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Tag Archives: Ottoman Empire
Rumbling Through Modern Jordan, a Railway From the Past
Once an ambitious project to unite the Middle East, the antique Hejaz Railway is a relic of that bygone dream before wars, borders and more advanced modes of transport rendered its services obsolete.
How the Greek Revolution of 1821 Led to the Global System of Nation-States
Mark Mazower’s “The Greek Revolution” examines a century-old event that continues to reverberate today.
What Happens When Everyone Is Writing the Same Book You Are?
Olivia Parker was intrigued by the tale of her great-great-uncle’s failed quest to unearth a holy relic. Then she discovered that six other writers were also pursuing the story.
Breaking Out of Prison With a Ouija Board and Some Clever Tricks
“The Confidence Men,” by Margalit Fox, recounts the elaborate true-life saga of two British officers who escaped from an Ottoman prison camp during World War I by brainwashing and manipulating their captors.
Biden Declares Mass Killings of Armenians a Genocide
The Turkish government, as well as human rights activists and ethnic Armenians, had a muted response to the news, describing the move as largely symbolic.
What the Armenian Genocide Means Today
After years of avoiding the topic, the U.S. government now officially views the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire a century ago as genocide. Here’s how it came about.
Biden to Declare Atrocities Against Armenia Were Genocide
The designation for the World War I-era killings would further fray U.S. relations with Turkey, but it is a risk the president appears willing to take to further human rights, officials said.
Erdogan Reopens Turkey’s Hagia Sophia as a Mosque
The Muslim faithful celebrated the decision by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, even as it generated dismay among Christians and architectural conservators.
The Hagia Sophia Was a Cathedral, a Mosque and a Museum. It’s Converting Again.
Changing the secular space back into a religious one is a risk for the World Heritage site.
Why Erdogan Wants Hagia Sophia to Be a Mosque
The Hagia Sophia has been designated as a mosque again, its status as a museum viewed for decades as a seal on the country’s spirit.
What will happen to the Hagia Sophia now that it’s a mosque again?

Enlarge (credit: Maksym Kozlenko / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0))
The 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, will become an active mosque beginning on July 24, ending its 85-year run as a secular museum.
Byzantine Emperor Justinian I ordered the building’s construction in 532 CE; for nearly 1,000 years, its 55.6 meter (180 ft) dome covered the largest indoor space in the world. Over a millennium and a half, the monumental structure has been an Eastern Orthodox cathedral, a Roman Catholic cathedral, an Eastern Orthodox cathedral again, and then a mosque.
Today, the Hagia Sophia is one of Turkey’s largest tourist attractions; an estimated 3.7 million people visited the site in 2019. It became a museum in 1934, under a decree from the Cabinet of Ministers under then-president of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
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Erdogan Talks of Making Hagia Sophia a Mosque Again, to International Dismay
The World Heritage site was once a potent symbol of Christian-Muslim rivalry, and it could become one once more.