The Islamic and Arab nation was overwhelmed with joy and eagerness when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a historic speech he delivered to the Turkish nation on July 10, 2020, announced the annulment of the Turkish judiciary’s decision of the Council of Ministers issued in 1934, which decided to convert Hagia Sophia in Istanbul from a mosque to Museum, and his signature of a presidential decree to return Hagia Sophia “again to a mosque” and cancel the imposed entry fees, after lifting the museum’s status on it.
Despite the drop in the number of tourists globally due to the precautions imposed to combat the Corona pandemic, the demand for visiting the Great Hagia Sophia Mosque did not stop. Where visitors came from all sides, intending to visit the Hagia Sophia in its new form.
More than 3 million people have visited the Grand Hagia Sophia in Istanbul since it reopened last year.
The Grand Mufti of Istanbul, Mustafa Yavuz, announced that the number of visits to the Hagia Sophia Mosque in one year had exceeded 3 million people, after its reopening on July 24 last year.
Yavuz stated that a large part of the visitors are not local, but large numbers flocked from outside Turkey to celebrate the reopening of the mosque, and some of them came specifically to witness the event.
And the Grand Mufti of Istanbul added: “It is expected that the number of people coming (to visit the Hagia Sophia) will double with the end of the negative conditions accompanying the Corona epidemic.”
If you have not visited the Hagia Sophia yet, you can take a virtual tour through the website of the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs.
It is mentioned that Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom in Greek) is a unique religious monument that bears witness to the history of successive civilizations and great events.
The history of this edifice extends back to about 1500 years ago, when the Byzantine Emperor Justinian built the huge church in 537 AD. For nearly 9 centuries, Hagia Sophia has enjoyed a great centrality in the Christian world, as it was recognized as the “official church” of the Eastern Christian state.
In 1453 Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, and he ordered the building of Hagia Sophia to be converted into a mosque so that the call to prayer would be raised through 4 minarets that were added to it. The Ottomans did not remove any of the Christian icons and monuments, but rather hid them to preserve them.
Eleven years after the establishment of the Turkish Republic, specifically in 1934, the Turkish Cabinet decided at the time to convert Hagia Sophia from a mosque into a museum. A decision that the Turkish judiciary canceled after 86 years.
