Online
\nISTANBUL
\nSeveral thousand Muslims \u2013 along with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan \u2013 gathered on Friday to take part in the first prayer at Hagia Sophia since the Istanbul landmark was reconverted to a mosque.
\nDespite the coronavirus pandemic, tight crowds formed on Friday morning around the mosque for the prayer around 1000 GMT. Several people had spent the night in the area.
\nThe UNESCO World Heritage site in historic Istanbul was first built as a cathedral in the Christian Byzantine Empire but was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.
\nThe Council of State, the highest administrative court, on July 10 unanimously cancelled a 1934 decision by modern Turkey\u2019s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to turn it into a museum, saying it was registered as a mosque in its property deeds. Erdogan then ordered the building to reopen for Muslim worship.
\nThere were Koranic recitations in the morning in Hagia Sophia before and during the Friday prayer which Erdogan, Turkish officials and foreign dignitaries attended.
\nUp to 1,000 people prayed inside the building and many outside. Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya said the spaces around Hagia Sophia were swiftly filled.
\nThe timing of the first prayer is significant. Friday is the 97th anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, which set modern Turkey\u2019s borders after years of conflict with Greece and Western powers.
\nErdogan, who professes nostalgia for the Ottoman empire, has called for the treaty\u2019s revision in recent years. In Turkey, Hagia Sophia remains closely associated with the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmet II, known as the Conqueror. An Ottoman military band was in the building\u2019s forecourt on Friday.
\nErdogan shared a video on Twitter on Wednesday which featured Muslims from across the Islamic world singing in tribute to Hagia Sophia.
\n\u201cYou have always been ours, and we are yours,\u201d the Turkish leader wrote. Around 3.8 million tourists visited Hagia Sophia last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Online ISTANBUL Several thousand Muslims \u2013 along with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan \u2013 gathered on Friday to take part in the first prayer at Hagia Sophia since the Istanbul landmark was reconverted to a mosque. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, tight crowds formed on Friday morning around the mosque for the prayer around 1000 GMT. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-134644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n