Is the Conversion of Hagia Sophia Into a Mosque an Islamic Act?

Heritage and Society, 2019

The debates over contemporary restoration practices in Turkey have become heated in recent years especially after the reopening of the Hagia Sophias in İznik and Trabzon as mosques. Iconic Byzantine churches that functioned as mosques in the Ottoman period, these monuments had been functioning as museums for decades following the museumification of Istanbul’s famous Hagia Sophia. Meanwhile, Hagia Sophia in Vize has already been reopened as a mosque without receiving much attention. The repeated statements of Turkish authorities expressing their wish to see Istanbul’s famous Hagia Sophia function as a mosque raise further concerns. While Turkish authorities try to justify these transformations through the ownership rights of pious endowments and religious freedom, the multi-layered identity of these monuments and their symbolic associations for different groups are commonly ignored. This paper focuses on the recent transformations of four Hagia Sophias in Turkey, which are regarded as ideological battlegrounds by Turkish authorities. Challenging the most symbolic achievements of the secular Republic, the concept of “restoration” is not only used as an instrument to glorify the Ottoman pasts of these monuments but also suppress their Byzantine and Republican pasts. This paper aims to open up a debate on how to intervene in the past, as well as its limits and effects, through the recent histories of four Hagia Sophias.

International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2019

With culture-led urban regeneration becoming a leading policy for the transformation of historic cities, museums and heritage sites have become a key aspect of this transformation. Given the increasing demands of cultural tourism, the museum concept is expanded to incorporate the rest of the city and historic cities are presented as staged artefacts directed towards tourists, in a process known as musealisation. After the launch of the Istanbul Museum-City Project in 2004, musealisation was adopted as a common strategy for the regeneration of Istanbul's historic peninsula. Within the scope of the project, the Sultanahmet district would be converted into a museum-quarter. However, recent transformations reveal an underlying motive of glorifying the district's Ottoman past, in accordance with neo-Ottoman urban policies. This paper discusses the effects of musealisation on the transformation of the Sultanahmet district, by evaluating the policies and their implementation by concentrating on Topkapı Palace Complex, Hagia Sophia, the Great Palace Complex and Hagia Euphemia Martyrion. While the notion of built heritage always involves selection, the musealisation adopted for the Sultanahmet district is rather politically motivated, adding another level of selection through the signification of the Ottoman heritage and intentional neglect of the late-Roman and Byzantine heritage. ARTICLE HISTORY

Avni Lifij’s series of articles on ‘Contemporary Painting and Its Theories’ published the year he died actually heralded the birth of a new era in Turkish art of painting, that of modern painting. The ‘1914 Generation’ of artists who studied abroad during the Young Turk era had contributed to Turkish painting immensely with their impressionist style. Now it was the turn of the 1924 Generation as the Turkish Republic sent some young painters to Paris and others to Munich. They would return to Istanbul after studying painting in those cities for four years. These artists who came into contact with post-War European painting came together as the Independent Artists and Sculptors Union and confronted the realist and impressionist styles then dominant in Turkey. They stressed design, mass and composition rather than light and colour. Turkish painting was about to enter a new era, the era of ‘modern painting’ Avni Lifij heralded.

Centre of Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Islamic Studies, 2020

The decision of the Turkish Constitutional Court to revoke the almost 85-year-old museum status of Hagia Sophia and allow its conversion to a mosque did not come as a bolt out of the blue. Instead, it is the by-product of a decades – old battle concerning the republic’s oppressed Islamic soul and the orientations of her foreign policy vis-à-vis the Arab and the Muslim world.

Cyprus is located in the middle of Mediterranean Sea and due to its geostrategic position; it had been invaded several times and became the centre of cultures and religions. During the invasions, the invaders of the island left their architectural and cultural legacies.

Orthodoxy in Dialogue, 2020

It can not be seen any other diverted building that conserves the original name. The importance of Hagia Sophia (Turkish; Ayasofya) was political and religious during the Ottoman Empire era. It was conserved and used willingly for many years by Ottoman Turks. Sultan Mohammed the conqueror designed a booklet (Waqfie) which has got the richest incomes for the management of the building. According to these original financial documents, incomes will be used not only for the maintenance of the old building which needs consolidation and restoration but also afford for the new constructions to support.