“In addition to their renowned patronage of architecture, which yielded the conversion of the Church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul into a congregational mosque…”
Obscene. Here is that “renowned patronage of architecture” in action:
The church was still thronged. The Holy Liturgy was ended, and the service of matins was being sung. At the sound of the tumult outside the huge bronze gates of the building were closed. Inside the congregation prayed for the miracle that alone could save them. They prayed in vain. It was not long before the doors were battered down. The worshippers were trapped. A few of the ancient and infirm were killed on the spot; but most of them were tied or chained together. Veils and scarves were torn off the women to serve as ropes. Many of the lovelier maidens and youths and many of the richer-clad nobles were almost torn to death as their captors quarrelled over them. Soon a long procession of ill-assorted little groups of men and women bound tightly together was being dragged to the soldiers’ bivouacs, there to be fought over once again. The priests went on chanting at the altar till they too were taken. But at the last moment, so the faithful believed, a few of them snatched up the holiest vessels and moved to the southern wall of the sanctuary. It opened for them and closed behind them; and there they will remain until the sacred edifice becomes a church once more….
The Sultan himself entered the city in the late afternoon…He insisted that the church should at once be transformed into a mosque. One of his ulema climbed into the pulpit and proclaimed that there was no God but Allah. He himself then mounted on the altar slab and did obeisance to his victorious God.
That’s from The Fall of Constantinople 1453 by Steven Runciman. Runciman’s account is restrained. Roger Crowley’s below is more vivid: “The church was meant to embody heaven on earth, and here were these aliens in turbans and robes, smashing tombs, scattering bones, hacking up icons for their golden frames. Imagine appalling mayhem, screaming wives being ripped from the arms of their husbands, children torn from parents, and then chained and sold into slavery. For the Byzantines, it was the end of the world.”
“Renowned patronage of architecture”!
“Florida Museum Celebrates the Loss of Hagia Sophia,” by Daniel Pipes, National Review, May 29, 2017:
I rubbed my eyes in disbelief seeing a wall plaque at the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, Fla., explaining an artifact in the “Ink, Silk, and Gold: Islamic Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston” exhibit currently showing.
The plaque that caught my eye praises the Ottoman Empire for having turned the Hagia Sophia church into a mosque. Its words:
In addition to their renowned patronage of architecture, which yielded the conversion of the Church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul into a congregational mosque, Ottoman sultans and elites supported flourishing textile and ceramics industries.
(What does “yielded the conversion” even mean? A search engine finds seven uses of this phrase in the English language, all connected to science.)
Hagia Sophia happens to be one of the oldest, largest, most beautiful, most celebrated, and most important churches of all Christendom. Built in the 530s in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, it has always been the object of exceptional praise, from ancient times (563 AD: “As you direct your gaze towards the eastern arches, you behold a never-ceasing wonder”) to modern ones (2014: “In this paradigmatic building, beauty, wisdom and light became interwoven through the architectural structure”).
The transformation of the Greek Hagia Sophia Cathedral into the Turkish Ayasofya Mosque did not take place gently. Fergus M. Bordewich describes the brutal shift that took place 564 years ago today:
On May 29, 1453, after a seven-week siege, the Turks launched a final assault. Bursting through the city’s defenses and overwhelming its outnumbered defenders, the invaders poured into the streets, sacking churches and palaces, and cutting down anyone who stood in their way. Terrified citizens flocked to Hagia Sophia, hoping that its sacred precincts would protect them, praying desperately that, as an ancient prophesied, an avenging angel would hurtle down to smite the invaders before they reached the great church.
Instead, the sultan’s janissaries battered through the great wood-and-bronze doors, bloody swords in hand, bringing an end to an empire that had endured for 1,123 years. “The scene must have been horrific, like the Devil entering heaven,” says [Roger Crowley, author of 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West]. “The church was meant to embody heaven on earth, and here were these aliens in turbans and robes, smashing tombs, scattering bones, hacking up icons for their golden frames. Imagine appalling mayhem, screaming wives being ripped from the arms of their husbands, children torn from parents, and then chained and sold into slavery. For the Byzantines, it was the end of the world.” Memory of the catastrophe haunted the Greeks for centuries. Many clung to the legend that the priests who were performing services that day had disappeared into Hagia Sophia’s walls and would someday reappear, restored to life in a reborn Greek empire.
That same afternoon, Constantinople’s new overlord, Sultan Mehmet II, rode triumphantly to the shattered doors of Hagia Sophia. … He declared that it was to be protected and was immediately to become a mosque. Calling for an imam to recite the call to prayer, he strode through the handful of terrified Greeks who had not already been carted off to slavery, offering mercy to some. Mehmet then climbed onto the altar and bowed down to pray.
Recalling this violent and dismal history as I wandered the Cummer, I wondered why a Florida museum would celebrate the vicious transformation of this cathedral into a mosque. Could an Islamist be lurking behind the wall plaque’s perverse praise?
I searched for clues by reviewing the makeup of the “Ink, Silk, and Gold” exhibit’s Advisory and Host committees. Sure enough, the answer lay there in broad daylight, highlighted on the glass entry door.
Parvez Ahmed, an apologist for suicide bombing and president of the country’s most prominent Islamist organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (commonly known as CAIR) in 2005–08, apparently sits on the two committees; in addition, his sometime-mosque, the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida, sits on the Advisory Committee….
dumbledoresarmy says
Appalling.
Here’s a suggestion.
Why not organise a sit-in.
And do some research to offer lists of everything that was achieved culturally and spiritually throughout the one thousand years – from its building, to its seizure and desecration by the Mohammedan *invaders* and *plunderers* – that the Hagia Sophia was, as one writer has put it, “the most beautiful church in Christendom”.
Find, also, the truthful accounts of what the Muslim mobsters did when they entered the church and *butchered* and *raped* and *carried off into slavery* its terrified and defenceless congregation. Print them out in large print and stick them up all around the precinct. Find someone to draw *pictures*.
**Read them out aloud, where everybody entering the exhibition can hear them**.
Find any ‘chronicle’ paintings that the historically-minded have created, that *show* that orgy of mass-murderous mayhem, that spree of greed and sadistic lust to kill, kill, kill, rape, pillage and wreck.
PUT THAT UP.
Rub the visitors’ noses in the hideous reality of what Muslim conquest has always meant for the victims – terror, fear, pain, gang rape, slavery, a screaming nightmare of horror and oppresion.
anthilltiger says
God Bless the Russian Federation….USA is ignorant and without Culture which will lead to distruction
somehistory says
The elevation of such demonic behavior is only in the evil minds of those attempting to make such things holy. They will never be and the attempts are disgusting.
mortimer says
PATHETICALLY STUPID to suggest that somehow… in any way… that the conquest of Constantinople and the desecration of the largest church in Christendom had a positive side to it.
Presumably, tax-payer money supports the museum. They should have their funding cut.
Robert Crawford says
The sole “architectural” changes made by the Muslims are the minarets and a few large chicken-scratch covered plates hanging in the main hall.
The best thing they did was not destroy most of the art in the Hagia Sophia. So the fresco of Constantine and Justinian presenting Christ the city and the Hagia Sophia is still there.
For now.
gravenimage says
They plastered over all of the great art. My guess is that they were in too much haste to reopen the great Cathedral as a Mosque to destroy the work outright.
Kay says
This is very sad. Yet in a strange way, it is meaningful. Christ is hidden in most of His guises, though always present.
Carolyne says
Christ has guises? Do you mean he wears disguises? Never heard that before. I thought it was Allah who had many guises.
ConnectingDots says
I was in the Hagia Sophia in 2007 as a tourist. I just re-watched video that I shot inside the building during that visit. The video reminded me of how much the jihadis ruined the church by placing Arabic placards all over it.
Aside: Our tour guide there in Istanbul in 2007 seemed fairly secular, but one statement that I heard in the video stuck out. He told us that it was very easy to convert to Islam. If I knew then what I know now, then I would have challenged him with a response: “Yes, it may be very easy to convert to Islam, but it is DEADLY to convert away from it.”
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
What was it like? Many regard it as the greatest cathedral of all, and a breakthrough engineering feat at the time.
ConnectingDots says
I am not a cathedral-engineering expert, but it seemed spectacularly large.
It was a bit dreary inside, in spite of the stained glass. My tourist video captured paintings on the ceiling (e.g., of Mary and Jesus), but they were not in good condition.
Another tidbit, per what I recorded from the tour guide: He told us that churches back then were built to point toward Jerusalem but that mosques must point toward Medina. (Or is it Mecca? I’m sure that he said “Medina” in the video.) Given the external orientation of Hagia Sophia, there’s now a “skew” in the internal orientation because alignment toward the center of the church would be inconsistent with the Islam-required alignment toward Medina. So, if this building gets converted by Turkish jihadis from a museum to a mosque, then the Muslims praying inside will NOT be facing toward the center of the church/mosque.
If you want to know more about how Muslims love to convert Christian churches into mosques, then check out The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise, by Darío Fernández-Morera.
TH says
Churches were not facing Jerusalem, but synagogues yes. Churches face the East. The East is where the sun rises. Jesus is the Light of the World” and “the Sun of Justice”. The Apocalypse has him coming from the East. This is a very important Christian symbolism. The symbolism of light is extremely important in the Bible.
Of course, Hagia Sophia was far more beautiful before these barbarians desecrated it. In fact, in 410, when the Goths sacked Rome, they allowed the people, pagan or Christian to take refuge in the Churches and they didn’t touch them. If you want to know moe about that read St. Augustine’s City of God. We can easily know who the true barbarians are.
gravenimage says
Thanks for your account, ConnectingDots.
A lot of Turkish Muslims are now demanding that Hagia Sophia be turned into an active Mosque again (it has been a museum since Attaturk).
And you are right about trying to leave Islam. Apostates may be murdered by any Muslim.
St. Manuel II Palaiologos says
If I could suggest a target for ISIS, it would be this museum. Please ISIS, go for it.
gravenimage says
*Really*? You want ISIS to destroy a museum in the West–likely slaughtering a lot of museum-goers in the process?
Despite this sickening dhimmitude re this exhibit, pious Muslims are only too happy to destroy any Western art museum.
If they destroyed the Cummer Museum of Art now, they would destroy a special exhibit of Whistler’s work, and pieces in the permanent collection by Peter Paul Rubens, Winslow Homer, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Thomas Moran, Norman Rockwell, and other art spanning from 2100 BC to the current century.
This includes a great deal of Christian religious work, including Gaddi’s “Madonna of Humility” from 1390, Giorgio Vasari’s “The Holy Family with the Infant St. John the Baptist from 1540.
Art also includes one of Gilbert Stuart’s portraits of George Washington and examples of the Impressionists.
Do you *really* want to see Islam destroy all of this art?
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
The priests went on chanting at the altar till they too were taken.
That image is a good metaphor for what’s going on today, but imperfect in that only a minority of Infidels worship Yahweh today.
There’s been a lot of talk about Fake News lately. But all that is about lies based on the centuries old foundation of Fake History. The art museum in Jacksonville no doubt regards history as out of their purview, but close enough to uncritically pass on this Fake History. This happens all over, every day, in our classrooms, on our TV sets, in our national policies. Fake History is omnipresent and a powerful advantage to the greatest criminals of all who by their deeds need false accounts of the past to move their global project forward: Moslems.
Carolyne says
“Fake News,” IMO, is not about fake history but lying to the public about what Is happening today and mostly misrepresenting what the President does and says, However there is a lot of fake history about Islam.
I do not recognize “Yahweh,” Something to do with not using vowels, I think.
Bryn Duffy says
Here is what I see. Anything that destroys the West, obliterates the history of the West and the Enlightenment, is praise worthy from the Cultural Marxist/Critical Theorist Left perspective. The Cultural Marxists have a goal of dividing the West into collectivized factions, all fighting each other over identity issues (Gender wars, “race” wars, religious wars, class conflicts, etc). The deeper goal is to displace the focus on the individual and individual rights with that of “collective rights” and “Social Justice”. From that position, they theorize, one can organize the world into a Global (totalitarian) society “that will be fantastic!”.
But Nation States and Western Culture and values stand in the way.
In this way, Islam and Muslims are fit allies to the Cultural Marxists ideology which infest Academia and the humanities. Islam is collectivist and denies individual rights and imposes Sharia, “Allah’s law” and thus denies the individual and democratic processes. Cultural Marxism’s post-modernist take on morality allows for them to look beyond (or accept) the barbarity of the Muslim past and Islam’s present without concern. Nothing matters except the dismantling of the West, and the diminution of pride in what the West has accomplished such as ending the once ubiquitous institution of chattel slavery around the World
But this great Church provokes an inconvenient remembrance and that is “problematic” for today’s Left.. The Hagia Sophia stands for a time when the West fought back, when the Byzantines held the line against constant Islamic assault only failing and falling in the 16th century . This church reminds the Western public of a clear and unambiguous event where Islam physically and undeniably overran and oppressed people on the basis of their religion. And that is dangerous to the Cultural Marxists because it is not the narrative they want and it is like to draw folks to all the many, many atrocities committed in the name of Islam, past and present (ie. reemergence of slavery).
Thus a Museum Curator (or committee), steeped in the expected politically correct platitudes and apologetics for Islam, paints the horror of Hagia Sophia as a beautiful act of peaceful transition and alliance.
gravenimage says
Knowing something about this process, my guess is that that museum curators bowed to the Muslim spin on this. I doubt many of them know much about the history of Islam at all.
maghan says
What is “cultural Marxism”? Marx was not anti-West. His writings are mainly about the problematics of Capitalism which lead to periodic downturns in the economy. His goal was to point out the how workers in a capitalist economy are exploited–and what remedies they should seek to empower themselves.
Note that Marx’s magnum opus is Capital–which contains very little about culture. His main takes were modes of production, means of production, and class analysis in terms of the capital owners(bourgeoisie) and workers(proletariat) as they within the capitalist system.
gravenimage says
Maghan, it was the Frankfurt School which first applied Marxist ideology to the social sciences.
Sepp says
The traditional Orthodox Church Calendar (adopted in 325 at the First Œumenical Synod at Nicæa) was in use in 1453 and is still used today. The day marking May 29 on the Church Calendar is June 11 on the current civil or commercial calendar.
gravenimage says
I believe calculations make allowance for this, Sepp.
Jayke says
I boggles my mind that any intelligent human being can fall for Mohammed’s lunatic ramblings. Unbelievable! Yet, it reminds me of these verses … 2 Timothy 2:25-26.
Carolyne says
I have not heard many people pose the proposition that Muslims are “Intelligent.” In fact, IMO, they are generally of low intelligence due to first cousin marriage for centuries which limited their gene pool.
Georg says
I didn’t know putting up some scratch ‘n sniff Islamic insignia clashing with the motifs inside a Cathedral constitutes “architecture”.
Carolyne says
You may scratch, Georg, but take my advice and do not sniff. The smell lingers in the nose.
gravenimage says
So true, Georg.
Berengaria says
Jacksonistan, Florida bills itself as the “Bold New City of the South” & has eagerly jumped on the Bandwagon of ISLAM.
The Cummer Gallery proudly displays the names of its Muslim Patrons, including Parvez Ahmed (AKA) Ahmed Parvez.
The Rape of the Hagia Sophia fits in Nicely with the Cummer Gallery’s View of the Decline of the West.
I would prefer to see the Hagia Sophia destroyed, it’s SO SAD!
gravenimage says
Florida museum celebrates the jihad conquest of the Hagia Sophia
…………………..
*Just horrifying*. As Robert Spencer asks, are they also celebrating the rape, slaughter, and enslavement of the women, children, elderly, monks and nuns who had taken refuge in Hagia Sophia when Constantinople fell to the Muslim hordes?
no_one says
Hailing from this part of the world makes me throw up when I see muzzies. It is not a phobia. It is a well deserved attitude.
Kay says
The worst part is that so few American will be aware how deceitful (and awful) this exhibit is.
It seems like history is being rewritten.
` says
Sadly true, Kay.
gravenimage says
The above reply is mine.
Cretius says
Yes, a disgusting sample of revisionist Islamic supremacist propaganda!
Cretius says
This exhibit is nothing less than a calculated affront to Christians by supremacist Islam and its American useful idiots. Christians must boycott this exhibit. The Hagia Sophia Is the crowning jewel of Eastern Orthodox worship and the greatest monument to the worship of the one true God!
ibrahim itace muhammed says
Mr Spencer,what about the grand mosque in Cordova ,Spain ,converted to church? it is a pity ,a place where only one God was being worshiped converted to place of clapping and dancing for the satan(christian worship). That is very painful.i met with one Spaniard who traced his genealogy from the grand Imam of Cordova and his family are christians worshiping a human being.i told him why not revert back to light( Islam)? the sultan Turkey cleansed Hagia sopia from filths of satanic worship in the same way prophet Muhammad cleansed kaaba from the filths of idols brought there by pagans who were instructed by the same satan who invented christianity cleansed from Turkey.mr spencer,take note filthy christianity will never return to hagia sophia.the filth has gone forever and the mosque will return.
Carolyne says
Uh–Ibrahim–I have been to Istanbul many times and I can assure you that it is one of the filthiest places on earth. It is filthy because Muslims are filthy. Wherever they go, they create filth.
gravenimage says
muhammed is, of course, referring to “ritual purity”. He has no trouble with brutal Muslims smeared with their own feces, but considers a civilized Infidel with impeccable hygiene to be “filthy”.
Cretius says
Well you have contributed nothing as your supremacist view of your belief system prevents you from seeing the full spectrum of humanity. As a Christian, Islam has nothing that I want or need but Islam has many things I reject for their bigotry and hatred for belief systems that Islamists cannot understand because their world view is so restricted by their belief system. Sharia Law reminds me of practices that disappeared in the west centuries ago. I see no advancement among conservative Muslims who are stuck in the 7th century. Secular Muslims show hope for their future. When you think about it racism and false cries of ‘Islamophobia’ are the cries of weakness from a belief system [ideas] that fears examination and discussion of its teachings, its history, its related cultural practices, its hatred of women, and the history of its prophet. Add to this the hatred of democracy, freedom of speech and action and secular representative government, you have to ask who is more fascist – the Muslim crying wolf or their victims who fall pray to the very rules they believe in? Western politicians may have been gulled by Islam but even the fools among us will waken to the truth.
gravenimage says
The appalling ibrahim itace muhammed wrote:
Mr (sic) Spencer,what (sic) about the grand mosque in Cordova ,Spain ,converted (sic) to church?
………………………………….
ibrahim itace muhammed is here claiming that Infidels have no right to drive out conquering Mohammedans. In fact, many of his foul coreligionists are intent on oppressing Spain again. *Ugh*.
More:
it (sic) is a pity ,a (sic) place where only one God was being worshiped converted to place of clapping and dancing for the satan(christian (sic) worship). That is very painful.
………………………………….
Of course, Catholic worship does not involve clapping or dancing–but muhammed is too ignorant to grasp this.
His main point, of course, is disgust over a God of love being worshipped–he much prefers his deity of blood and murder.
More:
i (sic) met with one Spaniard who traced his genealogy from the grand Imam of Cordova and his family are christians (sic) worshiping a human being.
………………………………….
muhammed proves again that he understands nothing about Christianity–not that I suppose anyone here is surprised.
More:
i (sic) told him why not revert back to light( Islam)?
………………………………….
So–because he (supposedly) descended from barbarians, he should embrace this now? *Ugh*.
More:
the (sic) sultan Turkey cleansed Hagia sopia (sic) from filths (sic) of satanic worship in the same way prophet Muhammad cleansed kaaba from the filths (sic) of idols brought there by pagans who were instructed by the same satan who invented christianity (sic) cleansed from Turkey.
………………………………….
Note that what muhammed means is that his coreligionists raped, enslaved, or murdered all the people who had taken refuge in Hagia Sophia. *This* is what savage Mohammedans consider “cleansing”. *Ugh*.
More:
mr (sic) spencer,take (sic) note filthy christianity (sic) will never return to hagia (sic) sophia.the (sic) filth has gone forever and the mosque will return.
………………………………….
This is quite common–Muslims gloating over mass slaughter, and vowing that Hagia Sophia will again ring with savage screams of “Allahu Akbar!”. *This* is how Mohammedans think–and it is *not* pretty.
ibrahim itace muhammed says
carolyne, filth here means worshiping the Satan as christians and idol worshipers do.it is called filth because it makes your heart too dirty and as such it could not grasp divine light.carolyne,is your mind settle with christian core doctrine that Almighty God became a man and he was killed by other men for him to be pleased with mankind after he was offended by the same mankind?
gravenimage says
More from the appalling ibrahim itace muhammed, this time aimed at Carolyne:
carolyne, (sic) filth here means worshiping the Satan as christians (sic) and idol worshipers do.it (sic) is called filth because it makes your heart too dirty and as such it could not grasp divine light.
…………………………
muhammed has made it clear in the past what he means here–that Christians and other civilized Infidels fail to “marry” little girls, rape sex slaves, and slaughter unbelievers. *Ugh*.
More:
carolyne,is (sic) your mind settle with christian (sic) core doctrine that Almighty God became a man and he was killed by other men for him to be pleased with mankind after he was offended by the same mankind?
…………………………
Once again, muhammed makes it clear that he understands *nothing* about Christianity, nor about the concepts of love and forgiveness.
And if I recall correctly, Carolyne is not Christian, in any case, but a rational Agnostic or Atheist.
But that does not matter to a Mohammedan like muhammed–he has been reminded many times that poster Wellington is not Christian, but muhammed still constantly refers to him worshipping Jesus.
This should not surprise–for one thing, pious Muslims like muhammed are not very bright. Secondly, they consider all Westerners to be “crusaders” whether they are Christian, of another faith, or Atheists.
Michael Casmer says
Its a good thing I never got a job in a museum, despite the fact I have a degree in museum studies. I would have to resign. My Ukranian Catholic Cathedral in Philadelphia is a copy of Hagia Sophia. We have short memories.
gravenimage says
Yes, Michael–that is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Here is a picture:
http://www.ukrcathedral.com/thumbs/outsidecathedral_thumb.jpg
A very beautiful Church.