Hagia Sophia Grand Masjid Through the Ages

More than 1500 years old, Hagia Sophia (Grand Masjid) has gone through various transformations since it was built in 537. It is situated on a hill overlooking the Sea of Marmara and the Bosporus in what is now the city of Istanbul.

If walls could talk, each building would have a different story to tell, but none would be able to tell so many fascinating stories in so many different voices as the Hagia Sophia.

1. In year 360, Byzantine emperor Constantius II commissioned the construction of the first Hagia Sophia. It was built with a wooden roof and was soon burned to the ground in riots.
2. In 415, Theodosius II built a second version as a grand marble structure, which was razed to the ground for the second time during the Nicaea Revolt in 532. Some fragments of that building still remain today.
3. In 537, Emperor Justinian I built the building that does remain today. It was the emperor’s desire was to build the largest church of his time and, according to oral traditions, after its completion, he exclaimed: “Solomon, I have surpassed you!” (Referring to first temple built by King Solomon.) Hagia Sophia was a Greek Orthodox cathedral for 667 years.
4. In 1204, during the Fourth Crusades, they converted the Greek Orthodox cathedral into a Roman Catholic Church. It remained the world’s largest Catholic Church for 57 years (1204-1261), until the Byzantine emperor converted it back to Greek Orthodox cathedral.
5. In 1453, after the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II conquered Istanbul and purchased Hagia Sophia, the church was then fortified and turned into a Masjid. The sultan kept the name Hagia Sophia, while he had the church repurposed as a Masjid, after covering mosaics along its wall with plaster. He also added Islamic features, such as minarets and a Mihrab – a niche in the wall, where the Muslim Imam would lead prayer in the direction of Makkah. It remained the principal Masjid in Istanbul till 1616, when construction on the Sultan Ahmet Masjid, also known as the Blue Masjid, was finally completed.
6. In 1931, the founder of the Byzantine institute of America Thomas Whittemore, travelled to Istanbul and obtained the permission of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to oversee the removal of plaster covering the Byzantine mosaic in Hagia Sophia and turn it from a Masjid into a museum.
7. On Friday, July 24, 2020, Alhumdulillah, 2,000 Muslims prayed at this monument for the first time after 86 years. Earlier on July 10, a top Turkish court officially cancelled Hagia Sophia’s status as a museum, and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan ordered the building to reopen for Muslim worship.

The majestic domed structure was named one of UNESCO’s world heritage sites and it has been Turkey’s most popular tourist attraction ever since.

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