One Monument, Many Labels

“A thing is a thing, not what is said of that thing”
                                                                           -Birdman 
                                                            

                

On 10th July, Turkey labeled the museum of Hagia Sophia as a mosque. The question that I want to answer through the article is “Will Hagia Sophia become a mosque in its essence?” Now before we delve into that paradigm, let's understand what had happened and what the context is.

Hagia Sophia was a Cathedral built by Constantius in the 4th CE and later reconstructed by Justinian I after a riot in 6th CE. In 1453, Mehmed II the Ottoman emperor had converted the Cathedral into a mosque. However, later in 1934, Kemal Attaturk Pasha-The father of Modern Turkey converted it into a museum. The Hagia Sophia has shared the  Sultanahmet Park with another majestic piece of architecture –The Blue Mosque built by Ahmet I in 1616. Both the structure in a common park is symbolic of secularism which is woven in Turkey’s cultural tapestry encompassing paganism and the Abrahamic religions. Turkey’s decision of converting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque has received two forms of responses which stands in antagonism to each other. On one side there are the Islamist Nationalists in Turkey; with their sense of past being myopic, beginning and ending in the Ottoman era, the ones who have welcomed the decision. On the other hand, lies the secular Turkish opposition, UNESCO, Eastern Orthodox Church, and it's neighbor Greece which have showered vitriol over this move.

The Ship of Theseus and Hagia Sophia  

This situation at hand can be understood by alluding to a thought experiment designed by Plutarch. Imagine a ship which was preserved by replacing its old,  decaying planks with new ones. This might happen at the point when the Ship lost all its authentic components.  Can we call this the original ship then? Ancient Philosophers like Heraclitus, and Plato or more recent thinkers like Locke and Hobbes have further engaged with this idea. This is called the Ship of Theseus paradox. The ship was thought to be of Theseus(a Greek hero)  preserved by Athenians. Now imagine a  different situation, the Ship of Theseus will remain intact except a few minor modifications like adding a few components of a submarine but it will act as a ship. Do we call the ship a submarine then? No. Because in its essence it will still have the major parts which had witnessed Theseus’s adventures in the sea.


 The situation with Hagia Sophia is also similar. It was built on the ground of a pagan sanctuary, its columns were taken from the Temple of Artemis, and its doors were taken from Zeus’s temple at Pergamon. The entire structure echoes the fact that the Christendom under the Byzantine empire was umbilically linked to a pagan past. To call it either a cathedral or a mosque will be reducing Istanbul to a particular faith or an empire. It remains a museum at its essence. A museum with its artifacts, scriptures, obelisks, etc, tells a story about a civilization. Hagia Sophia’s storytelling shows how Christianity, from being a persecuted faith became a faith that persecuted as well as retained its pagan pasts to some extent. It narrates the tales of Ottoman Turks who came in to replace one Abrahamic religion with another. This architecture is equipped to give a crash course on history, theology, and the politics of faith. Thus even if the Turkish government labels it as a mosque it does not become a mosque because of its innate essence which remains a polyglot. They cannot take away its pagan elements like the land on which it was built, or the doors or the columns. They cannot destroy the mosaics, frescoes which to them reeks of Christendom (a past that they want to deny). They might add more Islamic elements but that will never superimpose itself on its other elements. It will be like a palimpsest, the present will not superimpose the past. The structure will remain a cornucopia of faiths, stories, faded glories, and some royal follies, the same way minor modifications cannot change the nature of Ship of Theseus and make it a submarine.   

 

Hagia Sophia is not just architecture- it is an idea (intangible to be renamed or reconstructed)

 

Etymologically the word Hagia Sophia is Greek for Holy Wisdom. Hagia means  Holy and Sophia means a kind of practical skill which later got personified as Lady Wisdom. Sophia appears  as a character in several religious doctrines like the Hebrew Bible, Greek New  Testament, and the less known Apocrypha.  It was a structure dedicated to the wisdom of the world. Istanbul being a melting pot where the East and West met, fought, and perhaps engaged in dialogue wanted to create a structure that is dedicated to the World at its heart. Now, even if you label the structure as a mosque or a cathedral its essence will remain world wisdom which extends beyond faiths, symbols, and concrete , lies in the consciousness of mankind.

 
Denying an Epoch

Labeling a museum( which was a cathedral ) as a mosque is an active effort by the Turkish government to sell a dream packed with regression. They are trying to sell this dream to fundamentalists who seek Turkey’s identity in the Caliphate it once had during the Ottoman rule. We Indians, are well acquainted with this kind of politics. Three months from now, it will become two years since Allahabad was renamed as Prayagraj. One is selling a dream of the Islamic caliphate, the other is selling a dream of Ramjanam-bhumi. One is trying to erase the Byzantine history enmeshed with Christianity, the other trying to erase the Mughal history which reeks of Islam to them.

In reality, cultures and history are a product of diffusion. The Ottoman Turks understood this as early as in the 15th Century. It is said that Mehmed II used to worship an icon of Mary. He engaged in continuous religious discourse with his Christian counterparts. There was also some religious tolerance towards Christians. They were allowed to celebrate their festivals and participate in processions like dancing on the streets on Easter or rescuing wooden crosses from the waters at Golden Horn which is still continued. The Ottoman Turks realized that the Byzantine culture or history, in general, was like Hotel California- "You can check out any time you like, But you can never leave" Ultimately they realized that the Muslims and Christians shared ancient religious prophets, myths, and God. (It was not just the Christians who were given the space to coexist but the Jews as well who were escaping religious persecution with the Arabs in Spain under Ferdinand II and Isabella’s reign. By 16th Century there were as many as 42 synagogues in the city of Istanbul )

Surely there were Churches which were either destroyed or converted into mosques- like the Church of Holy Apostles converted into Faith mosque or the Church of Holy Peace converted into Topkapi Palace. But remember, that this was in the 15th CE where there was no UNESCO and Archaeological Institutes. Doing this kind of thing in the 21st CE will highlight the shallow modernity of the country. They will not be able to change the essence of the thing, Sophia Hagia will be a museum and Prayagraj will remain Allahabad in the consciousness of its people.

Sources
1. Istanbul a tale of three Cities by Bettany Hughes (This book really inspired me. Much historical data that I have used in the article  are taken from here. If you want to know more about Istanbul, pick up her book.) 

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