Holy Wisdom: The case for sharing the Hagia Sophia between Christians and Muslims, and why this ancient dispute presents an opportunity for greater peace and understanding

No symbol in the recurring sectarian religious-political conflicts in the Middle East or the Balkans has proved more galvanizing or divisive than Hagia Sophia. The sixth century Eastern Roman cathedral church built on the order of Emperor Justinian (r. 527-565) and hallowed site of the coronation of Orthodox emperors and patriarchs of Roman Constantinople for almost a millennium (537-1453) was converted in May 1453 to an imperial mosque as the personal property of the conquering Sultan Mehmet II Fetih, who endowed it as a waqf (charitable foundation) to serve in perpetuity as a mosque. After serving as a museum for the last eighty-six years---during which time public worship was only occasionally permitted there---the building has as of Friday, July 10th been formally re-designated by the Turkish government as a mosque. This much-anticipated development comes after many years of Turkish President Erdogan considering the move, which Turkish authorities have based on the State Council (Turkish supreme judicial authority) ruling on July 2nd that the unilateral 1934 cabinet decision by then-president-dictator Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to turn the then-mosque into a secular museum was illegal. <a href="https://medium.com/@ryanhunter_23073/holy-wisdom-the-case-for-sharing-the-hagia-sophia-between-christians-and-muslims-and-why-this-93b8fd04be65">Learn More</a>