Tue, 21-Oct-2025

Shab e Meraj: After Eight Decades, Durood o Salaam Echoed In Hagia Sophia

Shab e Meraj: After Eight Decades, Durood o Salaam Echoed In Hagia Sophia

ISTANBUL: A ceremony was held after 87 years at the historic Hagia Sophia Mosque in Turkey on the occasion of Prophet’s Night Journey and Ascension (Shab e Meraj). According to Turkish media reports, the 27th night of the month of Rajab al-Marjab 1442 AH was celebrated with religious devotion and respect throughout the country. This … Read more

Istanbul Church Transforms into a Mosque

The President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has placed another aged Orthodox Church as well as a famous Istanbul gallery to be converted into a mosque.  The choice to transform the Kariye Museum in a mosque began merely a month after a questionable exchange for the UNESCO World Heritage-recognised Hagia Sophia. The judgment on the … Read more

Hagia Sophia to hold first Friday prayers after 86 years

Two weeks after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan terminated the Hagia Sophia ‘s status as a museum, the iconic building in Istanbul will once again host Muslim Friday prayers. Up to 2000 worshippers are expected to attend the landmark’s first Muslim prayers since 1934. It served for 900 years as a Byzantine Christian cathedral before … Read more

Turkish President to offer Friday prayers at the Hagia Sophia Mosque on July 24

Turkish President to offer Friday prayers at the Hagia Sophia Mosque on July 24

Regular five-time prayers to commence the Hagia Sophia Mosque from Friday, July 24 and the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also offer Friday prayers at Hagia Sophia. It should be noted that the Turkish Religious Authority Honesty said that Christian symbols would be properly veiled during prayer times. Last week, the Turkish Supreme Court … Read more

President Erdogan visited Hagia Sophia after its reconversion to mosque

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Hagia Sofia on Sunday just days before the first Muslim prayers are due to be held at the there.

The President paid a visit for inspection, Erdogan took stock of the conversion work, providing pictures showing scaffolding inside the building.

It was unclear whether Erdogan planned to be among some 500 worshippers set to attend Friday prayers.

Turkey’s  top court paved the way for the conversion in a decision to revoke the edifice’s museum status conferred nearly a century ago.

The sixth-century building had been open to all visitors, regardless of their faith, since its inauguration as a museum in 1935.

Earlier, Diyanet said the building would continue to be open to all visitors outside the hours given over to prayer.

The UNESCO World Heritage site was built as a cathedral during the Byzantine empire but converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.

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