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5/27/2002 This mosaic of the Virgin Mary (Panagia) and Jesus is the most characterictic mosaic of Hagia Sofia
7/15/2004 st hagia sophia is a christian church and it will remain forever.
it is a slap on face on muslims. and if they pray inside church they are praying and worshiping jesus christ.
7/24/2004 I'm using this site to solve a computer game puzzle...
10/12/2004 are muslims using it as a mosque?
 10/27/2004 Not that I saw. I think with the images exposed, it's no longer suitable as a mosque. That's the case for Kariye Museum and that may be the case for other locations originally built for Christians. But other tourist destinations like Sultan Ahmet and Suleymaniye are still used for prayer quite a bit.
8/2/2005 I think the word hagia= church; and the word sophia= woman+wisdom+archytipe. therefore, it has nothing to do with either the christian or muslim religions.
8/27/2005 1- Hagia Sophia is not a mosque anymore. yet it's not a church too. it's converted to a museum to serve people of the world.
2- Converting a church to a mosque is not a common way in Ottoman history. Hagia Sophia is an exception. Probably, ottomans didn't want to keep it as chucrh because it was a symbol for the city. Therefore they didn't keep it as a church. And they have built Suleymaniye Mosque as a response which is magnificient.
3- Before condemning ottomans for converting it to a mosque, consider the ottoman monuments which were destroyed like vandals all over the balcans. Today there is no mosque, medrese, (old turkish university) in Athens where stayed under the ottoman rules more than 350 years. Mostar bridge is the nearest sample for this kind of Vandalism. Please do a google search for Mostar Bridge...
10/12/2005 Hagia Sophia refers to the Holy Wisdom of the Logos, God incarnate Jesus Christ. the Church was dedicated to Jesus Christ.
10/13/2005 Actually the Ottomans desecrated many of the Churches in Constantinople for use as Mosque.
3/7/2006 During the period it was used as a mosque the mosaics in Hagia Sofia were plastered over, as opposed to being removed. Since its transformation into a museum, most of the mosaics have been restored. Islamic civilization, and the Ottoman Empire in particular, has proven itself on many occasions throughout history to be the most tolerant religious dogma.
The missing pieces/ wear&tear are actually mostly from the time of the 4th Crusade, when the 'Latin' Christians desecrated and vandalized anything and everything that was of value in Istanbul on a bastardly hostile takeover.
4/10/2006 FRIENDSHIP OF THE RELIGIONS. VIRGIN MARY AND THE NAME OF ALLAH. DOES NOT IT LOOK GREAT. THAT'S WHAT I LOVE IN TURKEY.
9/20/2006 I do agree with the comment dated "4/10/2006" In fact personally,it very respectful of the Ottoman's to not remove the mosaics.Afterall, they came with the pure intention to pray.*peace*
10/5/2006 The old ways of the world were to conquer each other, rape steal and murder when they did it. This has also been done by the Christians such as Spanish, Italian, Greek...do you want me to go on....stop picking on the Turks of today, they are very hospitable and tolerant....a credit to their religion. Look around the world today and see who is still doing it. I am a Dutch/Aussie
10/14/2006 Actually it is a slap in the face for Christians and NOT Muslims because it was changed from a Church to a Mosque and not the other way around :) Muslims pray to God not to any Prophet (not even Mohammad PBUH) Muslims respect, honor and believe in all Prophets including Jesus Christ. So please stop acting prejudice and judgmental towards Islam and Muslims. Respect our religion because Islam respects Christiantiy :)
*Yaz
10/17/2006 Yea, Islam respects Christianity huh? Any religion that supports violence as a way of spreading is not a religion. Its a cult. All the turks have done is bring destruction to wherever they have been.
As for the other Idiot that said that it wasnt common for Turks to convert churches to mosques, thats because they just burned and destroyed the churches instead. Also, who cares about what the turks built in Greece during the 400 (not 350 dumbass) years of slavery? They didnt build anything of significance anyway.
10/18/2006 ^^I apologize for the comment I made above. I have done further research and found that Islam is a very peacefull religion. It is fanatics who distort the religion to fit their cause who give a bad image to Islam. I guess it goes the same for any religion. We must start to respect eachothers religion and only then can we ever actually come find peace. The poster above is correct. I was judgmental towards Islam and I was wrong. Thank you.
10/18/2006 I think some people look the history unfairly. and they saw what they want to. Time you are talking is 500 years ago's. You can not judge them with today's mind. We must evaluate history with their time perpectives. I want to use the same words with the one above '' The old ways of the world were to conquer each other, rape, steal and murder ''
11/26/2006 it was once a church but since the lost of the ottomons it was converted to a mosque which the minerats were added by the artecttect sinan. Now it is a museum.
11/26/2006 and stop with the talk of the Fight over christians and islamic. this is NOT about that!!! this is art people! this is Architecture!
1/12/2007 Islam is a peaceful religion? Read the koran,hadith and the history of the spread of islam then explain to me how it ia a religion of peace. By the way, they do not worship YHWH of the Bible, they worship allah, an eastern demon, most likely the prince of persia mentioned in the Tanakh.
3/22/2007 Seeing this Holy Icon, the only thing i can do is cry. Cry for the Fall of Constantinople, Cry for the Fall of Agia Sophia. Greeks have built a Church, honouring the Holy Wisdom of God. The current rulers of the city prefer to hold exibitions of toilets in it. The thoughts are yours.
4/24/2007 some people comments really hurt me because noone can say this words to any religion you must be like us because we are not making this kind of comments.We are not talking about anyones religion and ı want to add this hagia sophia is not a mousqe now it's a museum.I hope that noone write this kind of comments because this is so racist behaviour.
4/25/2007 everyone can pray in mosque or in church and another religious pleace.praying in the church is not mean that all praies will go to Jesus,that pleace is holy pleace and everyone prays go theirs religous belief.And ı WANT TO ADD THİS TOO I AM A MUSLİM BUT WHEN I WISIT ONE CHURCH I ALWAYS PRAYS IN THERE.IT İS NOT ABOUT PREYSİNG TO JESUS I JUST PRAYSİNG TO GOD.
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