THE SADNESS FOR HAGIA SOPHIA

Now here's an interesting article;

“Turkey's president formally changes Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque” [Suzan Fraser, stuff.co.nz, Jul 12 2020]

And here's another;

“The trouble with making Hagia Sophia a mosque again” [Ishaan Tharoor, stuff.co.nz, Jul 14 2020]

Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured right), actually thinks he can recapture the former glory of the Ottoman Empire by changing Hagia Sophia from a museum into a mosque.  Of course, it’s more about saving himself at the next election. Sadly, my cynicism doesn't alter the fact; we're powerless to stop Erdogan.

The first article explains how “Hagia Sophia was turned into a mosque after Istanbul's conquest by the Ottoman Empire.”  Well, “Istanbul” was not conquered by the Ottoman Turks; “Constantinople” was.  The Turks didn’t rename Constantinople until 1930, by Turkey’s then ruler, Attaturk.  But Attaturk, Turkey’s hero of Gallipoli, was a clever man.  He completely reformed Turkey, but I always felt that making Hagia Sophia a neutral building then was, in some small part, an attempt to placate the victorious Allies in the post-WWI years. I wonder if Attaturk felt the Allies might yet sweep “the sick man of Europe” right back into Anatolia?  Vengeful Greeks and Slavs might yet reclaim the Byzatine wonders of Constantinople for Christian Europe.  So it was indeed a clever international statement when Attaturk renounced the Hagia Sophia ”mosque” and proclaimed Hagia Sophia as a secular museum in 1934.

In the middle ages, Hagia Sophia Cathedral (pre-1453, left) was the jewel in the crown of the City of Constantinople.  Constantinople was the last remnant of Eastern Rome; Christian Byzantium.  After centuries of trying, the muslim Turks finally breached its walls on 29 May 1453 and swept through the city.  After two days of killing, raping and plundering, Hagia Sophia was almost immediately converted into a mosque.  The crosses were pulled down.  The mosaics were painted over.  The spectacular Byzantine frescoes were scarred and desecrated (example below, right), and the incongruous minarets added thereafter.

Erdogan claims, “It is Turkey's sovereign right to decide for which purpose Hagia Sofia will be used.''  Well, by that moral logic, Israel would have the “sovereign right” to level the Al Aqsa Mosque to restore the Jewish Temple of Solomon.  And that, my friends, is the path to war . . . 

Garo Paylan, an ethnic Armenian Christian, summed it up perfectly when he tweeted; “The decision to convert Hagia Sophia into a mosque will make life more difficult for Christians here and for Muslims in Europe;'' all of whom recognise the significance of Erdogan’s edict.

And even sadder? I don’t think most European Christians – ignorant of the history – will give a toss.

FURTHER BROWSING:

"Erdogan Should Not Erase Turkey’s Christian Past" [Richard V. Reeves, Mustafa Akyol, July 1 2020]

"Hagia Sophia controversy: This Netflix series captures itstransition from church to mosque in 1453" [CNBC, July 17 2020]

WE LIVE IN A DIFFERENT TIME

Now here’s an interesting article;

"'Dig' Isn't Wrong: People Really Are Trying to Rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem" [Elon Gilad, Jewish World Features, 7 May 2015]

And here’s another;

"Turkey Converts Church of Hagia Sophia from Museum to Mosque" [Melissa Steffan, Christianity Today, 4 April 2013]

You are correct; these are exactly the same articles I led with in my previous Cup of Vitriol.   Last time, I discussed the Jewish threat to the beautiful Muslim mosques on Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  Now I want to discuss an interesting parallel; the Muslim threat to the beautiful Christian Hagia Sophia cathedral in Turkey.

I have been to Hagia Sofia in Constantinople (now known as Istanbul), and the splendour of this former Christian Cathedral is indescribable.  It was completed in 537AD, having taken just 5 years to build – a remarkable feat given the technology.  Hagia Sophia is more remarkable when you consider the engineering required to sustain the largest unsupported dome of its time.  The digital reconstruction, pictured right, shows the Cathedral as it would have looked in the 12th Century.   However, Hagia Sophia doesn't look like this today.

Unlike the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, Hagia Sophia has not been looked after.  This is how Hagia Sophia looks today (pictured left); weathered, tired and poorly maintained.  The Muslim minarets stuck on  the four sides are - we're told - structurally necessary to prevent Hagia Sophia from collapsing in on itself.  Hagia Sophia stood and was maintained for 1,000 years by the Orthodox Christian Byzantines - without the need for minarets.   The Christian crosses have long since gone.  The removal of the Crosses was one of the first things Sultan Mehmet II did when the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople, and with it Hagia Sophia, in that bloody siege of 1453.

Hagia Sophia was the jewel of Constantinople.  At that time, Constantinople was the capital of Byzantium, the Christian Orthodox empire in the east; the Christian part of Rome that survived until the Turkish conquest and sacking of 1453.  I say sacking, because despite THIS contemporary Turkish account of the Siege of Constantinople, there was no "liberation."  Byzantine men were beheaded and women and children sold into slavery.  As was customary for the time, the conquering Mehmet II was obliged to allow his Ottoman Turkish soldiers to indulge in a three-day rampage of looting, raping and pillaging of the broken city.  And they did. 

The subsequent desecration of this Holy Christian site is heart-breaking to see, as a visitor today. This desecration was institutional, not the random acts of rampaging Janissaries.  The conquering Muslims ensured that huge boards with Turkish scripts covered the magnificent, ancient, Byzantine frescoes – those few remaining frescoes that weren’t de-faced or removed (example, right).

Thus did  Sultan Mehmet II convert Hagia Sophia into a mosque.

I neither condemn nor condone the conquest.  It was a feature of the time.  And, in the interests of balance, I should point out that the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade ALSO sacked Constantinople, in 1204.  Indeed, many historians believe that the Crusaders' pillage of Constantinople so weakened the city and Christian Byzantium, that Constantinople never recovered and was too weak to repel Mehmet II in 1453.  This lack of foresight and lack of support on the part of the  Catholic establishment led to a subsequent Muslim fortress on the doorstep of Europe.  Suleiman the Magnificent used Constantinople as his base, and went on to conquer half of Europe thereafter.  Logically, then, the Catholic Popes of the Byzantine age - who originally commissioned the Crusades - had much to answer for.

However, by the end of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire had run its course and all but collapsed.  The balance of power had swung back to Christian Europe since the fall of Constantinople.  A new ruler in Turkey, the visionary and secular Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was keen to placate and build relationships with his powerful, conquering western neighbours. 

Thus, did Ataturk utter those noble words, inscribed on the Gallipoli Memorial;
 

"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives… You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours… You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace, after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."

Ataturk, 1934, Gallipoli - Memorial at Anzac Cove by Ataturk.

But the biggest gesture to the Christians was the announcement that Hagia Sophia would no longer be a mosque, and so Ataturk “transformed Hagia Sophia into a ‘neutral’ museum in 1934 — a gesture of goodwill to a then-triumphant West from a then-crestfallen Turkey.” [Raymond Ibrahim, Middle East Forum, 18 June 2913]

Ataturk was no fool.  He was an astute student of military history – of Ottoman and Medieval history.  So he was no doubt fearful that the industrially-advanced Christian West might yet finish what they started in the 19th century, and sweep Turkey out of Europe altogether.  And that would mean Turkey losing Constantinople and the Muslim Holy sites therein.  Thus, Ataturk did usher in the Turkish era of secularism.

However, as the article at the top of the page indicates, things have come full circle in Turkey today.  Islamists have gained traction over the secularists, and Islam is becoming powerful again in Turkey; powerful, enough to believe that the Christian West won’t intervene when Ataturk’s directive is rolled over and Hagia Sophia is a mosque again.  Frankly, I don't think many Catholics and  Reformists know or care about some strange old Greek Orthodox church in old Istanbul.  However, Christians will be forbidden to pray there, but Muslims can pray there anew.

I don't know what bothers me more; the fact that Christian Hagia Sophia is lost forever, or the religious hypocrisy. So let me try to summarise my two articles and see if I have my history correct;

• Turkey conquers Constantinople in 1453 and virtually all the Christian Holy places are destroyed or desecrated.  The most Holy, Hagia Sophia, is converted into a mosque; minuets are built to complete its aesthetic conversion to mosque.  After a brief period of 80 years of religious neutrality (1934-2007), Christians will likely be forbidden to visit, and certainly not be able to pray in, Hagia Sophia.
• Israel conquers Jerusalem in 1967, but leaves the holy Muslim sites on Temple Mount entirely intact and unmolested.  Despite Temple Mount also being a Jewish Holy site, Jews and other non-Muslims may not pray there.  Indeed, non-Muslims are not even welcome on Temple Mount.
• When news breaks in 2007 that Hagia Sophia will be re-instated as a mosque, the Catholic and Reformist West do nothing.  The minority Russian and Greek Orthodox Christians might make some noise, but few hear it.
• When rumours surface in 2007 that the mosques will be bowled to make way for the Jewish Temple re-build, the Muslim world roars loud, and Israel hears it.  Indeed, the noise is heard when there is mere non-Muslim interference of the site, far less any digging.
• Temple Mount is retained for Islam
• Temple Mount is lost to Judaism
• Hagia Sophia is lost to Christianity

As I wrestled with all this hypocrisy, inequality, double-standards and lack of religious tolerance, I asked my wife the question; how is it that Hagia Sophia can be converted into a mosque?   Christians were forced to accept the desecration of Hagia Sophia because Constantinople was conquered.  Jerusalem was conquered but the Dome of the Rock remains untouched; almost an independent state in itself - a thorn in the side of Jewish radicals.  Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik, built the Dome of the Rock shortly after his conquest of Jerusalem; so why shouldn't the Jews build the Third Temple, now they have conquered Jerusalem?   

How is is that the beautiful, 1500-year-old Hagia Sophia is allowed to be further desecrated and turned into a mosque without so much as a whisper of protest from the western world?  Meanwhile, Arabic countries are up in arms at mere rumours of the slightest interference to the Dome of the Rock. 

And thus my wife answered all my questions with just seven words; “Because we live in a different time.”

We live in a different time, all right.

FURTHER READING:

"Christendom's Greatest Cathedral to Become a Mosque"  [Raymond Ibrahim, PJ Media, posted in “Middle East Forum,” 18 June 2013]

"Hagia Sophia, Gezi Park Initiatives Reflect Bid to Put MoreIslamist Face on Turkey" ["Morning Star News," 29 June 2013]

"Controversy at the Hagia Sophia - Paris Review" [Kaya Genc, “Paris Review,” 8 January 2014]

"Israeli scholars furious after new flooring is fitted 'behind their backs'"[AP and Flora Drury, “Daily Mail,” 21 April 2015]

"Excavations at the Temple Mount"[Wikipedia]

"Israelis Excavations Leading To WW3?" [Shoshana Mandelboum, Tel Aviv, “Rense.com,” 21 February 2004]

"Why Don't We Rebuild The Holy Temple?" [Mordechai Housman, www.beingjewish.com]

"We’re Ready to Rebuild the Temple"  [Tuly Weisz, “Breaking Israel News,” 4 August 2014]

"Preparations are going on to build the Third Jewish Temple in Jerusalem" [Christian Broadcasting Network]

“After nearly 2,000 years of exile, the Jewish people were close to their dream of a new Temple but that dream  lasted just a few days [after the Jews captured Jerusalem].  The Temple Mount was returned to Muslim authorities.  And four decades later, Jews are still forbidden to worship there.”

"'Dig' Isn't Wrong: People Really Are Trying to Rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem" [Elon Gilad, Jewish World Features, 7 May 2015]

“The snag is that this site is currently occupied by the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque”

"Watch: Arabs Abuse Australians on Temple Mount" [Ari Yashar, “Israel National News,” 11 March 2015]

"Arabs confront Jews on Temple Mount" [Aaron Klein, WND, 26 July 2015]

"Muslim Reaction to Rebuilding of Temple Mount Ramp 'A Deliberate Attempt to Incite Violence Against Israel"  [Anti-Defamation League, 16 February 2007]

"The History of Hagia Sophia - The Church of Holy Wisdom" [Bob Atchison, www.pallasweb.com]