
Turkey reconverts Istanbul's Hagia Sophia museum into a mosque - pera
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/turkey-court-revokes-hagia-sophia-museum-status-200710131419431.html
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AdamJacobMuller
I was there a few years ago. Really amazing place, I didn't comprehend its
scale until I was there, and even today I struggle to understand that it was
built so long ago. I think we would struggle to build something like that
today.

What's happening here is very subtle and very sad. Other mosques have either
limited or no access to non-muslims and it would be tragic if that happened to
the Hagia Sophia and I don't think that anyone is going to speak out against
this and even if they did, Erdogan has no reason to care.

All that said, I do recommend visiting Istanbul. It was a fantastic (if brief)
trip with some really breathtaking things. I think we spent like two hours
getting lost inside the old bazaar and never once walked the same street
twice. The food is also so good. I could live on Turkish coffee and Baklava
with some Kunefe for desert.

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Cenk
FWIW I read on Twitter today (can’t find the original tweet for it anymore,
sorry) that they would be allowing entry to all visitors outside of prayer
times, and that there would be no cost of entry. They also said that the
Christian frescos would not be covered up, but dimmed with some kind of
lighting apparatus during prayer times and otherwise be visible. This gives me
hope that Hagia Sophia will remain accessible to visitors – would be a real
shame otherwise, agreed.

~~~
AdamJacobMuller
> allowing entry to all visitors outside of prayer times

That's already blocking off a decent % of the day day, meaning the effective
visitor capacity is similarly reduced.

Not to mention that having to force everyone out at scheduled times. When I
was there we visited several mosques (also amazing places) and our guide
scheduled our visits around prayer times and it made the logistics much more
complex for those visits.

I also hate invoking the slippery slope arguments, but, if they were going to
restrict access entirely (as with some mosques like Al-Aqsa and Dome of the
Rock in Israel where I was last year) they would start by simply restricting
things a bit. It's hard to see.

All that said, Turkey is free to do what they want and the Turkish people are
going to support Erdogan. I'm just sad that in the future other people may
never get to see this incredible site.

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mengibar10
There are 5 prayers, before dawn, just after noon, couple of hours after noon,
just after sun sets, and couple of hours after sunset. These varies by time of
year and times get closer during winter times and far apart during summer
time. Each prayer takes about 20-40 minutes most, except the Friday prayer
which is probably the most crowded time and is about one and half hours. It
replaces noon prayer on Fridays.

The Blue Mosque just across Hagia Sofia Mosque also allow visitors even during
the prayers, except probably during the Friday prayer since it is really
crowded. I never had the change to attend Friday prayer there so I am not
sure, but I did at other times. Tourist are allowed to visit during prayers
and even has the opportunity watching the prayer.

I think it will be very similar if not exactly the same manner. No worries
about the visitors of any religion or of no religion. You can experience these
majestic structures. I recommend Suleymaniye Mosque, which is much larger than
then Blue Mosque but not as big as Hagia Sofia. The mosque at Edirne is from
the same architect (Sinan [1]) and bigger than Hagia Sofia.

Current Hagia Sofia is actually the 2rd rebuilt of the original structure.
Original was like the churches in Europe and more rectangular than this one,
and did not have a dome. The last structure had dome initially but collapse
couple of times and was rebuilt. The reason that it collapsed each time is due
to the rectangular shape of the base and did not have enough support of half
and quarter domes around it. Sinan the architect is actually the one succeeded
to keep the dome from collapsing.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimar_Sinan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimar_Sinan)

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teleforce
Haghia Sophia (built AD537) without doubt is the most majestic building for
centuries probably is just surpassed by Taj Mahal. The latter however is just
essentially a monument but Haghia is fully functional architecture suitable
for congregations. Both of the buildings sourced its building materials from
all over the world due to Roman Byzantine and India are both the richest
world's empire at their apex times.

Fun facts, most of the mosques all over the world copied the Christian's
origin Haghia Sophia's dome based architecture and the dome becomes a generic
symbol for mosque in apps, etc. On the other hand, churches all over the world
are mainly based on the Gothic architecture. The Gothic architecture is most
probably originated from Muslim Spanish empire although it's claimed to have
Roman and French influences [1]. This can be seen from the infamous
architecture of Great Mosque of Cordoba or Mesquita (built AD784) the world's
largest mosque during its time, now a church. The other popular mosque
inspired by Mesquita mosque is Spanish Mosque (built AD1906) in Hyderabad,
India.

Arguably, the more visually appealing and beautiful architecture based on
Haghia Sophia is what made it being adopted by most of the mosques around the
world and the demise of Muslim Spanish in the 15th century that really sealed
the fate of the Gothic based architecture for adoption in modern mosques.

[1][https://muslimheritage.com/muslim-origin-of-gothic-
architect...](https://muslimheritage.com/muslim-origin-of-gothic-
architecture/)

~~~
mengibar10
> is just surpassed by Taj Mahal

Not really, The Selimiye Mosque [2] surpassed Hagia Sofia, not only the
diameter of the dome also its robustness of its structure. Taj Mahal is a
product of inspiration taken from Mimar Sinan and they studied Sinan's work.

"Mimar Sinan's architectural concepts were incorporated into the design of the
famous Taj Mahal" [1]

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimar_Sinan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimar_Sinan)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selimiye_Mosque,_Edirne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selimiye_Mosque,_Edirne)

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Cenk
My favourite quote about the Hagia Sophia, from Procopius’ De Aedificiis (557
AD):

”For it soars to a height to match the sky, and as if surging up from among
the other buildings it stands on high and looks down upon the remainder of the
city, adorning it, because it is a part of it, but glorying in its own
beauty.”

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aliswe
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runic_inscriptions_in_Hagia_...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runic_inscriptions_in_Hagia_Sophia)

The "Viking grafitti" is really interesting!

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AdamJacobMuller
My photos of the Hagia Sophia:
[https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0M5qXGF114fUO](https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0M5qXGF114fUO)

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mraza007
They look amazing. I’m planning on visiting Turkey and some day i wish i could
move there since i love the Turkish cuisine

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AdamJacobMuller
Visit before you can't anymore.

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8bitsrule
PBS documentary 'Hagia Sofia' 2015:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2WNUWDoAM4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2WNUWDoAM4)

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bfieidhbrjr
What could go wrong having a theocracy in NATO?

