In News & Reports

By MEMRI

In May 2019, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said: “A short time ago they converted the Hagia Sophia from a mosque to a museum. Inshallah, after the election, we will convert it namely from a museum back into a mosque.” On March 23, 2020, a video titled “Hagia Sophia Mosque Sound Allah Call to Prayer 23/03/2020” was uploaded to YouTube. The video, which has the logo of the İhlas News Agency, shows two men inside the Hagia Sophia reciting the Islamic call to prayer as well as verses from the Quran.

Click here or below to view a clip of the recitation on MEMRI TV.

 

SD8698a.JPG

History Of The Hagia Sophia

The Hagia Sophia was built in 537 as a church, was converted into a mosque in 1453 after the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul, and was converted into a museum in 1935. While the Islamic call to prayer has been recited in the building since as early as 1980, in recent years there has been more discussion about converting the building back into a mosque.

On March 31, 2018, President Erdogan gave a speech in the Hagia Sophia in which he called on the audience to recite the first chapter of the Quran, Surah Al-Fatiha, as a prayer for the “souls of all who left us this work as inheritance, especially Istanbul’s conqueror, Fatih Sultan Mehmet.” Quran verses were recited in the space before the speech.

SD8698.jpg
Erdoğan speaking in the Hagia Sophia in 2018 (source: Timeturk.com).

In October 2016, Turkey’s Ministry of Religious Affairs appointed an imam to the Hagia Sophia and Friday prayers were performed in the Hünra Kasrı section of the building. From then on five prayers per day have been held there. Noon and afternoon prayers had been performed there since 1991.

Read The Full Report

_____________________
https://www.memri.org/reports/following-erdo%C4%9Fans-promise-convert-hagia-sophia-back-mosque-quran-verses-call-prayer-recited

Recommended Posts

Leave a Comment