Take a good look at it. It won't be like that pretty soon.
Drop the may. Moslems are involved. It will be converted or die.
In a lot of the Christian churches, shrines, and so on that were converted by the Seljuks and the Ottomans, they took great pains to deface (literally) the icons and frescoes.
When you go in and look at many of them, you’d see this happening up to the level that the Seljuk/Ottoman soldiers could reach with their spears.
I saw that all over the place, but it was particularly noticeable in the cave churches in Cappadocia.
Non-western countries who possess land they conquered -stole - such as Russia, China, Turkey - not a peep.
I don't know what Greece could do at this point, but I sure as heck would be raising hell every day in the UN about Turkey's occupation of Constantinople.
Roundels in Hagia Sophia, Istanbul The roundels, painted on wood in Arabic calligraphy, were added during the restoration in mid 19th Century. The eight medallions bear the names of Allah, Muhammad, the first four Caliphs, and two grandsons of Mohammed.
Religious Tolerance in the Middle East is a complete fallacy.
Well ...
First thing it needs is for those blasphemous scribbles to come down ...
This is one of the world’s greatest churches-a real masterpiece of architecture. What a shame to even suggest anyone commandeer it. Guess that changes our plans for visiting Instanbul.
Will Obama go to worship?
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It’s not like they are lacking for a Mosque. The Blue Mosque is less than half a mile to the right of Hagia Sofia, and is just as big.
Converting Hagia Sofia into a Mosque would be like having two McDonalds on opposite corners of the same intersection.
They should dynamite it to the ground.
I have left off posting on this site, at least to any extent, as I found that it is not good for my theosis. But this articles and others posted here have forced my hand.
You people use this news from Constantinople as some sort of political lesson. My family lived the Fall of the City on May 28, 1453! My bedtime stories were about the death of my relative on the Walls at the side of the God Ordained Emperor Constantine XI Paleologos and the rape of my female relatives in Agia Sophia at the hands of the Ottomans when they burst in during the final Divine Liturgy. The priests gathered up the Gifts and disappeared into the wall of the Apse, to return when the Great Church is returned to the Orthodox Worship. The women and children were hauled off inti slavery. One of my very best friend is the descendant of the Emperor, our families reuntited after 560 years!
And this Western site uses our Great Church for its cheap politics. Shame, Xalia!
I favor restoring the Sultan, as the Caliph, and his empire, as soon as possible. As I favor the restoration of the Hashemites over Mecca and Medina.
The only people who have successfully kept the Arabs in line, and with the balls to fight the Persians, are the Turks.
And, a Caliph in Istanbul would have a name and an address, in case SSB(N)s were needed.
We saw it back in 1988. Back then, it was being used as a mosque. The crosses, although covered up by paint, were still showing through. We got a chuckle over that. The large circles with the names of Allah were not there then. I guess they needed to cover the crosses more permanently.
It needs to be restored, not as a mosque but as a Christian Church. It was built as a church, and it was defaced by Muslim invaders. Some of the world’s most beautiful mosaics were desecrated and destroyed by these Muslim invaders as the Church was converted into a mosque.
The Blue Mosque was subsequently built right next to Hagia Sophia. In order to make evident its dominance over Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque was built with 6 minarets, not the usual four. Istanabul is full of mosques, many of them hundreds of years old and of beautiful architecture. There is no need to desecrate the Hagia Sophia once again.
As a side note, Hagia Sophia means Holy Wisdom. While it later became an Orthodox Cathedral, it was built in 537, hundreds of years before the Great Schism which split the Catholic Church into Roman (Latin) and Orthodox. Let us hope the day is not far off when the Latin and Orthodox Churches unite once again.
I pray this will not happen.