Built as a church and repurposed during its 1,500‑year history as a mosque, a museum and now a mosque once more, the Hagia ...

Hagia Sophia was the most popular museum in Turkey last year, drawing more than 3.7 million visitors. News reports have said the conversion could occur in time for prayers on July 15, when Turkey ...

ANKARA, Turkey — The president of Turkey on Friday formally reconverted Istanbul’s sixth-century Hagia Sophia into a mosque and declared it open for Muslim worship, hours after a high court ...

“Like the Hagia Sophia, this is an important mosque for Muslims,” the agency quoted Istanbul resident Cuma Er as saying. “We came here to pray after we learned about the decision.

Religious and political leaders are decrying Turkey's decision to make Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, known for its Christian origin and as the secular Muslim nation's most popular tourist site, into a ...

S eraffettin was at home under coronavirus ­lockdown on May 29 when a Muslim cleric recited Quranic verses atop a carpeted dais inside Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia museum. But the imam’s reading ...

The president of Turkey has formally converted Istanbul’s sixth-century Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, hours after a high court annulled a 1934 decision that had made the religious landmark a ...

ISTANBUL, Turkey — In its more than 1,400-year existence, the majestic domed structure of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul has served as the Byzantine Empire’s main cathedral, a mosque under the ...

ROME — A month after the former cathedral Hagia Sophia was converted from a museum into a mosque, another Istanbul church-museum, renowned for its exquisite Byzantine mosaics, will undergo the ...

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, centre, takes part in Friday prayers in Hagia Sophia, at the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, Friday, July 24, 2020.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The president of Turkey on Friday formally converted Istanbul’s sixth-century Hagia Sophia back into a mosque and declared it open for Muslim worship, hours after a high ...