Justinian’s great dome, a museum…for now “ON THE afternoon of 29 May 1453, the Sultan entered the long-desired city…he dismounted and bent to pick up a handful of earth, which he poured over his turban as an act of humility before God. The cathedral of Haghia Sophia had become the mosque of Aya Sofya.” This is how Philip Mansel described the conversion of the Haghia Sophia by Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople. Hopes of re-enacting the scene have grown on news that Turkey’s pious prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, plans to lead prayers in the building to mark the 561st anniversary.Mr Erdogan’s advisers dismiss the story as “fantasy.” Yet senior members of his Justice and Development (AK) party make no secret of their wish to reopen Justinian’s church to Muslim worship. Since 1935 it has been a museum, part of Ataturk’s drive to secularise Turkey and erase its Ottoman past. Islamists want to reverse that. “The Haghia Sophia is seen as a symbol of conquest, of Islam’s superiority over Christianity,” says Tugba Tanyeri Erdemir, a Turkish historian.Bulent Arinc, a deputy prime minister, has already overseen the conversion of two…
