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Turkish Supreme Court: Mehmet the Conqueror Bought Hagia Sophia, So Of Course It’s a Mosque

Jul 21, 2020 5:00 pm By Robert Spencer

My latest in PJ Media:

No one should be concerned about the conversion of Hagia Sophia, the foremost cathedral in the Christian world for nearly a thousand years, into a mosque – at least according to Shahid Qureshi, writing Monday in a Muslim publication known as the London Post. Why not? Because Mehmet the Conqueror, the Ottoman Sultan who conquered Constantinople and destroyed the Byzantine Empire on May 29, 1453, bought the place fair and square. So who could object? Once a mosque, always a mosque, and after all, the Christians sold it to him!

Qureshi claims that Mehmet “purchased the property of Hagia Sophia from his personal wealth before converting it into a Masjid (Mosque). The details of the transaction are still stored in the Turkish Museum,” and he even helpfully includes a photo of the bill of sale in his article. “This is the main reason,” Qureshi explains, “why the court ordered Aya Sofya to be re converted into a Masjid.”

Christians, you see, have no right to complain that Hagia Sophia will no longer be a museum, a monument of the human spirit open to all people, but will instead become a house of worship for Muslims only. If the Christians are going to be upset over this, they have only the Christians who sold the cathedral to Mehmet to blame. “The credit,” Qureshi asserts, “really goes to the forward thinking Sultan Mehmet, the conqueror of Constantinople for purchasing the church and then creating a waqf (endowment). Had it not been for his wisdom, Kemal Ataturk’s decision [to convert the mosque into a museum in 1935] would not have been able to be legally overturned.”

The claim that Mehmet bought Hagia Sophia fair and square has been making the rounds this week among Muslims in social media, and has spread so far and wide that I’ve received quite a few emails asking me whether it is true, as apparently both Muslims and non-Muslims are shutting down criticism of the conversion of the building by invoking this supposed real estate deal. But whether or not the sales document that has been circulating and is reproduced in the London Post is authentic, this entire claim is a transparent attempt to whitewash an act of cultural appropriation and annihilation on a massive scale.

There is much more. Read the rest here.

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Filed Under: Featured, Islamic supremacism, Robert Spencer, Turkey Tagged With: Hagia Sophia, Mehmet the Conqueror


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Comments

  1. Gork says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 5:10 pm

    If that’s their argument, then I assure you that the Israelis have purchased Judea and Samaria. It’s all legal.

    Two can play at that game.

    • Keith O says

      Jul 21, 2020 at 6:22 pm

      They did, with their blood!

    • Murad says

      Jul 22, 2020 at 12:38 am

      Yes, Gork , you are perfectly correct. Couple of days ago the Fonder of Massacre Country celebrated the invasion of Cyprus. Real genocide, but not to westerners. Turkey’s exceptionalism. If only EU talked about or even dare mention the occupation and massacres in Cyprus. Judea and Samaria is part of Jewish blood and bones for 3500 years.

      • Robert Porter says

        Jul 22, 2020 at 5:43 am

        Murad , the only ‘exceptionalism’ about Turks and Turkey are the incessant lies they spew. But the lies are not even clever. Simple consideration to facts, history, exposes the weak-minded lies from Recep Erdogan and his mob of Muslim liars. The was nothing ‘exceptional’ about the Mehmed II’s Turkish defeat of Constantinople. By 1453 the city was a shadow of its former glory, the population of once more than 500,000 down to round 50,000, and only 15,000 defenders against at least 80,000 Turk and mercenary attackers. For hundreds of years the Muslims failed, but by 1453 they had Austrian-built cannons to smash the city walls. Muslims with their empty boasting are pathetic blow-hards.

  2. Clifford Fodor says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 5:14 pm

    Turkey is a lost cause. Throw them out of NATO.

    • Martin says

      Jul 22, 2020 at 10:35 am

      video – Turkey – Sacrifice for Hagia Sophia

      • gravenimage says

        Jul 23, 2020 at 2:12 am

        Damn savages.

  3. Juhani says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 5:34 pm

    Knowing enough of the Ottoman history I would not be surprised if the Christians were given only two options: sign the paper or die.

    • Michael Garant says

      Jul 21, 2020 at 5:37 pm

      Very probable

      • mortimer says

        Jul 22, 2020 at 1:31 pm

        Islamic scholar MOCKS Erdogan for spurious document alleging sale of Hagia Sophia … he says that the Turks have SABOTAGED friendship between people.

        He claims the Orthodox would not sell their Mother Church … he claims such a contract is BOGUS!

    • gravenimage says

      Jul 21, 2020 at 6:32 pm

      I would agree, Juhani, save that I have never heard any mention of this document before last week–and this is a subject I have studied at some length.

      Nor can I find any reference to this document earlier than a few days ago. Erdogan himself has never mentioned it before, either.

      • mortimer says

        Jul 22, 2020 at 1:39 pm

        GI, has any real scholar validated the paper? It looks like someone put scotch tape over it.

        A good paleographist could quickly determine if the document were from the presumed time.

        If the handwriting style and vocabulary doesn’t fit the time, then it will be an obvious forgery.

        Old Turkish language and handwriting in Arabic letters is a difficult field of studies. There are probably few who could analyze the document and they might be afraid to say what they know for fear of persecution by Erdogan and his fanatical followers.

        • gravenimage says

          Jul 23, 2020 at 2:13 am

          Mortimer, I haven’t heard that anyone outside of Turkey has seen this thing.

          Certainly, there has been no mention of it over the past 500+ years that I have seen.

    • James Lincoln says

      Jul 21, 2020 at 8:00 pm

      Juhani,

      Makes me think of the Godfather (1972):

      “My father made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.”

      “What, Michael?”

      “Luca Brasi put a gun to his head, and my father assured him either his brains or his signature would be on the contract.”

      ―Michael Corleone and Kay Adams

  4. Dude says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 6:10 pm

    But isn’t it the problem that they never buy anything – just steal it – like entire countries, wombs, and slaves. People they can’t control, they kill. These are not nice people. And they probably wouldn’t be even if the books didn’t command them to be thugs and punks, for how else can a fool hope to make a life in this world?

  5. tim gallagher says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 6:13 pm

    Muslims have zero respect for anything non-Islamic, anything that the hated infidels say or do, so I think that some Muslim leader’s having bought the Hagia Sophia should mean bugger all to all non-Muslims. I hope it is taken back in the long run and becomes a Christian cathedral again. Hard to see that ever happening, but maybe Islam will die out one day and the people in Turkey will re-join the civilised, non-Muslim world.

    • mortimer says

      Jul 21, 2020 at 6:23 pm

      Yes, tim, the MOST INTOLERANT religion ever.

      • tim gallagher says

        Jul 22, 2020 at 12:23 am

        No doubt about it, mortimer. A truly repulsive and totalitarian religious ideology.

  6. mortimer says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 6:18 pm

    If Mehmet had purchased the church BEFORE he had invaded, smashed, looted, burned and raped the city, then his ‘purchase’ would have more credibility.

    A contract made under duress is invalid. Even if the contract is genuine (and I doubt that), it would invalid because it was certainly made under duress, thus invalidating the contract freely to sell the church.

    This is more taqiyya and treachery.

  7. mortimer says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 6:21 pm

    Let’s apply the ‘SHOE-ON-THE-OTHER-FOOT’ rule.

    If Muslims were said to have sold THE KAABA to Christians who had just conquered Mecca, would Muslims believe that the contract was entered into ‘freely’, or would Muslims believe that the contract to sell the Kaaba for a Christian university was ‘COERCED UNDER DURESS’?

    I think we know the answer.

    • esther says

      Jul 22, 2020 at 9:47 am

      Mortimer——I have the bill of sale—–of the KAABA right here—–in Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic
      and French. It was purchased in 620 AD—–from muhummad, himself, by a distant ancestor
      of mine—–a real estate dealer, —uhm ? shlomo. I have been charged by his other descendants to transfer the property to the ROMANI of the world——with the provision that they share it with the leftover Parsis (zoroastrians) as compensation for the oppression of gypsies. ——My suggestion is——dump the dump unless there is oil under that rock. You know any Romani?

      • gravenimage says

        Jul 23, 2020 at 2:14 am

        🙂

  8. skippy says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 6:39 pm

    “Erdogan Invites Pope Francis to Visit Hagia Sophia Ahead of First Muslim Prayers”

    https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/07/21/erdogan-invites-pope-francis-to-visit-hagia-sophia-ahead-of-first-muslim-prayers/

    • gravenimage says

      Jul 21, 2020 at 6:48 pm

      Thanks for that link, skippy. Let’s hope the Pope doesn’t attend the rededication of Hagia Sophia as a Mosque. Erdogan is just hoping to gain respect for Islam if Infidels condone this.

      • GreekEmpress says

        Jul 21, 2020 at 7:45 pm

        Thank you Skippy—
        Anybody want to lay any bets on whether the pope will go or not?

      • James Lincoln says

        Jul 21, 2020 at 8:04 pm

        gravenimage,

        I wouldn’t put anything past this Pope.

        It’s possible that he may attend the rededication of Hagia Sophia as a mosque as a gesture of “goodwill”.

        I certainly hope that I am wrong…

        • gravenimage says

          Jul 23, 2020 at 2:15 am

          I hope this is mistaken, as well, James–but it would not shock me if this dhimmi pontiff *did* go.

  9. Brian Hoff says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 6:50 pm

    This mosque like many mosques will be open to the public. The art work inside will only be cover during prayer service.

    • gravenimage says

      Jul 21, 2020 at 6:58 pm

      This is what “Brian Hoff”–really, “DefenderofIslam”–has in store for the West, as well. He has said that when Muslims reach sufficient numbers here that they will destroy the Constitution and impose brutal Shari’ah law on us. He has also ominously said that when Islam takes over in the US that he will be able to “get lots of women”.

    • Wellington says

      Jul 21, 2020 at 8:18 pm

      Hagia Sophia is not a mosque. It is a Christian church stolen by Muslims and falsely called a mosque.

      Islam, you know, is very good at stealing things, starting with the entire Judeo-Christian tradition which Islam risibly reveals in that most wretched of religious works, the Koran.

      • SAFI says

        Jul 21, 2020 at 8:23 pm

        Well said, Wellington 👏

      • gravenimage says

        Jul 21, 2020 at 8:25 pm

        Spot on, Wellington.

        “DefenderofIslam” here is obviously fine with his coreligionists seizing Churches and other non-Muslim places of worship. Stealing is sacralized in Islamic texts. No other faith has a Holy Book with a chapter on taking Booty.

        • James Lincoln says

          Jul 22, 2020 at 9:43 am

          gravenimage,

          “Brian Hoff” AKA “DefenderofIslam” continues to show Jihad Watch readers how devout muslims “think”.

          In that way, he is useful…

        • gravenimage says

          Jul 23, 2020 at 2:16 am

          Quite so, James. Interesting how these “defenders of Islam” so often just expose the savagery of their ugly creed.

    • black adder says

      Jul 22, 2020 at 7:48 am

      The visitors must take off theirs shoes and the women must cover their hair.
      Even if some tourists are willing to follow these rules, they won’t be able to stand the stench of smelly feet.
      There’s only one appropriate respond to islamonazi turks like you: Boycott Turkey…

  10. SAFI says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 8:20 pm

    Hilarious! So do they also have similar sale documents for all the other churches amd monasteries they’ve converted all over Turkey and “northern Cyprus”? Also can I please see the receipt of Mohammed purchasing the Kaaba from the Meccans?… I can wait…

    • gravenimage says

      Jul 23, 2020 at 2:17 am

      Good questions, SAFI.

  11. SAFI says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 9:23 pm

    Robert Spencer writes “The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople or the Byzantine Emperor or whoever was deemed to be its owner was in no position to refuse to sell.”
    Well, according to the chronicles the Emperor was slain in battle during the final Ottoman assault on the City. The Patriarch on the other hand wasn’t even in Constantinople at the time of the siege nor did he ever set foot afterwards. Mehmet did appoint a new Patriarch(Gennadius) a year later and maybe that’s the guy who’s supposed to have “sold” it according to that paper, though under Ottoman (and Islamic) Law no such commercial transaction was required. Once an area was subjugated all the land and everything in it became automatically the private property of the Sultan, who could then grant estates, or “timars”, to his warriors and cronies, which he could also revoke at his discretion.

  12. Patrick Ludwig says

    Jul 22, 2020 at 5:12 am

    The arguments of the turkish court bring the following scenario to my mind:

    Nazis “purchased” Jewish owned Art, Real Estate, Gold and other property.

    After the downfall of the reich, this property was partially returned to the previous owners, the rest was confiscated by the state or hidden by banks.

    And now the grandchildren of these Nazis are claiming rightful ownership of these items, based on the sales documents issued in the third reich.

  13. Charlie in NY says

    Jul 22, 2020 at 11:58 am

    When the Nazis forced Jews to sell their art and other valuables as a condition of leaving the country, they often papered the transactions to provide a pretense of illegality. Today, many European museums, galleries and individuals that wound up with these articles rely on these contracts to claim the sale price was “fair.” Often but not always, courts have rejected this defense. So, even if this bill of sale is not the forgery it seems to be, the idea of wanting a cover of legality to theft is an old one.

    For something to be a legitimate sale, consideration must be exchanged. So, even if this sale were somehow lawful (and what we know certainly points to the opposite conclusion), what did the unidentified “seller” receive from the Sultan? To live out his life as a dhimmi? That would only prove coercion.

    • Charlie in NY says

      Jul 22, 2020 at 11:59 am

      That should have been “a pretense of legality” in that opening sentence. Sorry.

  14. flashy0ne says

    Jul 22, 2020 at 1:42 pm

    I would suggest that ALL governments approach this problem with CAUTION. Need I point out that the “Dome of the Rock” was the Jewish Temple in the time of Christ and is now in ISRAELI HANDS — wonder how it’s REVERSION to a Jewish Temple would go over. Many people do not know that there is a HUGE Mosque (the ‘Blue’ Mosque) a stones throw from Hagia Sophia. Mixing religion with politics is a very risky endeavor.

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