as a working mosque Friday, opening the magnificent Byzantine structure built in the sixth century as the world’s largest cathedral to thousands of Muslim worshippers for the first time in nearly nine decades.
Huge crowds began gathering even in the predawn hours around Hagia Sophia to attend Friday prayer, a crowning moment for Erdogan after 18 years at the helm of Turkish politics.
Under heavy police security, worshippers settled on the streets and sidewalks on their rugs, covering their faces with masks against the coronavirus and their heads with makeshift shades as the sun grew searingly hot. Every cobbled street around the mosque was packed, as well as the open spaces along the length of the ancient hippodrome where Roman chariots once raced.
Erdogan arrived at noon, wearing a mask, and sat on the mosque floor, head bowed and eyes closed, listening to the melodic recitation of the Quran, which was carried live on national television. At 1 p.m., the crowd fell silent and knelt in unison as the head mufti, his hands clasped on the hilt of the sword of conquest, gave his sermon.
‘‘This is a festival for us today. We are so happy,’’ said Selahattin Yigiter, a retired businessman who was sitting with his wife on a prayer mat on the sidewalk below the nearly 1,500-yearold building. ‘‘With the pressure of Muslim people it is reconverted.’’
But the atmosphere of celebration among the Muslim faithful in Turkey contrasted with the angst and dismay Erdogan’s decision has generated among Christians around the world and among many in academic and conservation communities.
Built in the sixth century by a Byzantine emperor, Justinian I, Hagia Sophia was for nearly 1,000 years the largest church in the world and the center of Christendom. In 1453, the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II conquered Constantinople and converted the majestic building into a mosque: It became one of Islam’s holiest sites.
Under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the modern Turkish republic, Hagia Sophia was turned into a museum, and all religious services ended.
Just hours before the event, the government announced that the entire World Heritage Site, which encompasses several nearby historic buildings, would be closed for ordinary business for 24 hours, bemusing some international tourists caught unawares.
But Hagia Sophia would stay open all night through to Saturday morning to allow the faithful the chance to pray inside the mosque, said Ali Yerlikaya, the governor of Istanbul.
Many in Turkey see the move as pure political theater, part of Erdogan’s effort to buoy his political standing, which has wobbled after nearly two decades atop Turkish politics and as the pandemic further set back an already shaky economy.
The leader of the main opposition party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said he would not be attending the opening — not because he was opposed to the conversion but because he did not believe in making a display of praying before television cameras. When leading a march for justice across the country three years ago, he had prayed privately in a mosque without cameras, party leaders pointed out.
‘‘It is all symbolism and optics,’’ said Soner Cagaptay, a fellow and the director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. ‘‘Restoring Hagia Sophia as a mosque is a long-stated goal of the Islamists. It is something he has always believed in,’’ Cagaptay added, referring to Erdogan, ‘‘and he wants to do it before he is gone.’’
Erdogan’s long tenure in power has been marked by an assertive foreign policy abroad and megaprojects at home, including large mosques at prominent sites, designed to evoke the glory days of the old Ottoman Empire. Restoring Hagia Sophia as a mosque is a capstone of his reign, Cagaptay said.
According to one media report, Erdogan let it be known that he did not sleep all night after signing the decree to restore its status as a mosque, such was his emotion.