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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently proudly referenced the Hagia Sophia in a statement marking the fifth anniversary of its re-conversion in 2020 from a museum to a mosque, calling it “an act of liberation.” He boasted, “Hagia Sophia will remain free forever.”
The story of the architectural marvel known as the Hagia Sophia spans nearly 1,500 years. From its origins as a Christian basilica to its conversion into a mosque, then a museum, and back to a mosque, the Hagia Sophia stands as an epic monument to the rise and fall of empires, the ongoing clash of faiths, and the politics of identity.
The Hagia Sophia (“Holy Wisdom” in Greek) was commissioned by Emperor Justinian I and completed in the year 537 AD as the cathedral of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. Its massive dome and intricate mosaics made it a pinnacle of Byzantine architecture. For nearly a millennium, it served as the spiritual heart of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, hosting imperial coronations and religious ceremonies. Its grandeur symbolized the Byzantine Empire’s divine mandate and cultural dominance.
Throughout its early history, the Hagia Sophia weathered invasions, earthquakes, and internal strife. It survived the Iconoclastic Controversy (726–843 AD), during which many of its religious images were destroyed or covered, and it was restored to its Christian splendor under subsequent rulers. The Fourth Crusade in 1204 saw Latin Crusaders sack Constantinople, briefly converting the Hagia Sophia into a Catholic cathedral, but by 1261, the Byzantines reclaimed the city, and the Hagia Sophia resumed its role as an Orthodox cathedral. However, the empire’s decline in the face of rising Ottoman power set the stage for a seismic shift.
In 1453, the Ottoman Turks, led by Sultan Mehmed II, besieged and captured Constantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire. The fall of the city was a cataclysmic event for Christendom, marking the triumph of Islam over a key Christian stronghold. Mehmed, known as “the Conqueror,” entered the Hagia Sophia, which was then in a state of disrepair due to the empire’s waning resources. Recognizing its symbolic and architectural significance, he ordered its immediate conversion into a mosque, renaming it the Aya Sofya Camii. Christian icons and mosaics were plastered over, minarets were added, and Islamic features were installed. The cross atop the dome was replaced with a crescent moon, signaling the city’s new Islamic identity.
This conversion was not merely a practical repurposing but a deliberate act of conquest. In Islamic tradition, transforming a defeated enemy’s principal religious site into a mosque symbolized the dominance and the supremacy of Allah. For the Ottomans, the Hagia Sophia became a trophy of their victory, a statement of Islamic ascendancy over Christianity. Over the centuries, the Ottomans preserved much of its original architecture and structure, but added calligraphic panels and other Islamic elements. The Hagia Sophia served as Istanbul’s chief mosque, reflecting the Ottoman Empire’s role as the new center of the Islamic world.
Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Hagia Sophia underwent another transformation. In 1935, as part of Atatürk’s secularizing reforms, the mosque was converted into a museum, a move intended to neutralize its religious significance and promote Turkish nationalism. Christian mosaics were uncovered, and the Hagia Sophia became a global heritage site, attracting millions of visitors as a symbol of shared human history. For 85 years, it stood as a neutral space, though tensions persisted between those who viewed it as a Christian legacy and those who saw it as an Islamic one.
In July 2020, Erdoğan announced the Hagia Sophia’s reconversion into a mosque, a decision that reignited global controversy. This move followed years of advocacy by Islamic groups in Turkey, who argued that the building’s museum status was an affront to its Islamic heritage. Erdoğan, leveraging nationalist and Islamist sentiments, framed the reconversion as a restoration of Turkish sovereignty and Muslim pride. On July 24, 2020, the Hagia Sophia hosted its first Islamic prayers in 86 years, with Erdoğan himself reciting the Quran during the ceremony. Christian symbols and mosaics were covered again during prayers, and the building was redesignated as the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque.
The 2020 reconversion was widely interpreted as an act of Islamic supremacism, particularly in the context of Turkey’s increasingly assertive Islamist policies under Erdoğan. For many Christians worldwide, especially Orthodox Christians, the decision was a provocative erasure of the Hagia Sophia’s Christian heritage, and a reminder of the 1453 conquest. The move drew condemnation from UNESCO and strained Turkey’s relations with Greece, Russia, and other nations with Orthodox Christian populations, who saw it as a politicization of a shared heritage site. But the decision resonated with Islamic supremacists globally, who viewed it as a reclamation of Muslim identity and a rejection of Western-imposed secularism.
In his passionate speech at the Council of Clermont in 1095, Pope Urban II issued a call for the First Crusade to liberate Jerusalem from Muslim occupation. “Deus vult!” the cry went up from the assembled crowd. “God wills it!” And Christendom responded.
That was a different age. Today the West is no longer Christendom but a secular civilization in decline and undergoing an accelerating capitulation to Islamic imperialism. The Muslim call to prayer reverberates in London, which has a Muslim mayor, and in neighborhoods throughout the UK. France is becoming so Islamized that a former MP there complained, “We have imported another civilization.” Even in America, a Muslim communist is on track to become the mayor of New York City, the epicenter of the 9/11 attacks, and the all-American state of Texas is the site of metastasizing growth of Islamic enclaves. There will be no calls from the current Pope to retake Constantinople and liberate the Hagia Sophia, only “interfaith dialogue.”
Meanwhile, Erdoğan is issuing calls for a Turkish, Arab, and Kurdish alliance to build a neo-Ottoman Empire. Shortly after his speech boasting about the Hagia Sophia, using language drenched in medieval and militaristic imagery, he told a congress of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara (to rousing applause), “When we allied [in the past], no one could stand before our horses, our swords, our shields, our battle cries, and our calls of takbir [Allah is greatest]!”
In the clash of civilizations, one side embodies an unconflicted, unshakeable tribal confidence and smells victory, while the other is paralyzed by self-loathing, moral confusion, and willful blindness. What will it take to turn the tide?
Follow Mark Tapson at Culture Warrior.