The history of Hagia Sophia spans nearly 1,500 years

Hagia Sophia which started as a Greek Orthodox Church

Then it was transformed into a Roman Catholic church

Hence, she returned to her orthodox origin

To turn after the Islamic conquest into a mosque

Then it becomes a museum by the decision of the Government of the Republic of Turkey

Then to return again today as a mosque for Muslims in 2020

Hagia Sophia was named by this name in relation to a Coptic saint from Egypt, and the meaning of her name in Greek is “divine wisdom.” This woman used to worship idols, Then she was influenced by Christianity and embraced it, and she deepened in worship and its rituals until it affected the Christians around her, so her religious fame spread until it reached the ears of the pagan Roman ruler Euclidius, who ordered: to beat and kill her, and thus Hagia Sophia became a martyr of the Christian faith.

Her body was transported to Constantinople, where it was buried, and a huge church was built around it in the year 360 AD (Ismail, 2010). However, this first building of the church was destroyed by an earthquake or by a rebellion against the ruler of Byzantium at the time, according to some sources, Emperor Theodosius II rebuilt it and opened it for worship in the year 415 AD. Then it was destroyed again due to one of the revolutions in 532 AD, emperor Justinian I rebuilt it for the third time, and its construction lasted five years until it was completed, and it was opened again in the year 537 AD, this time, Hagia Sophia was built in the form we know today.

The Institute of Architecture History and Theories of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich held an exhibition explaining the engineering basis for building the Turkish Hagia Sophia Museum, after years of research and analysis of hundreds of documents related to its construction.

The exhibition was funded by private companies operating in the field of building and construction, within the framework of private sector support for some applied university activities.

In cooperation with the management of the Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul, the architectural department of the Berlin Museum, and Italian and Turkish experts, in a work that brought them together to understand the secret of building and designing Hagia Sophia.

The construction of this great architectural edifice was based on a very simplified form that puts the "square" geometry at its core, superimposed on another square but with a different angle of inclination, so that the designer can draw a circle whose circumference passes through the heads of the two squares, which reach eight, and it is originally the circle on which the large main dome was designed.

Swiss architects believe that the choice of the two perpendicular squares was most likely to obtain the celestial constellations circle, with its center at the North Pole of the Earth, then the original drawing descended with four columns bearing the ends of the dome from the circle on which it rests, in reference to the four original directions.

Connecting the lines that connect the heads of the corners of the dome and the hall that covers it and the rooms around it gives a drawing that is completely identical to the mathematical “infinity” sign, which the ancient astronomers knew about the movement of the rotation of some stars and planets. The international scientific research team does not believe that this sign was by chance. Rather, they go to the fact that there is a spiritual dimension and perhaps a mystic behind this design.

Even the ramified halls of it, as the rooms and halls adjacent to the main foyer were designed to all rotate in the infinity mark, representing the meeting point of its path in the void center of the central dome, according to the probability equations, these designs could not have come by luck.

They used the graphics they achieved and completing what was missing from it with logic calculations and by computer, of course, the result was that the shape that the researchers reached is completely identical to the structure of the original building in Istanbul, this means that the stages in which the Hagia Sophia was designed and built went through the same steps that the research team expected, that is, first the design on paper from the square, then starting from its center to the dome, and the rest of the parts.

The interdependence of sciences and knowledge in that period, as astronomy was associated with spirituality and had an impact on mathematics, putting everyone in a philosophical template that was embodied in this building, this reflects the impact of knowledge and science on decision makers in that era.

1 - That this building was designed and built in a logical and sober way, conveying the infinite movement of the universe to revolve in the vastness of that place and all of it centered around one point only, even if it branched out and had multiple angles and directions.

2 - The exhibition confirms that no similar building has been identified today that was designed in this precise architectural and engineering form, and followed this philosophical, religious and spiritual logic in the stages of its construction.

Second: The stages of transforming the building from a church to a museum to a mosque  

The building was built as a Christian cathedral, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Justinian I, and at that time it was the largest building in the world, and the first to use a fully suspended dome. The building was considered the jewel of Byzantine architecture, and it was said that it "changed the history of architecture". A number of writers described him as "occupying a prominent place in Christendom", and that he is "greater than all Christian churches". Historians point out that the Hagia Sophia was considered a cultural and architectural symbol and an icon of the Byzantine civilization and the Orthodox Christian civilization.

It was built as a central church for Constantinople, and it was ordered to be built by the Roman Emperor Justinian I, and its construction took about five years, as it was officially opened in 537 AD, Justinian did not want to build a church in the usual style of his time, but he was always inclined to innovate everything new. He commissioned the architects “Isidore of Mallaty” (Greek: Ισίδωρος ο Μιλήσιος) and “Antimius of Thracian” (Greek: Ἀνθέμιος ὁ Τραλλιανός) building this monumental religious edifice, both from Asia Minor, This is clear evidence of the extent to which scholars of construction progressed in Asia Minor during the reign of Justinian, so that there was no longer any reason to call in architects from Rome to erect Byzantine buildings, the current Justinian building was the third church of the same name on the same site, as the previous church was destroyed in the Nicaean riots, the cathedral was the episcopal seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, and remained the largest Christian cathedral in the world for nearly a millennium until the construction of Seville Cathedral in 1520.

During the Fourth Crusade, the Franks transformed the Orthodox cathedral into a Catholic cathedral belonging to the Latin Empire.

It returned to an Eastern Orthodox cathedral when the Byzantine Empire recovered its lands from the Crusaders.

It is one of the titles of the second person in the Trinity, and the memory of intercession is dedicated on December 25 (Christmas), which is the memory of the incarnation of the second person, Jesus Christ, according to Christian belief. the word "Sofia" It is the Latin phonetic spelling of the Greek word "wisdom" and although it is sometimes referred to (in Latin: Sancta Sophia) or "Saint Sophia", However, it is not associated with Saint Sophia the Martyr. The full name (Greek: Ναός της Αγίας του Θεού Σοφίας) means "the shrine of God's holy wisdom, the church contained a large collection of artifacts and icons. The church witnessed the official excommunication of Patriarch Michael I Cerularius by Humbert of Silva Candida, Papal legate of Pope Leo IX in 1054, a movement that is considered the beginning of the schism between Christian East and West. The Duke of Venice who led the crusade is buried, The Fourth and the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, Enrico Dandolo, in the same cathedral.

The second church was reconstructed by Emperor Theodosios II This basilical structure is known to contain five naves and a monumental entrance; it is also covered by a wooden roof.

The church was demolished, after the public riot (Nika revolts) that took place during the fifth year of Emperor Justinianos’ reign (527-565) when the ‘blues’ who represented the aristocrats, and the ‘greens’ who represented the tradesman and merchants in the society, collaborated against the Empire.

The Hagia Sophia and Byzantine city of Constantinople sacked and looted by the Venetians and the Crusaders on the Fourth Crusade which regarded as shocking betrayal amongst Christians. The crusader nobleman Baldwin of Flanders was crowned as emperor in Hagia Sophia, but most Byzantines refused to recognize him, and the empire fragmented into four small independent states.

The building turned into a mosque ( In 1453 AD)

The Ottomans attacking the city, led by Muhammad al-Fatih, were brave, and the Byzantines, led by Constantine, held out heroically in defense, And the Byzantine Emperor tried to save his city and his people with every trick he could, he made various offers to the Sultan to tempt him to withdraw in return for money, or obedience, or other offers that he made, but Al-Fateh (may God have mercy on him) responded in return, asking for the city to be handed over, and that in this case, none of its people or churches will be harmed

He wrote to the Emperor a letter calling on him to surrender the city without shedding blood, He offered him security for his departure, his family, his aides, and everyone who wishes from the city’s residents to go wherever they wanted in safety, and that the blood of the people in the city be spared, and that they would not be exposed to any harm, and they have the choice to stay in the city, or leave it, and when the message reached the emperor, he gathered the advisors, and presented the matter to them, so some of them tended to surrender, others insisted on continuing to defend the city until death, so the emperor tended to the opinion of those who said fighting until the last moment.

He said in it: “He thanks God when the Sultan deviated to peace, and he is pleased to pay him the tribute. As for Constantinople, he swore: He will defend it to the last breath of his life, so either he will preserve his throne, or he will be buried under its walls.”

“Well, soon I will have a throne in Constantinople, or I will have a tomb there, after the Sultan Al-Fatih returned to his tent, and invited the senior men of his army to him, he issued the final instructions to them, then delivered the following sermon to them:

(( The text of the sermon))

“If the conquest of Constantinople is complete for us, a hadith from the Messenger of God will be fulfilled in us, It is a miracle of his miracles, and it will be our good fortune that this hadeeth praises it of glorification and appreciation, so inform our soldiers, one by one: that the great victory that we will achieve will increase Islam in value, and an honor, and every soldier must keep the teachings of our precious Sharia before his eyes, and let none of them say something that contradicts these teachings, and let them avoid churches and temples, they shall not harm it, and leave the priests, and the weak, and the infirm, who shall not fight...»

In it he called men, women, and children to supplicate, supplicate, and weep in the churches in the manner of the Christians, hoping that they would be answered, so that the city would be saved from this siege.

It was his last sermon; Where he assured them to defend the city even if he died, and to be desperate to protect Christianity in front of the Ottoman Muslims, and it was a wonderful sermon, as historians say, that made everyone present cry, the emperor and the Christians with him prayed the last prayer in the church of Hagia Sophia, the holiest of churches for them, then the emperor went to his palace to visit him for the last visit, so he bid farewell to everyone in it, and examined them, and it was an impressive scene.

Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh (may God have mercy on him) baptized after despairing of handing over the city by peace

Al-Fateh was forced to intensify the attack, to target the walls and castles, and he took the moral and material means of victory, at one o'clock in the morning, the general attack on the city began, after I issued orders to the Mujahideen, who raised their voices to say "Allahu Akbar" and set off towards the walls, and the Byzantines feared with great fear, It was prepared tightly, and the Mujahideen were advancing with all courage, sacrifice, and audacity towards the enemies, desiring victory and martyrdom, and many of them obtained martyrdom, and in the end, the Ottoman armies were able to enter the city.

Muhammad Al-Fateh went to the church of Hagia Sophia, and a great number of people gathered there, with them were priests and monks who were reciting their prayers and supplications to them, and when he approached its doors, the Christians inside were afraid, and one of the monks opened the doors for him, so he asked the monk to calm the people down, and reassured them, and to return to their homes safely, so reassured the people.

And to prepare for this matter so that the next Friday is held in it, and the workers began to prepare for this matter, so they removed the crosses and statues, and obliterated the images with a layer of lime, and they worked as a platform for the preacher, and it may be permissible to convert the church into a mosque, because the country was conquered by force, and force has its rule in Islamic law, The Sultan dealt with the Christians as follows:

1- The freedom to perform religious rites

2- Choosing their religious leaders, who have the right to judge civil cases

3 - The right was given to the churchmen in other provinces

4- Imposing tribute on everyone

Sheikh Aq Shams al-Din was the first to deliver the Friday sermon at the Hagia Sophia Mosque and the call to prayer was raised for the first time in the presence of the Sultan.

And it was the custom of the Ottoman Turks, when they conquered a city or a castle, they erected the Ottoman flags on its walls and towers, and then they raised the call to prayer there, they are converting its largest churches into a mosque as a sign of conquest and an address for it, and since then Hagia Sophia has become a mosque for Muslims after it was a church for hundreds of years, It maintained its status as a mosque throughout the period of Ottoman rule, and this period was punctuated by some urban modifications only after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the Turkish Republic

In the context of the secularization and Westernization of the state, the Hagia Sophia Mosque was closed until Ataturk's government decided to turn it into a museum in 1934.

And on the tenth of July 2020 AD

A Turkish court overturned the decision to place the Hagia Sophia as a museum and declared it legally illegal. This decision was followed by a decree from the President of the Turkish Republic, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to reclassify the Hagia Sophia as a mosque and open it for worship.