How Turkey's Hagia Sophia, once a cathedral, became Waqf property by Priyanjali Narayan

India Today : Thievery and coveting the property of the Infidels, has never left their DNA. The Hagia Sophia is at the centre of Turkey's Byzantine, Ottoman and secular history. How did the sixth-century cathedral become a Waqf property, get converted to a museum, and again a mosque? Tracing the history of the Hagia Sophia amid the Waqf Bill debate in India.

This is "the tent of the heavens, which man, indeed, has set up, although God has surely taken part in the work," wrote Michael of Thessalonica, a 12th-century scribe, describing the Hagia Sophia, which was then a cathedral, in what is now Turkey. This masterpiece of volume, scale and architecture would see a trajectory like few other places of worship. From a cathedral to a mosque to a museum, and then back to being a mosque again. The Hagia Sophia’s 1,500-year history is steeped in events, myths, and symbols that resonate across the East and West. 

It was built in the sixth century by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I as the Roman Empire’s premier cathedral and was dedicated to "Holy Wisdom". For nearly a millennium, the magnificent structure of the Byzantine Empire stood as the world's largest church. 

When Constantinople (now Istanbul) fell to the Ottomans in 1453, Mehmed II the Conqueror converted the Hagia Sophia into the Great Mosque of Ayasofya. Over time, Byzantine mosaics with Biblical references were covered or destroyed, and four towering minarets rose around its dome.

It remained a mosque until 1934, when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, turned the Hagia Sophia into a museum. Hidden mosaics and marble decorations were uncovered in what was seen as an effort to liberate both the monument and the nation from the contested legacy of conquests.

However, in July 2020, Turkey's Council of State, the country's highest court, annulled the 1934 decree that had turned Hagia Sophia into a museum. It based its decision on the premise that it was a Waqf property and could only be changed on the grounds of "becoming useless or contravening law or public policy", writes The Harvard Law Review.

The Directorate General of Foundations overtook the Hagia Sophia as property of the Fatih Sultan Mehmed Foundation. "Wakf-alal-aulad is an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law, typically denoting a building or plot of land for Muslim religious or charitable purposes," reads the website of the Directorate General of Foundations.

"Waqf, an inalienable religious endowment in Islam, is often translated into English with "Foundation", it added.

Shortly after, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a decree converting the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque and it being administered as a Waqf property. This led to the first official Muslim prayers in the Hagia Sophia in nearly 86 years on July 24, 2020.

The Hagia Sophia's centuries-long trajectory, ultimately being declared a mosque, is an interesting case study even as India debated and passed a law for better and transparent administration of Waqf properties.

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