"Liturgy and Music at Hagia Sophia," Oxford Research Encyclopaedia, online, April 2016 (original) (raw)
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VFAST Transactions on Islamic Research, 2021
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. INTRODUCTION The early name of Hagia Sophia was Mega Ekklesia, which means (the Great Church). It was called Sancta Sofya in Latin and Ayasofya in Turkish. For the time, the word "Sophia" was used as to reference Jesus as a part of God's wisdom. Later, this building was known as the Hagia Sophia (holy wisdom or the Lord's wisdom). In honour of his mother, Hagia Sophia's early basilican form was constructed by Constantine I as an example of Rome's first Christian church. As the time pass it has been undergone many restorations, constructions, and distortions due to seismic and other structural problems. As the World's most remarkable building of any time, it has been claimed by East and West as a capital of their supremacy. Hagia Sophia acted as a Political, Cultural, and Religious symbolic bridge for various empires. From the point of view of Hagia Sophia's Architecture, its Structure, History, Myth, Decoration has left an impact on the world Architecture. Yet, the building has an excellent attraction for the world tourists, and it's monumentally simple alive since 537 C.E. In 1453 A.D. when Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II (The Conqueror) conquered Constantinople then this holy church, Hagia Sophia, was ordered to convert into a Mosque in the memory of the victory. Many additions have been made in its structure-internal and external-by the then great architect, Mimar Sinan. Later, in 1934, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk converted it into a museum and declared Turkey as a secular state. In 2020, after passing a long time of 86 years, Turkish Supreme Court has passed an order for the conversion of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia from museum into Mosque. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: CONSTANTINOPLE AS NEW ROME It was the time when Rome had suffered from the new faith. The first emperor Constantine converted himself into Christianity on his mother's advice .Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule over both East and West, died in 395 AD after making Christianity the official religion of the empire for the purpose of firming the power under one religion 1. In 324, Emperor Constantine, the great, moved to the new city Byzantion as his capital, and it was named Constantinople away from Rome. Constantinople was known as the new Rome and became the new capital of the Christian world 2. Byzantium was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name Byzantion and its Latinisation Byzantium continued to be used as a name of Constantinople sporadically and to varying degrees during the thousand year existence of the Byzantine Empire 3. Byzantium was colonized by the Greeks from Megara in 657 BC, and remained primarily Greek-speaking until its conquest by the Ottoman Empire in AD 1453 4 .
SANCTIFIED LEGENDS OF HAGIA SOPHIA
People of all languages, religions, and backgrounds can pray together in a tolerant environment. This is not a myth, it is reality in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in a unique work of art, leaning back on the deep blue sea and monumental architecture. It is by far, the world's most beautiful and precious jewel, a sacred temple gifted to all humanity from the Byzantine Emperor Justinian: the Hagia Sophia. The story of this magnificent monument located in the old city center of Istanbul is just as interesting as its appearance. The Hagia Sophia was rebuilt after the Nika uprising, in a construction period of a mere four years and ten months. Due to the fact that plenty of columns and materials were still avaible from before parts were demolished, the building could be reconstructed swiftly. However, legend has it these building materials were not brought in from just any building, but from the Temple of Solomon, a common tale to be told among the Byzantine people. Unfortunately we cannot claim this to be true, however, we do know that the new and glorious church became reality in 537.
Justinian's Hagia Sophia, angels and restlessness
Radical Marble, 2018
I cannot help but recognize, in the first awestruck commentators on the Megale Ekklesia, the great sixth-century church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, kindred spirits of a deep and special sort. I refer, of course, to Procopius, historian of Justinian, who wrote a long description of Hagia Sophia in his book on the emperor's buildings, and Paul the Silentiary, a court official and poet, who penned a comparably lengthy account, the Description of Hagia Sophia. 1 It is not just the excitement that they convey in putting into words the miracle that is this building. It is their sense of the experience and what attracts their attention that is striking, prominent being the marbles and other colored stones that transform the surfaces of the church into a glistening array (Figure 2.1).
Entry for the Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, Facts on File, Eds. Gabor Agoston and Bruce Masters, 2009