Mosque and former church in Istanbul, Turkey
Hagia Sophia,[a] officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque,[b] is a mosque and former church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively erected on the site by the Eastern Roman Empire, it was completed in AD 537. The site was an Eastern rite church from AD 360 to 1453, except for a brief time as a Latin Catholic church between the Fourth Crusade and 1261.[4] After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, it served as a mosque until 1935, when it became a museum. In 2020, the site once again became a mosque.
The current structure was built by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I as the Christian cathedral of Constantinople for the Byzantine Empire between 532 and 537, and was designed by the Greek geometers Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles.[5] It was formally called the Church of God's Holy Wisdom (Greek: Ναὸς τῆς Ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ Σοφίας, romanized: Naòs tês Hagías toû Theoû Sophías)[6][7] and upon completion became the world's largest interior space and among the first to employ a fully pendentive dome. It is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture[8] and is said to have "changed the history of architecture".[9] The present Justinianic building was the third church of the same name to occupy the site, as the prior one had been destroyed in the Nika riots. As the episcopal see of the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, it remained the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years, until the Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. Beginning with subsequent Byzantine architecture, Hagia Sophia became the paradigmatic Orthodox church form, and its architectural style was emulated by Ottoman mosques a thousand years later.[10] It has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world"[10] and as an architectural and cultural icon of Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox civilization.[10][11][12]
The religious and spiritual centre of the Eastern Orthodox Church for nearly one thousand years, the church was dedicated to the Holy Wisdom.[13][14][15] It was where the excommunication of Patriarch Michael I Cerularius was officially delivered by Humbert of Silva Candida, the envoy of Pope Leo IX in 1054, an act considered the start of the East–West Schism. In 1204, it was converted during the Fourth Crusade into a Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire, before being returned to the Eastern Orthodox Church upon the restoration of the Byzantine Empire in 1261. Enrico Dandolo, the doge of Venice who led the Fourth Crusade and the 1204 Sack of Constantinople, was buried in the church.
After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453,[16] it was converted to a mosque by Mehmed the Conqueror and became the principal mosque of Istanbul until the 1616 construction of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque.[17][18] Upon its conversion, the bells, altar, iconostasis, ambo, and baptistery were removed, while iconography, such as the mosaic depictions of Jesus, Mary, Christian saints and angels were removed or plastered over.[19] Islamic architectural additions included four minarets, a minbar and a mihrab. The Byzantine architecture of the Hagia Sophia served as inspiration for many other religious buildings including the Hagia Sophia in Thessaloniki, Panagia Ekatontapiliani, the Şehzade Mosque, the Süleymaniye Mosque, the Rüstem Pasha Mosque and the Kılıç Ali Pasha Complex. The patriarchate moved to the Church of the Holy Apostles, which became the city's cathedral.
The complex remained a mosque until 1931, when it was closed to the public for four years. It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum under the secular Republic of Turkey, and the building was Turkey's most visited tourist attraction as of 2019[update].[20]
In July 2020, the Council of State annulled the 1934 decision to establish the museum, and the Hagia Sophia was reclassified as a mosque. The 1934 decree was ruled to be unlawful under both Ottoman and Turkish law as Hagia Sophia's waqf, endowed by Sultan Mehmed, had designated the site a mosque; proponents of the decision argued the Hagia Sophia was the personal property of the sultan. The decision to designate Hagia Sophia as a mosque was highly controversial. It resulted in divided opinions and drew condemnation from the Turkish opposition, UNESCO, the World Council of Churches and the International Association of Byzantine Studies, as well as numerous international leaders, while several Muslim leaders in Turkey and other countries welcomed its conversion into a mosque.
The Viking Inscription
In the southern section of Hagia Sophia, a 9th-century Viking inscription has been discovered, which reads, "Halvdan was here." It is theorized that the inscription was created by a Viking soldier serving as a mercenary in the Eastern Roman Empire.[249]
The first mosaics which adorned the church were completed during the reign of Justin II.[250] Many of the non-figurative mosaics in the church come from this period. Most of the mosaics, however, were created in the 10th and 12th centuries,[251][better source needed] following the periods of Byzantine Iconoclasm.
During the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, the Latin Crusaders vandalized valuable items in every important Byzantine structure of the city, including the golden mosaics of the Hagia Sophia. Many of these items were shipped to Venice, whose Doge Enrico Dandolo had organized the invasion and sack of Constantinople after an agreement with Prince Alexios Angelos, the son of a deposed Byzantine emperor.
History of Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a work that was constructed three times in the same location. Today’s Hagia Sophia is known as the “Third Hagia Sophia”. The first construction of Hagia Sophia started during the reign of Constantine I, who accepted Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. This building, which was constructed as a basilica with a wooden roof on the first of the seven hills of Istanbul and was called "The Great Church" at the time, was opened during the reign of Constantine II in 360. There is no remnant from this structure, which was largely devastated as a result of a fire that broke out in the revolt that started in 404.
The second Hagia Sophia was built by Emperor Theodosius II on the first one and opened to worship in 415. This building, which was also constructed as a basilica and with a wooden roof, was devastated by the rebels in the Nika Revolt against Emperor Justinian in 532.
Just after the riots, Emperor Justinian decided to build a larger and more glorious Hagia Sophia than the first two. The third Hagia Sophia was built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in 532-537.
Hagia Sophia, which was used as the Imperial Church of Eastern Rome, was frequently devastated due to riots, wars, and natural disasters throughout history. Hagia Sophia experienced one of the biggest destructions during the 4th Crusade in 1204 when the city was invaded. The Crusaders looted Hagia Sophia along with the whole city. During the Latin occupation that lasted from 1204 to 1261 in Istanbul, Hagia Sophia was converted into a cathedral attached to the Roman Catholic Church.
Repairs were made to try and preserve the Hagia Sophia, which was seriously damaged after the Eastern Roman administration was re-established in Istanbul. However, the repairs were insufficient and in 1346 the eastern archivolt of the Hagia Sophia and a part of the dome collapsed.
In fact, Hagia Sophia experienced the darkest period of its history from the Latin invasion to the conquest of Istanbul. Hagia Sophia, which was destroyed twice and built for the third time, ruined by wars and revolts for centuries, and the parts of which collapsed due to neglect and architectural errors, remained under the permanent threat of collapse until the conquest of Istanbul by Fatih Sultan Mehmed Khan. In addition, the sociological and symbolic meaning of the temple was greatly damaged due to the schism between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.
The Ottomans took great care of the Hagia Sophia Mosque, which they acknowledged and appreciated as the symbol of the conquest, maintained and repaired it continuously, and turned the mosque into a much more robust structure starting from the rule of Fatih Sultan Mehmed Khan. In particular, the additions and arrangements made by Sinan the Architect to Hagia Sophia played a major role in the survival of this heritage of humanity.
Thus, it is stated in the historical records that Fatih Sultan Mehmed Khan, who went to Hagia Sophia right after the conquest, was saddened by the status of the mosque and recited the following verses:
“Perdedâri mîkoned ber kasr-i Kayser ankebut Bûm novbet mîzened der tarem-i Efrâsiyâb”
(“A spider spins its web in the palace of the Kaiser, An owl hoots in the towers of Afrasiab")
Fatih Sultan Mehmed Khan, who endowed the Hagia Sophia Mosque as his own charity and secured the maintenance-repair costs by providing the income from several properties, started the educational activities by building a madrasah adjacent to the mosque. The first minaret of Hagia Sophia was built of wood during the rule of Fatih Sultan Mehmed Khan. This minaret, which existed for many years, was removed during the major repair in 1574. The second minaret of the Hagia Sophia Mosque was built of bricks during the rule of Sultan Bayezid II.
One of the Ottoman sultans who showed the greatest interest in Hagia Sophia was Sultan Selim II. After the building showed signs of fatigue, Selim II Khan appointed Sinan the Architect for the maintenance and repair of Hagia Sophia. The Hagia Sophia, whose domes and walls collapsed many times during the Eastern Roman period, never collapsed again after the renovations of Sinan the Architect despite many great earthquakes in Istanbul. The tradition of building tombs for the sultans in the graveyard of Hagia Sophia Complex started with the first tomb built by Sinan the Architect for Sultan Selim II.
From the time of Fatih Sultan Mehmet Khan, every sultan strived to beautify the Hagia Sophia even more, and the Hagia Sophia was transformed into an entire complex with structures such as mihrab, minbar, rostrum, minarets, sultan's office, shadirvans (fountain providing water for ritual ablutions), madrasah, library, and soup kitchen. In addition, great importance was attached to the interior decorations of the Hagia Sophia Mosque during the Ottoman period. Hagia Sophia was adorned with the most elegant examples of Turkish arts such as calligraphy and tile art and the temple gained new aesthetic values. Thus, Hagia Sophia was not only converted into a mosque but also this common heritage of humanity was preserved and improved.
Hagia Sophia, which was converted into a mosque with the conquest and served as a mosque for 481 years, was closed off to the public after the restoration works started in the 1930s. Then it was turned into a museum with a Cabinet Decree dated November 24, 1934. The Council of State reversed the Cabinet Decree in question on July 10, 2020. The Hagia Sophia Mosque was reopened to worship with the Presidential Decree No. 2729 signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and promulgated immediately after.
As the Cabinet Decree dated 24/11/1934 and numbered 2/1589 on the conversion of the Hagia Sophia Mosque in Fatih District of Istanbul Province into a museum was annulled by the Decision of the Tenth Chamber of the Council of State dated 2/7/2020 and numbered E:2016/16015, K:2020/2595, it was decided that the administration of the Hagia Sophia Mosque was transferred to the Presidency of Religious Affairs in accordance with Article 35 of the Law on the Establishment and Duties of the Presidency of Religious Affairs No. 633 dated 22/6/1965.
Recep Tayyip ERDOĞAN | PRESIDENT
Hagia Sophia (tiếng Hy Lạp: Ἁγία Σοφία, "Sự khôn ngoan của Thiên Chúa", tiếng Latinh: Sancta Sapientia, tiếng Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ: Ayasofya) ban đầu là một Vương cung thánh đường Chính thống giáo Đông phương, sau là thánh đường Hồi giáo, và nay là một viện bảo tàng ở Istanbul, Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ. Đặc biệt nổi tiếng vì vòm trần lớn, tòa nhà này được xem là hình ảnh mẫu mực của kiến trúc Byzantine, và được coi là đã "thay đổi lịch sử của kiến trúc".[1] Đây từng là nhà thờ lớn nhất thế giới trong gần một ngàn năm, cho đến khi Nhà thờ chính tòa Sevilla hoàn thành vào năm 1520.
Tòa nhà hiện nay vốn được xây dựng làm nhà thờ từ năm 532 đến năm 537 theo lệnh của Hoàng đế Byzantine Justinian, và đã là Nhà thờ Sự khôn ngoan của Thiên Chúa thứ 3 được xây dựng tại địa điểm này (hai nhà thờ trước đã bị phá hủy bởi quân phiến loạn). Tòa nhà được thiết kế bởi hai kiến trúc sư Isidorus xứ Miletus và Anthemius xứ Tralles. Nhà thờ có một bộ sưu tập các thánh tích và có một bức tường tranh bằng bạc dài 15 m. Đây là nhà thờ trung tâm của Giáo hội Chính thống giáo Đông phương và trụ sở của Thượng phụ Đại kết thành Constantinopolis trong gần 1000 năm.
Năm 1453, kinh đô Constantinopolis bị đế quốc Ottoman chiếm. Vua Mehmed II lệnh biến tòa nhà thành một nhà thờ Hồi giáo. Chuông khánh, bàn thờ, tường tranh bị gỡ bỏ, nhiều phần nền khảm tranh mosaic bị trát vữa đè lên. Các chi tiết kiến trúc Hồi giáo, chẳng hạn mihrab, minbar, và 4 minaret ở bên ngoài, được xây thêm trong thời của các Ottoman. Tòa nhà là nơi thờ phụng của Hồi giáo cho đến năm 1935, khi nó được chính phủ Cộng hòa Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ chuyển thành một viện bảo tàng.
Trong gần 500 năm, Hagia Sophia là thánh đường Hồi giáo chính của Istanbul, làm mẫu hình cho nhiều thánh đường Hồi giáo Ottoman khác như Thánh đường Hồi giáo Vua Ahmed, Thánh đường Hồi giáo Şehzade, Thánh đường Hồi giáo Süleymaniye, và Thánh đường Hồi giáo Rüstem Pasha.
Tuy đôi khi nhà thờ được gọi là Sancta Sophia theo tiếng Latinh, giống với cách gọi dành cho Thánh Sophia, nhưng sophia là cách chuyển tự Latinh từ tiếng Hy Lạp, thuật từ Sophia có nghĩa là trí tuệ hoặc sự khôn ngoan. Tên đầy đủ bằng tiếng Hy Lạp là Ναός τῆς Ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ Σοφίας, nghĩa là Đền Sự khôn ngoan của Thiên Chúa.
Hagia Sophia là một trong những tòa nhà thuộc khu vực lịch sử Istanbul được UNESCO công nhận là di sản thế giới.
Hiện tại không có bằng chứng hay dấu tích nào cho biết ngôi đền thứ nhất (gọi là Μεγάλη Ἐκκλησία (Megálē Ekklēsíā, "Đền thờ lớn") đã được xây dựng chính xác tại đâu, có lẽ chính tại Istanbul hay "Magna Ecclesia" (một khu vực cổ ở Mỹ Latin).[2]
Trong quá khứ, đền thứ nhất từng là nơi thờ phụng của các tôn giáo Đa thần.[3] Ngôi đền được xây gần cung điện hoàng gia và cạnh bên ngôi đền Hagia Eirene[4]. Ngày 15 tháng 2, năm 360, hoàng đế Constantius II cho khánh thành Hagia Sophia. Và từ đây, cả hai ngôi đền (Hagia Sophia và Hagia Eirene) được dùng để tôn thờ đế chế Byzantine.
Sở dĩ người hiện đại biết đến sự có mặt của Ngôi đền thứ nhất là nhờ những ghi chép của Socrates của dân Constantinopolis[5], ngôi đền dùng tôn thờ hoàng đế Constantine Đại đế. Kiến trúc ngôi đền dựa theo kiến trúc truyền thống Latin với những kiệt tác hội họa, hàng hàng cột chống trần và mái vòm gỗ.
Đền thứ nhất vẫn đang chờ xem xét phong tặng danh hiệu kì quan thế giới.
Cái tên "Megálē Ekklēsíā" đã từng được sử dụng trong một khoảng thời gian khá dài trước khi bị thay thế bởi cái tên "Hagia Sophia" trong cuộc xâm lăng của người Byzantine năm 1453.
Ngày 20 tháng 6 năm 404, Thị trưởng của Constantinople, John Chrysostom, gây mâu thuẫn với nữ chúa Aelia Eudoxia, vợ hoàng đế Arcadius. Ngay sau đó, ông bị bắt và bị đày đi xa xứ. Trong cuộc nổi loạn của dân chúng, phần lớn Ngôi đền thứ nhất bị thiêu cháy. Và hoàng đế Theodosius II ra lệnh xây ngôi đền mới. Ngôi đền thứ hai được xây dựng, khánh thành ngày 10 tháng 10 năm 405. Một nhà thờ thứ hai được xây theo lệnh của Theodosius II, ông khánh thành nó vào ngày 10 tháng 10 năm 405. Sự náo loạn của lễ hội Nika Revolt đã dẫn đến sự tàn phá Ngôi đền thứ hai, ngôi đền đã bị thiêu thành tro bụi chỉ trong hai ngày 13-14 tháng 1 năm 532.
Những phiến đá hoa cương là những phế tích còn tồn tại đến ngày hôm nay, chứng minh sự tồn tại của Ngôi đền thứ hai, và hiện tại chúng đang được lưu giữ trong khuôn viên khu đền hiện tại (Ngôi đền thứ ba). Những phiến đá này là một phần cổng của ngôi đền xưa; được A.M. Schneider khai quật trong cái sân nhỏ nằm ở hướng Tây năm 1935.
Ngay sau khi đế quốc Ottoman (do Muslim Millet dẫn đầu) xâm chiếm Constantinopolis (Istanbul) vào năm 1453, Hagia Sophia bị biến thành đền thờ Hồi giáo như là chiến lợi phẩm của cuộc xâm chiếm. Lúc đó, đền thờ đã hư hỏng rất nặng, nhiều cánh cửa đã hoai mục hay gãy vỡ. Những hư hỏng này được miêu tả rất chi tiết trong quyển ghi chép của nhiều du khách xưa, như Pero Tafur người thành Córdoba, Tây Ban Nha[6] và Cristoforo Buondelmonti người thành Florence, Ý.[7] Vua Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ Mehmed II đã cho trùng tu khu di tích này và lập tức biến nó thành đền thờ Hồi giáo. Sau đó, vua Bayezid II xây thêm một cái tháp để thay thế cái tháp cũ vua cha đã xây.
Vào thế kỉ 16, vua Suleiman I (1520-1566) đem về hai ngọn đèn cầy khổng lồ chiếm được trong cuộc chinh phạt Hungary. Chúng được đặt hai bên hông của mihrab (một khoảng trống trên tường biểu trưng cho Kaaba ở Mecca và để chỉ hướng cúi đầu lạy. Dưới triều vua Selim II (1566-1574), ngôi đền lại xuất hiện thêm nhiều dấu hiệu hư hỏng, và lại được mở rộng trùng tu, bổ sung thêm nhiều quần thể kiến trúc do kiến trúc sư đại tài người Ottoman Sinan chỉ huy xây dựng, ông được xem là kĩ sư vĩ đại với những công trình chống lại động đất. Ngoài ra, để kéo dài tuổi thọ cho kiến trúc lịch sử Byzantine này, Sinan đã xây thêm hai tháp trụ khổng lồ ở phía cực Tây của công trình, và ở lăng Selim II phía Đông nam năm 1574. Hai lăng mộ của các vua Murad III và Mehmed III được xây cạnh bên đền thờ trong thập niên 1600.
Năm 1935, Tổng thống đầu tiên và là người thiết lập nền Cộng hoà ở Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, cho biến công trình này thành viện bảo tàng. Người ta dỡ bỏ đệm trải sàn và những tran trí bằng đá hoa cương trên sàn xuất hiện lại lần đầu tiên qua nhiều thế kỷ, cùng lúc đó vôi trăng che kín các tranh khảm đá quý cũng được gỡ ra.[8]
Xây dựng dưới thời hoàng đế Justinian tại Constantinople, do hai KTS Anthemius de Tralles và Isidorius de Miletus thiết kế. Trung tâm nhà thờ là mặt bằng hình vuông (75,6m x 68,4m), phía trên bao phủ bằng vòm bán cầu đường kính 33m (cao 51m tính từ nền) với cấu trúc vòm buồm.Tại phần tambour có 40 cửa sổ lấy ánh sáng.
Kích thước và cấu trúc của mái vòm là một kiệt tác về thiết kế, và tạo một sự đột phá về kết cấu, trở thành một thành tựu rực rỡ mà kiến trúc Byzantine đã đạt được.
Từ 1453 sau khi nhà thờ được đổi chức năng thành nhà thờ hồi giáo. Người Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ đã cho xây thêm 4 tháp nhọn Hồi Giáo ở 4 góc gọi là các tháp Minaret, tạo nên cảnh quan nhà thờ như ngày nay.
Nhà thờ Hagia Sophia đã là nhà thờ Cơ đốc giáo bề thế nhất và đẹp nhất ở phương Đông, là nhân chứng bền vững của lịch sử kiến trúc tôn giáo.
Wikimedia Commons có thêm hình ảnh và phương tiện truyền tải về
Hagia Sophia Experience Museum is a must-visit destination for anyone interested in history, culture, and art. Located in the heart of Istanbul, this museum takes visitors on a journey through time and showcases the beauty and complexity of one of the world's most significant landmarks.
Whether you're a history buff, an art lover, or simply someone who wants to experience one of the world's most awe-inspiring landmarks, Hagia Sophia Experience Museum is a must-visit destination. Book your tickets now and discover the wonders of this remarkable museum for yourself.
Bacaan Setahun: Mzm. 111 Ayb. 28-29 Kol. 4
Dan Akupun berkata kepadamu: Engkau adalah Petrus dan di atas batu karang ini Aku akan mendirikan jemaat-Ku, dan alam maut tidak akan menguasainya. Kepadamu akan Kuberikan kunci Kerajaan Sorga. Apa yang kauikat di dunia ini akan terikat di sorga dan apa yang kaulepaskan di dunia ini akan terlepas di sorga.” Matius 16: 18-19
Nama panjang dari Gereja Ortodok Yunani yang dibangun jaman Bizanthium adalah, Naos tēs Hagias tou Theou Sophias, “Tempat Peziarahan Kebijaksaan Suci Tuhan”. Di pendekkan menjadi “Hagia Sophia“, dalam bahasa Yunani Hagia artinya suci, Sophia artinya kebijaksanaan atau hikmat. Dari namanya Gereja ini dibangun untuk menggambarkan kesucian dan kebijaksanaan Tuhan. Dalam sejarah, Hagia Sophia bagai gadis suci, pintar dan cantik yang terus menjadi perebutan egoisitas kesombongan nafsu keagamaan dan kekuasaan. Dibangun pada abad ke enam, sebagai Gereja Ortodok Yunani (537-1204), dan direbut pasukan Salib dan dijadikan Gereja Katolik Roma (1204-1261), lalu direbut kembali oleh Kekaisaran Bizanthium dan kembali menjadi Gereja Ortodok Yunani (1261-1453 ). Setelah itu emporium Turki Ottoman menaklukan Bizanthium, Hagia Sophia dijadikan Masjid (1453-1931). Bapak modernisasi Turki, Kemal Ataturk menjadikan Hagia Sophia Museum (1935-2020). Bulan Juli tahun ini Presiden Turki Endorgan menjadikan kembali si Gadis Cantik Hagia Sophia sebagai Mesjid. Dalam terminologi Kristen, Gereja memang diibaratkan mempelai Kristus yaitu gadis suci dan bijak. Namun arti Gereja sesungguhnya bukanlah gedung atau institusi gereja tetapi kumpulan orang yang mendapat pewahyuan (hikmat dari Sorga) bahwa Yesus adalah Mesias. Orang-orang ini disebut EKKLESIA (asal kata Gereja), yaitu sebutan kepada orang yang mendapat hikmat dan percaya Yesus adalah Mesias, kepada EKKLESIA diberikan kunci Kerjaan Sorga dan alam maut tidak menguasainya. (Matius 16:18-19) Sejarah manusia selalu diramaikan oleh drama kolosal perebutan kekuasaan baik kekuasaan agama ataupun kekuasaan pemerintahan. Sudah seharusnya diusia tua sejarah peradaban manusia menjadi semakin suci hati dan bijak. Sampai hari ini manusia masih “dibutakan” hati dan pikirannya, yaitu bahwa mengagungkan Tuhan adalah melebarkan kekuasaan atas nama Tuhan dalam bentuk kekuasaan fisik. Bahkan saat ini, ketika Tuhan menunjukkan “kerapuhan” kekuasaan manusia melalui pandemi corona, manusia belum juga belajar menjadi bijak. Kekotoran hati manusia berakibat manusia hanya bisa melihat hal yang fisik, yaitu yang menang adalah yang berkuasa, yang menang adalah yang menaklukkan. Kepada seorang perempuan Samaria yang tidak terpandang secara agama – ia pernah kawin cerai dengan lima laki laki, dan masih berselingkuh dengan suami orang, Yesus menerangkan tentang arti “menyembah“. Yaitu bukan menyembah di gunung atau di Bait Allah di Yerusalem tetapi di dalam ROH dan KEBENARAN. (Yohanes 4:23) Hari ini saat banyak orang dipaksa tak bisa menyembah di gedung gereja karena corona, seharusnya kita disadarkan bahwa Tuhan justru hadir ketika baju keagamaan kita yang mempesona harus di’tanggal’kan. Kehadiran Tuhan sesungguhnya bukan di katedral atau di gedung gereja kolosal kebanggaan kita, tetapi di dalam Roh (Hagia) dan Kebenaran (Sophia). Anda mengerti? (DD)
Questions : 1. Apa arti gereja sebenarnya? 2. Benarkah berbakti yang afdol adalah berbakti di gereja yang keramat dan bersejarah?
Values : Bagi warga Kerajaan sikap hati yang benar adalah hal terpenting dalam penyembahan, tempat ibadah hanya fasilitas bukan tempat yang menentukan diterimanya penyembahan.
Taat beribadah tanpa berakhlak benar seperti berbaju mewah tapi tak pernah mandi.
Hagia Sophia Museum
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the first president of the Turkish Republic, turned Hagia Sophia into a museum in 1934, making it a destination for millions of tourists who visit it to enjoy the beauty of the mixture of Islamic and Christian decorations and ornaments.
Southwestern entrance mosaic
The southwestern entrance mosaic, situated in the tympanum of the southwestern entrance, dates from the reign of Basil II.[260] It was rediscovered during the restorations of 1849 by the Fossatis. The Virgin sits on a throne without a back, her feet resting on a pedestal, embellished with precious stones. The Christ Child sits on her lap, giving his blessing and holding a scroll in his left hand. On her left side stands emperor Constantine in ceremonial attire, presenting a model of the city to Mary. The inscription next to him says: "Great emperor Constantine of the Saints". On her right side stands emperor Justinian I, offering a model of the Hagia Sophia. The medallions on both sides of the Virgin's head carry the nomina sacra MP and ΘΥ, abbreviations of the Greek: Μήτηρ του Θεοῦ, romanized: Mētēr Theou, lit. 'Mother of God'.[261] The composition of the figure of the Virgin enthroned was probably copied from the mosaic inside the semi-dome of the apse inside the liturgical space.[262]
The mosaic in the semi-dome above the apse at the east end shows Mary, mother of Jesus holding the Christ Child and seated on a jewelled thokos backless throne.[262] Since its rediscovery after a period of concealment in the Ottoman era, it "has become one of the foremost monuments of Byzantium".[262] The infant Jesus's garment is depicted with golden tesserae.
Guillaume-Joseph Grelot, who had travelled to Constantinople, in 1672 engraved and in 1680 published in Paris an image of the interior of Hagia Sophia which shows the apse mosaic indistinctly.[262] Together with a picture by Cornelius Loos drawn in 1710, these images are early attestations of the mosiac before it was covered towards the end of the 18th century.[262] The mosaic of the Virgin and Child was rediscovered during the restorations of the Fossati brothers in 1847–1848 and revealed by the restoration of Thomas Whittemore in 1935–1939.[262] It was studied again in 1964 with the aid of scaffolding.[262][263]
It is not known when this mosaic was installed.[262] According to Cyril Mango, the mosaic is "a curious reflection on how little we know about Byzantine art".[264] The work is generally believed to date from after the end of Byzantine Iconoclasm and usually dated to the patriarchate of Photius I (r. 858–867, 877–886) and the time of the emperors Michael III (r. 842–867) and Basil I (r. 867–886).[262] Most specifically, the mosaic has been connected with a surviving homily known to have been written and delivered by Photius in the cathedral on 29 March 867.[262][265][266][267][268]
Other scholars have favoured earlier or later dates for the present mosaic or its composition. Nikolaos Oikonomides pointed out that Photius's homily refers to a standing portrait of the Theotokos – a Hodegetria – while the present mosaic shows her seated.[269] Likewise, a biography of the patriarch Isidore I (r. 1347–1350) by his successor Philotheus I (r. 1353–1354, 1364–1376) composed before 1363 describes Isidore seeing a standing image of the Virgin at Epiphany in 1347.[262] Serious damage was done to the building by earthquakes in the 14th century, and it is possible that a standing image of the Virgin that existed in Photius's time was lost in the earthquake of 1346, in which the eastern end of Hagia Sophia was partly destroyed.[270][262] This interpretation supposes that the present mosaic of the Virgin and Child enthroned is of the late 14th century, a time in which, beginning with Nilus of Constantinople (r. 1380–1388), the patriarchs of Constantinople began to have official seals depicting the Theotokos enthroned on a thokos.[271][262]
Still other scholars have proposed an earlier date than the later 9th century. According to George Galavaris, the mosaic seen by Photius was a Hodegetria portrait which after the earthquake of 989 was replaced by the present image not later than the early 11th century.[271][270] According to Oikonomides however, the image in fact dates to before the Triumph of Orthodoxy, having been completed c. 787–797, during the iconodule interlude between the First Iconoclast (726–787) and the Second Iconoclast (814–842) periods.[269] Having been plastered over in the Second Iconoclasm, Oikonomides argues a new, standing image of the Virgin Hodegetria was created above the older mosaic in 867, which then fell off in the earthquakes of the 1340s and revealed again the late 8th-century image of the Virgin enthroned.[269]
More recently, analysis of a hexaptych menologion icon panel from Saint Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai has determined that the panel, showing numerous scenes from the life of the Virgin and other theologically significant iconic representations, contains an image at the centre very similar to that in Hagia Sophia.[262] The image is labelled in Greek merely as: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ, romanized: Mētēr Theou, lit. 'Mother of God', but in the Georgian language the inscription reveals the image is labelled "of the semi-dome of Hagia Sophia".[262] This image is therefore the oldest depiction of the apse mosaic known and demonstrates that the apse mosaic's appearance was similar to the present day mosaic in the late 11th or early 12th centuries, when the hexaptych was inscribed in Georgian by a Georgian monk, which rules out a 14th-century date for the mosaic.[262]
The portraits of the archangels Gabriel and Michael (largely destroyed) in the bema of the arch also date from the 9th century. The mosaics are set against the original golden background of the 6th century. These mosaics were believed to be a reconstruction of the mosaics of the 6th century that were previously destroyed during the iconoclastic era by the Byzantines of that time, as represented in the inaugural sermon by the patriarch Photios. However, no record of figurative decoration of Hagia Sophia exists before this time.[272]
Church of Justinian I (current structure)
On 23 February 532, only a few weeks after the destruction of the second basilica, Emperor Justinian I inaugurated the construction of a third and entirely different basilica, larger and more majestic than its predecessors.[44] Justinian appointed two architects, mathematician Anthemius of Tralles and geometer and engineer Isidore of Miletus, to design the building.[45][46]
Construction of the church began in 532 during the short tenure of Phocas as praetorian prefect.[47] Although Phocas had been arrested in 529 as a suspected practitioner of paganism, he replaced John the Cappadocian after the Nika Riots saw the destruction of the Theodosian church.[47] According to John the Lydian, Phocas was responsible for funding the initial construction of the building with 4,000 Roman pounds of gold, but he was dismissed from office in October 532.[48][47] John the Lydian wrote that Phocas had acquired the funds by moral means, but Evagrius Scholasticus later wrote that the money had been obtained unjustly.[49][47]
According to Anthony Kaldellis, both of Hagia Sophia's architects named by Procopius were associated with the school of the pagan philosopher Ammonius of Alexandria.[47] It is possible that both they and John the Lydian considered Hagia Sophia a great temple for the supreme Neoplatonist deity who manifestated through light and the sun. John the Lydian describes the church as the "temenos of the Great God" (Greek: τὸ τοῦ μεγάλου θεοῦ Τέμενος, romanized: tò toû megálou theoû Témenos).[48][47]
Originally the exterior of the church was covered with marble veneer, as indicated by remaining pieces of marble and surviving attachments for lost panels on the building's western face.[50] The white marble cladding of much of the church, together with gilding of some parts, would have given Hagia Sophia a shimmering appearance quite different from the brick- and plaster-work of the modern period, and would have significantly increased its visibility from the sea.[50] The cathedral's interior surfaces were sheathed with polychrome marbles, green and white with purple porphyry, and gold mosaics. The exterior was clad in stucco that was tinted yellow and red during the 19th-century restorations by the Fossati architects.[51]
The construction is described by Procopius in On Buildings (Greek: Περὶ κτισμάτων, romanized: Peri ktismatōn, Latin: De aedificiis).[43] Columns and other marble elements were imported from throughout the Mediterranean, although the columns were once thought to be spoils from cities such as Rome and Ephesus.[52] Even though they were made specifically for Hagia Sophia, they vary in size.[53] More than ten thousand people were employed during the construction process. This new church was contemporaneously recognized as a major work of architecture. Outside the church was an elaborate array of monuments around the bronze-plated Column of Justinian, topped by an equestrian statue of the emperor which dominated the Augustaeum, the open square outside the church which connected it with the Great Palace complex through the Chalke Gate. At the edge of the Augustaeum was the Milion and the Regia, the first stretch of Constantinople's main thoroughfare, the Mese. Also facing the Augustaeum were the enormous Constantinian thermae, the Baths of Zeuxippus, and the Justinianic civic basilica under which was the vast cistern known as the Basilica Cistern. On the opposite side of Hagia Sophia was the former cathedral, Hagia Irene.
Referring to the destruction of the Theodosian Hagia Sophia and comparing the new church with the old, Procopius lauded the Justinianic building, writing in De aedificiis:[43]
... the Emperor Justinian built not long afterwards a church so finely shaped, that if anyone had enquired of the Christians before the burning if it would be their wish that the church should be destroyed and one like this should take its place, shewing them some sort of model of the building we now see, it seems to me that they would have prayed that they might see their church destroyed forthwith, in order that the building might be converted into its present form.
— Procopius, De aedificiis, I.1.22–23
Upon seeing the finished building, the Emperor reportedly said: "Solomon, I have surpassed thee" (Medieval Greek: Νενίκηκά σε Σολομών).[54]
Justinian and Patriarch Menas inaugurated the new basilica on 27 December 537, 5 years and 10 months after construction started, with much pomp.[55][56][57] Hagia Sophia was the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and a principal setting for Byzantine imperial ceremonies, such as coronations. The basilica offered sanctuary from persecution to criminals, although there was disagreement about whether Justinian had intended for murderers to be eligible for asylum.[58]
Earthquakes in August 553 and on 14 December 557 caused cracks in the main dome and eastern semi-dome. According to the Chronicle of John Malalas, during a subsequent earthquake on 7 May 558,[60] the eastern semi-dome collapsed, destroying the ambon, altar, and ciborium. The collapse was due mainly to the excessive bearing load and to the enormous shear load of the dome, which was too flat.[55] These caused the deformation of the piers which sustained the dome.[55] Justinian ordered an immediate restoration. He entrusted it to Isidorus the Younger, nephew of Isidore of Miletus, who used lighter materials. The entire vault had to be taken down and rebuilt 20 Byzantine feet (6.25 m or 20.5 ft) higher than before, giving the building its current interior height of 55.6 m (182 ft).[61] Moreover, Isidorus changed the dome type, erecting a ribbed dome with pendentives whose diameter was between 32.7 and 33.5 m.[55] Under Justinian's orders, eight Corinthian columns were disassembled from Baalbek, Lebanon and shipped to Constantinople around 560.[62] This reconstruction, which gave the church its present 6th-century form, was completed in 562. The poet Paul the Silentiary composed an ekphrasis, or long visual poem, for the re-dedication of the basilica presided over by Patriarch Eutychius on 24 December 562. Paul the Silentiary's poem is conventionally known under the Latin title Descriptio Sanctae Sophiae, and he was also author of another ekphrasis on the ambon of the church, the Descripto Ambonis.[63][64]
According to the history of the patriarch Nicephorus I and the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor, various liturgical vessels of the cathedral were melted down on the order of the emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641) after the capture of Alexandria and Roman Egypt by the Sasanian Empire during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628.[65] Theophanes states that these were made into gold and silver coins, and a tribute was paid to the Avars.[65] The Avars attacked the extramural areas of Constantinople in 623, causing the Byzantines to move the "garment" relic (Ancient Greek: ἐσθής, romanized: esthḗs) of Mary, mother of Jesus to Hagia Sophia from its usual shrine of the Church of the Theotokos at Blachernae just outside the Theodosian Walls.[66] On 14 May 626, the Scholae Palatinae, an elite body of soldiers, protested in Hagia Sophia against a planned increase in bread prices, after a stoppage of the Cura Annonae rations resulting from the loss of the grain supply from Egypt.[67] The Persians under Shahrbaraz and the Avars together laid the siege of Constantinople in 626; according to the Chronicon Paschale, on 2 August 626, Theodore Syncellus, a deacon and presbyter of Hagia Sophia, was among those who negotiated unsuccessfully with the khagan of the Avars.[68] A homily, attributed by existing manuscripts to Theodore Syncellus and possibly delivered on the anniversary of the event, describes the translation of the Virgin's garment and its ceremonial re-translation to Blachernae by the patriarch Sergius I after the threat had passed.[68][69] Another eyewitness account of the Avar–Persian siege was written by George of Pisidia, a deacon of Hagia Sophia and an administrative official in for the patriarchate from Antioch in Pisidia.[68] Both George and Theodore, likely members of Sergius's literary circle, attribute the defeat of the Avars to the intervention of the Theotokos, a belief that strengthened in following centuries.[68]
In 726, the emperor Leo the Isaurian issued a series of edicts against the veneration of images, ordering the army to destroy all icons – ushering in the period of Byzantine iconoclasm. At that time, all religious pictures and statues were removed from the Hagia Sophia. Following a brief hiatus during the reign of Empress Irene (797–802), the iconoclasts returned. Emperor Theophilus (r. 829–842) had two-winged bronze doors with his monograms installed at the southern entrance of the church.[70]
The basilica suffered damage, first in a great fire in 859, and again in an earthquake on 8 January 869 that caused the collapse of one of the half-domes.[71] Emperor Basil I ordered repair of the tympanas, arches, and vaults.[72]
In his book De caerimoniis aulae Byzantinae ("Book of Ceremonies"), the emperor Constantine VII (r. 913–959) wrote a detailed account of the ceremonies held in the Hagia Sophia by the emperor and the patriarch.
Early in the 10th century, the pagan ruler of the Kievan Rus' sent emissaries to his neighbors to learn about Judaism, Islam, and Roman and Orthodox Christianity. After visiting Hagia Sophia his emissaries reported back: "We were led into a place where they serve their God, and we did not know where we were, in heaven or on earth."[73]
In the 940s or 950s, probably around 954 or 955, after the Rus'–Byzantine War of 941 and the death of the Grand Prince of Kiev, Igor I (r. 912–945), his widow Olga of Kiev – regent for her infant son Sviatoslav I (r. 945–972) – visited the emperor Constantine VII and was received as queen of the Rus' in Constantinople.[74][75][76] She was probably baptized in Hagia Sophia's baptistery, taking the name of the reigning augusta, Helena Lecapena, and receiving the titles zōstē patrikía and the styles of archontissa and hegemon of the Rus'.[75][74] Her baptism was an important step towards the Christianization of the Kievan Rus', though the emperor's treatment of her visit in De caerimoniis does not mention baptism.[75][74] Olga is deemed a saint and equal-to-the-apostles (Ancient Greek: ἰσαπόστολος, romanized: isapóstolos) in the Eastern Orthodox Church.[77][78] According to an early 14th-century source, the second church in Kiev, Saint Sophia's, was founded in anno mundi 6460 in the Byzantine calendar, or c. 952.[79] The name of this future cathedral of Kiev probably commemorates Olga's baptism at Hagia Sophia.[79]
After the great earthquake of 25 October 989, which collapsed the western dome arch, Emperor Basil II asked for the Armenian architect Trdat, creator of the Cathedral of Ani, to direct the repairs.[80] He erected again and reinforced the fallen dome arch, and rebuilt the west side of the dome with 15 dome ribs.[81] The extent of the damage required six years of repair and reconstruction; the church was re-opened on 13 May 994. At the end of the reconstruction, the church's decorations were renovated, including the addition of four immense paintings of cherubs; a new depiction of Christ on the dome; a burial cloth of Christ shown on Fridays, and on the apse a new depiction of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus, between the apostles Peter and Paul.[82] On the great side arches were painted the prophets and the teachers of the church.[82]
According to the 13th-century Greek historian Niketas Choniates, the emperor John II Comnenus celebrated a revived Roman triumph after his victory over the Danishmendids at the siege of Kastamon in 1133.[83] After proceeding through the streets on foot carrying a cross with a silver quadriga bearing the icon of the Virgin Mary, the emperor participated in a ceremony at the cathedral before entering the imperial palace.[84] In 1168, another triumph was held by the emperor Manuel I Comnenus, again preceding with a gilded silver quadriga bearing the icon of the Virgin from the now-demolished East Gate (or Gate of St Barbara, later the Turkish: Top Kapısı, lit. 'Cannon Gate') in the Propontis Wall, to Hagia Sophia for a thanks-giving service, and then to the imperial palace.[85]
In 1181, the daughter of the emperor Manuel I, Maria Comnena, and her husband, the caesar Renier of Montferrat, fled to Hagia Sophia at the culmination of their dispute with the empress Maria of Antioch, regent for her son, the emperor Alexius II Comnenus.[86] Maria Comnena and Renier occupied the cathedral with the support of the patriarch, refusing the imperial administration's demands for a peaceful departure.[86] According to Niketas Choniates, they "transformed the sacred courtyard into a military camp", garrisoned the entrances to the complex with locals and mercenaries, and despite the strong opposition of the patriarch, made the "house of prayer into a den of thieves or a well-fortified and precipitous stronghold, impregnable to assault", while "all the dwellings adjacent to Hagia Sophia and adjoining the Augusteion were demolished by [Maria's] men".[86] A battle ensued in the Augustaion and around the Milion, during which the defenders fought from the "gallery of the Catechumeneia (also called the Makron)" facing the Augusteion, from which they eventually retreated and took up positions in the exonarthex of Hagia Sophia itself.[86] At this point, "the patriarch was anxious lest the enemy troops enter the temple, with unholy feet trample the holy floor, and with hands defiled and dripping with blood still warm plunder the all-holy dedicatory offerings".[86] After a successful sally by Renier and his knights, Maria requested a truce, the imperial assault ceased, and an amnesty was negotiated by the megas doux Andronikos Kontostephanos and the megas hetaireiarches John Doukas.[86] Greek historian Niketas Choniates compared the preservation of the cathedral to the efforts made by the 1st-century emperor Titus to avoid the destruction of the Second Temple during the siege of Jerusalem in the First Jewish–Roman War.[86] Choniates reports that in 1182, a white hawk wearing jesses was seen to fly from the east to Hagia Sophia, flying three times from the "building of the Thōmaitēs" (a basilica erected on the southeastern side of the Augustaion) to the Palace of the Kathisma in the Great Palace, where new emperors were acclaimed.[87] This was supposed to presage the end of the reign of Andronicus I Comnenus (r. 1183–1185).[87]
Choniates further writes that in 1203, during the Fourth Crusade, the emperors Isaac II Angelus and Alexius IV Angelus stripped Hagia Sophia of all gold ornaments and silver oil-lamps in order to pay off the Crusaders who had ousted Alexius III Angelus and helped Isaac return to the throne.[88] Upon the subsequent Sack of Constantinople in 1204, the church was further ransacked and desecrated by the Crusaders, as described by Choniates, though he did not witness the events in person. According to his account, composed at the court of the rump Empire of Nicaea, Hagia Sophia was stripped of its remaining metal ornaments, its altar was smashed into pieces, and a "woman laden with sins" sang and danced on the synthronon.[89][90][91] He adds that mules and donkeys were brought into the cathedral's sanctuary to carry away the gilded silver plating of the bema, the ambo, and the doors and other furnishings, and that one of them slipped on the marble floor and was accidentally disembowelled, further contaminating the place.[89] According to Ali ibn al-Athir, whose treatment of the Sack of Constantinople was probably dependent on a Christian source, the Crusaders massacred some clerics who had surrendered to them.[92] Much of the interior was damaged and would not be repaired until its return to Orthodox control in 1261.[34] The sack of Hagia Sophia, and Constantinople in general, remained a sore point in Catholic–Eastern Orthodox relations.[93]
During the Latin occupation of Constantinople (1204–1261), the church became a Latin Catholic cathedral. Baldwin I of Constantinople (r. 1204–1205) was crowned emperor on 16 May 1204 in Hagia Sophia in a ceremony which closely followed Byzantine practices. Enrico Dandolo, the Doge of Venice who commanded the sack and invasion of the city by the Latin Crusaders in 1204, is buried inside the church, probably in the upper eastern gallery. In the 19th century, an Italian restoration team placed a cenotaph marker, frequently mistaken as being a medieval artifact, near the probable location and is still visible today. The original tomb was destroyed by the Ottomans during the conversion of the church into a mosque.[94]
Upon the capture of Constantinople in 1261 by the Empire of Nicaea and the emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus, (r. 1261–1282), the church was in a dilapidated state. In 1317, emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus (r. 1282–1328) ordered four new buttresses (Medieval Greek: Πυραμίδας, romanized: Pyramídas) to be built in the eastern and northern parts of the church, financing them with the inheritance of his late wife, Irene of Montferrat (d.1314).[19] New cracks developed in the dome after the earthquake of October 1344, and several parts of the building collapsed on 19 May 1346. Repairs by architects Astras and Peralta began in 1354.[71][95]
On 12 December 1452, Isidore of Kiev proclaimed in Hagia Sophia the long-anticipated ecclesiastical union between the western Catholic and eastern Orthodox Churches as decided at the Council of Florence and decreed by the papal bull Laetentur Caeli, though it would be short-lived. The union was unpopular among the Byzantines, who had already expelled the Patriarch of Constantinople, Gregory III, for his pro-union stance. A new patriarch was not installed until after the Ottoman conquest. According to the Greek historian Doukas, the Hagia Sophia was tainted by these Catholic associations, and the anti-union Orthodox faithful avoided the cathedral, considering it to be a haunt of demons and a "Hellenic" temple of Roman paganism.[96] Doukas also notes that after the Laetentur Caeli was proclaimed, the Byzantines dispersed discontentedly to nearby venues where they drank toasts to the Hodegetria icon, which had, according to late Byzantine tradition, interceded to save them in the former sieges of Constantinople by the Avar Khaganate and the Umayyad Caliphate.[97]
According to Nestor Iskander's Tale on the Taking of Tsargrad, the Hagia Sophia was the focus of an alarming omen interpreted as the Holy Spirit abandoning Constantinople on 21 May 1453, in the final days of the Siege of Constantinople.[98] The sky lit up, illuminating the city, and "many people gathered and saw on the Church of the Wisdom, at the top of the window, a large flame of fire issuing forth. It encircled the entire neck of the church for a long time. The flame gathered into one; its flame altered, and there was an indescribable light. At once it took to the sky. ... The light itself has gone up to heaven; the gates of heaven were opened; the light was received; and again they were closed."[98] This phenomenon was perhaps St Elmo's fire induced by gunpowder smoke and unusual weather.[98] The author relates that the fall of the city to "Mohammadenism" was foretold in an omen seen by Constantine the Great – an eagle fighting with a snake – which also signified that "in the end Christianity will overpower Mohammedanism, will receive the Seven Hills, and will be enthroned in it".[98]
The eventual fall of Constantinople had long been predicted in apocalyptic literature.[99] A reference to the destruction of a city founded on seven hills in the Book of Revelation was frequently understood to be about Constantinople, and the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius had predicted an "Ishmaelite" conquest of the Roman Empire.[99] In this text, the Muslim armies reach the Forum Bovis before being turned back by divine intervention; in later apocalyptic texts, the climactic turn takes place at the Column of Theodosius closer to Hagia Sophia; in others, it occurs at the Column of Constantine, which is closer still.[99] Hagia Sophia is mentioned in a hagiography of uncertain date detailing the life of the Eastern Orthodox saint Andrew the Fool.[100] The text is self-attributed to Nicephorus, a priest of Hagia Sophia, and contains a description of the end time in the form of a dialogue, in which the interlocutor, upon being told by the saint that Constantinople will be sunk in a flood and that "the waters as they gush forth will irresistibly deluge her and cover her and surrender her to the terrifying and immense sea of the abyss", says "some people say that the Great Church of God will not be submerged with the city but will be suspended in the air by an invisible power".[100] The reply is given that "When the whole city sinks into the sea, how can the Great Church remain? Who will need her? Do you think God dwells in temples made with hands?"[100] The Column of Constantine, however, is prophesied to endure.[100]
From the time of Procopius in the reign of Justinian, the equestrian imperial statue on the Column of Justinian in the Augustaion beside Hagia Sophia, which gestured towards Asia with right hand, was understood to represent the emperor holding back the threat to the Romans from the Sasanian Empire in the Roman–Persian Wars, while the orb or globus cruciger held in the statue's left was an expression of the global power of the Roman emperor.[101] Subsequently, in the Arab–Byzantine wars, the threat held back by the statue became the Umayyad Caliphate, and later, the statue was thought to be fending off the advance of the Turks.[101] The identity of the emperor was often confused with that of other famous saint-emperors like Theodosius I and Heraclius.[101] The orb was frequently referred to as an apple in foreigners' accounts of the city, and it was interpreted in Greek folklore as a symbol of the Turks' mythological homeland in Central Asia, the "Lone Apple Tree".[101] The orb fell to the ground in 1316 and was replaced by 1325, but while it was still in place around 1412, by the time Johann Schiltberger saw the statue in 1427, the "empire-apple" (German: Reichsapfel) had fallen to the earth.[101] An attempt to raise it again in 1435 failed, and this amplified the prophecies of the city's fall.[101] For the Turks, the "red apple" (Turkish: kızıl elma) came to symbolize Constantinople itself and subsequently the military supremacy of the Islamic caliphate over the Christian empire.[101] In Niccolò Barbaro's account of the fall of the city in 1453, the Justinianic monument was interpreted in the last days of the siege as representing the city's founder Constantine the Great, indicating "this is the way my conqueror will come".[98]
According to Laonicus Chalcocondyles, Hagia Sophia was a refuge for the population during the city's capture.[102] Despite the ill-repute and empty state of Hagia Sophia after December 1452, Doukas writes that after the Theodosian Walls were breached, the Byzantines took refuge there as the Turks advanced through the city: "All the women and men, monks, and nuns ran to the Great Church. They, both men and women, were holding in their arms their infants. What a spectacle! That street was crowded, full of human beings."[102] He attributes their change of heart to a prophecy.[102]
What was the reason that compelled all to flee to the Great Church? They had been listening, for many years, to some pseudo-soothsayers, who had declared that the city was destined to be handed over to the Turks, who would enter in large numbers and would massacre the Romans as far as the Column of Constantine the Great. After this an angel would descend, holding his sword. He would hand over the kingdom, together with the sword, to some insignificant, poor, and humble man who would happen to be standing by the Column. He would say to him: "Take this sword and avenge the Lord's people." Then the Turks would be turned back, would be massacred by the pursuing Romans, and would be ejected from the city and from all places in the west and the east and would be driven as far as the borders of Persia, to a place called the Lone Tree …. That was the cause for the flight into the Great Church. In one hour that famous and enormous church was filled with men and women. An innumerable crowd was everywhere: upstairs, downstairs, in the courtyards, and in every conceivable place. They closed the gates and stood there, hoping for salvation.
In accordance with the traditional custom of the time, Sultan Mehmed II allowed his troops and his entourage three full days of unbridled pillage and looting in the city shortly after it was captured. This period saw the destruction of many Orthodox churches;[103] Hagia Sophia itself was looted as the invaders believed it to contain the greatest treasures of the city.[104] Shortly after the defence of the Walls of Constantinople collapsed and the victorious Ottoman troops entered the city, the pillagers and looters made their way to the Hagia Sophia and battered down its doors before storming inside.[105] Once the three days passed, Mehmed was to claim the city's remaining contents for himself.[106][107] However, by the end of the first day, he proclaimed that the looting should cease as he felt profound sadness when he toured the looted and enslaved city.[108][106][109]
Throughout the siege of Constantinople, the trapped people of the city participated in the Divine Liturgy and the Prayer of the Hours at the Hagia Sophia, and the church was a safe-haven and a refuge for many of those who were unable to contribute to the city's defence, including women, children, elderly, the sick and the wounded.[110][111][109] As they were trapped in the church, the many congregants and other refugees inside became spoils-of-war to be divided amongst the triumphant invaders. The building was desecrated and looted, and those who sought shelter within the church were enslaved.[104] While most of the elderly and the infirm, injured, and sick were killed, the remainder (mainly teenage males and young boys) were chained and sold into slavery.[105][109]
Constantinople fell to the attacking Ottoman forces on 29 May 1453. Sultan Mehmed II entered the city and performed the Friday prayer and khutbah (sermon) in Hagia Sophia, and this action marked the official conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque.[112] The church's priests and religious personnel continued to perform Christian rites, prayers, and ceremonies until they were compelled to stop by the invaders.[105] When Mehmed and his entourage entered the church, he ordered that it be converted into a mosque immediately. One of the ʿulamāʾ (Islamic scholars) present climbed onto the church's ambo and recited the shahada ("There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger"), thus marking the beginning of the conversion of the church into a mosque.[19][113] Mehmed is reported to have taken a sword to a soldier who tried to pry up one of the paving slabs of the Proconnesian marble floor.[114]
As described by Western visitors before 1453, such as the Córdoban nobleman Pero Tafur[115] and the Florentine geographer Cristoforo Buondelmonti,[116] the church was in a dilapidated state, with several of its doors fallen from their hinges. Mehmed II ordered a renovation of the building. Mehmed attended the first Friday prayer in the mosque on 1 June 1453.[117] Aya Sofya became the first imperial mosque of Istanbul.[118] Most of the existing houses in the city and the area of the future Topkapı Palace were endowed to the corresponding waqf.[19] From 1478, 2,360 shops, 1,300 houses, 4 caravanserais, 30 boza shops, and 23 shops of sheep heads and trotters gave their income to the foundation.[119] Through the imperial charters of 1520 (AH 926) and 1547 (AH 954), shops and parts of the Grand Bazaar and other markets were added to the foundation.[19]
Before 1481, a small minaret was erected on the southwest corner of the building, above the stair tower.[19] Mehmed's successor Bayezid II (r. 1481–1512) later built another minaret at the northeast corner.[19] One of the minarets collapsed after the earthquake of 1509,[19] and around the middle of the 16th century they were both replaced by two diagonally opposite minarets built at the east and west corners of the edifice.[19] In 1498, Bernardo Bonsignori was the last Western visitor to Hagia Sophia to report seeing the ancient Justinianic floor; shortly afterwards the floor was covered over with carpet and not seen again until the 19th century.[114]
In the 16th century, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–1566) brought two colossal candlesticks from his conquest of the Kingdom of Hungary and placed them on either side of the mihrab. During Suleiman's reign, the mosaics above the narthex and imperial gates depicting Jesus, Mary, and various Byzantine emperors were covered by whitewash and plaster, which were removed in 1930 under the Turkish Republic.[120][better source needed]
During the reign of Selim II (r. 1566–1574), the building started showing signs of fatigue and was extensively strengthened with the addition of structural supports to its exterior by Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan, who was also an earthquake engineer.[121] In addition to strengthening the historic Byzantine structure, Sinan built two additional large minarets at the western end of the building, the original sultan's lodge and the türbe (mausoleum) of Selim II to the southeast of the building in 1576–1577 (AH 984). In order to do that, parts of the Patriarchate at the south corner of the building were pulled down the previous year.[19] Moreover, the golden crescent was mounted on the top of the dome,[19] and a respect zone 35 arşın (about 24 m) wide was imposed around the building, leading to the demolition of all houses within the perimeter.[19] The türbe became the location of the tombs of 43 Ottoman princes.[19] Murad III (r. 1574–1595) imported two large alabaster Hellenistic urns from Pergamon (Bergama) and placed them on two sides of the nave.[19]
In 1594 (AH 1004) Mimar (court architect) Davud Ağa built the türbe of Murad III, where the Sultan and his valide, Safiye Sultan were buried.[19] The octagonal mausoleum of their son Mehmed III (r. 1595–1603) and his valide was built next to it in 1608 (AH 1017) by royal architect Dalgiç Mehmet Aĝa.[122] His son Mustafa I (r. 1617–1618, 1622–1623) converted the baptistery into his türbe.[122]
In 1717, under the reign of Sultan Ahmed III (r. 1703–1730), the crumbling plaster of the interior was renovated, contributing indirectly to the preservation of many mosaics, which otherwise would have been destroyed by mosque workers.[122] In fact, it was usual for the mosaic's tesserae—believed to be talismans—to be sold to visitors.[122] Sultan Mahmud I ordered the restoration of the building in 1739 and added a medrese (a Koranic school, subsequently the library of the museum), an imaret (soup kitchen for distribution to the poor) and a library, and in 1740 he added a Şadirvan (fountain for ritual ablutions), thus transforming it into a külliye, or social complex. At the same time, a new sultan's lodge and a new mihrab were built inside.[123]
The 19th-century restoration of the Hagia Sophia was ordered by Sultan Abdulmejid I (r. 1823–1861) and completed between 1847 and 1849 by eight hundred workers under the supervision of the Swiss-Italian architect brothers Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati. The brothers consolidated the dome with a restraining iron chain and strengthened the vaults, straightened the columns, and revised the decoration of the exterior and the interior of the building.[124] The mosaics in the upper gallery were exposed and cleaned, although many were recovered "for protection against further damage".[125]
Eight new gigantic circular-framed discs or medallions were hung from the cornice, on each of the four piers and at either side of the apse and the west doors. These were designed by the calligrapher Kazasker Mustafa Izzet Efendi (1801–1877) and painted with the names of Allah, Muhammad, the Rashidun (the first four caliphs: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali), and the two grandsons of Muhammad: Hasan and Husayn, the sons of Ali.[126] In 1850, the architects Fossati built a new maqsura or caliphal loge in Neo-Byzantine columns and an Ottoman–Rococo style marble grille connecting to the royal pavilion behind the mosque.[124] The new maqsura was built at the extreme east end of the northern aisle, next to the north-eastern pier. The existing maqsura in the apse, near the mihrab, was demolished.[124] A new entrance was constructed for the sultan: the Hünkar Mahfili.[124] The Fossati brothers also renovated the minbar and mihrab.
Outside the main building, the minarets were repaired and altered so that they were of equal height.[125] A clock building, the Muvakkithane, was built by the Fossatis for use by the muwaqqit (the mosque timekeeper), and a new madrasa (Islamic school) was constructed. The Kasr-ı Hümayun was also built under their direction.[124] When the restoration was finished, the mosque was re-opened with a ceremony on 13 July 1849.[127] An edition of lithographs from drawings made during the Fossatis' work on Hagia Sophia was published in London in 1852, entitled: Aya Sophia of Constantinople as Recently Restored by Order of H.M. The Sultan Abdulmedjid.[124]
Main (western) façade of Hagia Sophia, seen from courtyard of the
after Gaspard Fossati (1852).
South-eastern side, seen from the Imperial Gate of the
in the distance. Lithograph by Louis Haghe after Gaspard Fossati (1852).
's 1852 depiction of the Hagia Sophia, after his and his brother's renovation. Lithograph by
Nave before restoration, facing east
Nave and apse after restoration, facing east
Nave and entrance after restoration, facing west
Narthex, facing north
Exonarthex, facing north
North aisle from the entrance, facing east
North aisle, facing west
Nave and south aisle from the north aisle
Northern gallery and entrance to the matroneum from the north-west
Southern gallery from the south-west
Southern gallery from the Marble Door facing west
Southern gallery from the Marble Door facing east
In the aftermath of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, Constantinople was occupied by British, French, Italian, and Greek forces. On 19 January 1919, the Greek Orthodox Christian military priest Eleftherios Noufrakis performed an unauthorized Divine Liturgy in the Hagia Sophia, the only such instance since the 1453 fall of Constantinople.[128] The anti-occupation Sultanahmet demonstrations were held next to Hagia Sophia from March to May 1919. In Greece, the 500 drachma banknotes issued in 1923 featured Hagia Sophia.[129]
In 1935, the first Turkish President and founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, transformed the building into a museum. During the Second World War, the minarets of the museum housed MG 08 machine guns.[130] The carpet and the layer of mortar underneath were removed and marble floor decorations such as the omphalion appeared for the first time since the Fossatis' restoration,[131] when the white plaster covering many of the mosaics had been removed. Due to neglect, the condition of the structure continued to deteriorate, prompting the World Monuments Fund (WMF) to include the Hagia Sophia in their 1996 and 1998 Watch Lists. During this time period, the building's copper roof had cracked, causing water to leak down over the fragile frescoes and mosaics. Moisture entered from below as well. Rising ground water increased the level of humidity within the monument, creating an unstable environment for stone and paint. The WMF secured a series of grants from 1997 to 2002 for the restoration of the dome. The first stage of work involved the structural stabilization and repair of the cracked roof, which was undertaken with the participation of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The second phase, the preservation of the dome's interior, afforded the opportunity to employ and train young Turkish conservators in the care of mosaics. By 2006, the WMF project was complete, though many areas of Hagia Sophia continue to require significant stability improvement, restoration, and conservation.[132]
In 2014, Hagia Sophia was the second most visited museum in Turkey, attracting almost 3.3 million visitors annually.[133]
While use of the complex as a place of worship (mosque or church) was strictly prohibited,[134] in 1991 the Turkish government allowed the allocation of a pavilion in the museum complex (Ayasofya Müzesi Hünkar Kasrı) for use as a prayer room, and, since 2013, two of the museum's minarets had been used for voicing the call to prayer (the ezan) regularly.[135][136]
From the early 2010s, several campaigns and government high officials, notably Turkey's deputy prime minister Bülent Arınç in November 2013, demanded the Hagia Sophia be converted back into a mosque.[137][138][139] In 2015, Pope Francis publicly acknowledged the Armenian genocide, which is officially denied in Turkey. In response, the mufti of Ankara, Mefail Hızlı, said he believed the Pope's remarks would accelerate the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque.[140]
On 1 July 2016, Muslim prayers were held again in the Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years.[141] That November, a Turkish NGO, the Association for the Protection of Historic Monuments and the Environment, filed a lawsuit for converting the museum into a mosque.[142] The court decided it should stay as a 'monument museum'.[143][better source needed] In October 2016, Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) appointed, for the first time in 81 years, a designated imam, Önder Soy, to the Hagia Sophia mosque (Ayasofya Camii Hünkar Kasrı), located at the Hünkar Kasrı, a pavilion for the sultans' private ablutions. Since then, the adhan has been regularly called out from the Hagia Sophia's all four minarets five times a day.[135][136][144]
On 13 May 2017, a large group of people, organized by the Anatolia Youth Association (AGD), gathered in front of Hagia Sophia and prayed the morning prayer with a call for the re-conversion of the museum into a mosque.[145] On 21 June 2017 the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) organized a special programme, broadcast live by state-run television TRT, which included the recitation of the Quran and prayers in Hagia Sophia, to mark the Laylat al-Qadr.[146]
Hagia Sophia History: Information about Hagia Sophia
Located on the European side of Istanbul, Aya Sofya Mosque is one of the most prominent symbols of the Constantinople Conquest (Istanbul) by the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed Fatih, on 29th May 1453, after it remained insurmountable to the Islamic conquests for several centuries.
Aya Sofia or aya sophia , which was converted from a church into a mosque after Constantinople Conquest, is one of the world’s most famous artistic and architectural monuments and most-visited museums.
Seen as “the 8th wonder of the world” by historians, this majestic edifice was built in 537. It is an impressive monument, located in the Sultan Ahmed District, used for 481 as a mosque before it was converted to a museum in 1934.
Historically speaking, the 2020 year was a turning point in the monument’s history when the Turkish Supreme Administrative Court overturned the cabinet decision issued in 1934, reopened Aya Sofia for worship and prayer, and transferred its affiliation from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to the Presidency of Religious Affairs.
th-century restoration
Following the building's conversion into a mosque in 1453, many of its mosaics were covered with plaster, due to Islam's ban on representational imagery. This process was not completed at once, and reports exist from the 17th century in which travellers note that they could still see Christian images in the former church. In 1847–1849, the building was restored by two Swiss-Italian Fossati brothers, Gaspare and Giuseppe, and Sultan Abdulmejid I allowed them to also document any mosaics they might discover during this process, which were later archived in Swiss libraries.[252][better source needed] This work did not include repairing the mosaics, and after recording the details about an image, the Fossatis painted it over again. The Fossatis restored the mosaics of the two hexapteryga (singular Greek: ἑξαπτέρυγον, pr. hexapterygon, six-winged angel; it is uncertain whether they are seraphim or cherubim) located on the two east pendentives, and covered their faces again before the end of the restoration.[253] The other two mosaics, placed on the west pendentives, are copies in paint created by the Fossatis since they could find no surviving remains of them.[253] As in this case, the architects reproduced in paint damaged decorative mosaic patterns, sometimes redesigning them in the process. The Fossati records are the primary sources about a number of mosaic images now believed to have been completely or partially destroyed in the 1894 Istanbul earthquake. These include a mosaic over a now-unidentified Door of the Poor, a large image of a jewel-encrusted cross, and many images of angels, saints, patriarchs, and church fathers. Most of the missing images were located in the building's two tympana.
One mosaic they documented is Christ Pantocrator in a circle, which would indicate it to be a ceiling mosaic, possibly even of the main dome, which was later covered and painted over with Islamic calligraphy that expounds God as the light of the universe. The Fossatis' drawings of the Hagia Sophia mosaics are today kept in the Archive of the Canton of Ticino.[254]
Why is aya sophia Controversial? Is It a Church or a Mosque?
There were many calls for reconverting Hagia Sophia into a mosque and a church by Muslims and Christians, respectively. However, the Turkish government decided to turn it back into a mosque building upon Sultan Mehmed Fatih’s decision of converting it into a mosque. It is also said that Sultan Mehmed Fatih bought this church from the Romans with his own money, turned it into a mosque, and endowed it to Muslims.
During a speech on reopening aya sophia to worship as a mosque, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, emphasized that the Turkish government’s decision to turn the mosque into a museum in the 1930s was a big mistake. “The decision was not only a betrayal for history but also a law violation because Hagia Sophia is not state property, rather a property for the endowment of Sultan Mehmed Fatih,” said Erdogan.
