AYASOFYA
From the time it was built Haghia Sophia, the Church
of Divine Wisdom, has astonished and entranced all who beheld it,
with its great dome symbolising unattainable infinity. Haghia Sophia
was used as a church for 916 years and as a mosque for 481, so serving
as a place of worship for nearly one and a half millennia. When
it was first built it was known as the Megale Ekklesia or Great
Church. After the Turkish conquest it was converted into a mosque,
but continued to be known by the Turkish rendering of its Greek
name, Ayasofya. In 1934, at the wish of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,
founder of the Turkish Republic, the Council of Ministers turned
the building into a museum.Haghia Sophia was constructed by the
Byzantine emperor Justinian between 532 and 537. It was the third
church of this name on the same site. The first was a basilica erected
on the site of a former Roman temple, and according to the historian
Socrates was dedicated on 15 February 360. It was destroyed by fire
in the year 404 in an uprising against Emperor Arcadius.
The second church was built by Emperor Theodosius
II and dedicated on 10 October 415, only to be burnt down in the
Nika Revolt on 13 January 532, during the fifth year of the reign
of Justinian I (527-565).After crushing the revolt Justinian commanded
that a new church be built on a far grander scale than the previous
two. The chronicler Procopius relates that two architects, Anthemius
of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, were appointed for the task.
One hundred master craftsmen, one thousand journeymen, and ten thousand
labourers were employed.
Justinian wanted the church to be completed in the
shortest possible time, and sent orders out to all the provinces
of his realm commanding that columns and marbles from ancient cities
be sent to Istanbul. Shiploads arrived from Syria, Egypt and Greece
as well as from Asia Minor.Construction commenced on 23 February
532 and apart from the decoration was completed in the astonishingly
short time of 5 years 10 months and 24 days.
The church was dedicated on 27 December 537 at a
magnificent opening ceremony. Justinian drove up to the church in
his victory chariot, and was welcomed in the atrium by Patriarch
Menas. The two men entered the church hand in hand. Justinian was
so impressed by its splendour, that he exclaimed, ‘Thanks
be to God for blessing me with the good fortune of constructing
such a place of worship.’
At the inauguration one thousand bulls, six thousand
sheep, six hundred stags, one thousand pigs, ten thousand chickens
and ten thousand roosters were sacrificed and alms were distributed
to the poor.Haghia Sophia is the most outstanding example of a domed
basilica. The central space has an area of seven thousand square
metres, and is flanked by two aisles, each divided from the nave
by four verd antique columns. These eight columns were brought from
Ephesus, while the eight porphyry columns beneath the semidomes
were brought from Egypt.
Altogether the building contains 107 columns, whose
capitals are among the finest examples of Byzantine stone carving.
These capitals bear the monograms of the Emperor Justinian and his
wife Theodora.The dome rises to 56.6 metres at its apex, and has
a diameter of 32.37 metres. The original dome collapsed in an earthquake
just 22 years after the church was completed, and was rebuilt in
562 by Isidorus the Younger, nephew of Isidorus of Miletus. Isidorus
the Younger raised the height of the dome by 2.65 metres to lessen
its outward thrust. During the Latin occupation of Istanbul by the
Fourth Crusaders between 1203 and 1261, the church was used for
Roman Catholic rites.
Emperor Alexius IV was forced to hand over many
of the sacred objects belonging to the church in repayment for debts
to the Latins, and these are now in Venice.he mosaics of Haghia
Sophia are exquisite works of art. In the semidome of the apse is
a large mosaic depicting the Mother of God with the Infant Christ,
which makes abundant use of gold and silver.
The dress of Mary is worked in dark blue glass mosaic,
and she sits on a magnificent bejewelled throne reminiscent of an
imperial throne. The faces of mother and infant are entrancingly
beautiful.
Another mosaic not to be missed is that above the
Imperial Gate showing Leo VI (886-912) bowing before Christ and
asking his sins to be forgiven. A mosaic on the side door of the
inner narthex depicts two emperors with Mary and the Infant Christ.
One of the emperors is Constantine I, shown presenting Mary and
Christ with a model of Constantinople, which was named after him,
and the other is Justinian I, who is presenting a model of the church
that he founded. In the south gallery is the Deisis mosaic and two
others depicting Constantine IX Monomachos and the Empress Zoe (11th
century) and John Comnenus II with his wife Eirene and son Alexius
(12th century) respectively. In the north gallery is the mosaic
depicting Emperor Alexander (10th century).
Four minarets were added to the outside of the building
at various times after its conversion into a mosque. The huge buttresses
against the exterior walls were built in the 16th century by the
Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan to support the building, and have
enabled it to survive to the present day.
Additions within the church are the mihrap or prayer
niche inside the apse, the bronze lamps to either side of the niche
which were brought here from Buda, and the pulpit and imperial and
müezz’sal galleries of carved marble. The library beyond
the south aisle was built by Mahmud I in 1739.
All the additions were designed with the character
of the existing building in mind, the use of marble for the Ottoman
additions reflecting the extensive use of this material in the Byzantine
building.
The inscriptions in the dome and the large calligraphic
panels bearing the names of God, Muhammed and the four caliphs are
the work of the celebrated 19th century calligrapher, Kazasker Mustafa
Izzet Efendi.
By Sengul G. AYDINGUN
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