CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -Hagia Sophia ( lit. ‘Holy Wisdom’; Ancient Greek: , romanized: Hagía Sophía; Latin: Sancta Sapientia; Turkish: Ayasofya), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (Turkish: Ayasofya Camii), is a mosque and major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey.

Detailed explanation-2: -The church of Hagia Sophia (literally “Holy Wisdom”) in Constantinople, now Istanbul, was first dedicated in 360 by Emperor Constantius, son of the city’s founder, Emperor Constantine.

Detailed explanation-3: -Today it is a landmark of Istanbul and one of the most visited sights in Türkiye. On July 10/2020, a Turkish top court reversed this 1934 Cabinet decree which turned Hagia Sophia Mosque into a museum, assist for its use again as a mosque after 86-year of gap.

Detailed explanation-4: -It served as a center of religious, political, and artistic life for the Byzantine world and has provided us with many useful scholarly insights into the period. It was also an important site of Muslim worship after Sultan Mehmed II conquered Constantinople in 1453 and designated the structure a mosque.

Detailed explanation-5: -The world-famous Hagia Sophia museum in Istanbul - originally founded as a cathedral - has been turned back into a mosque. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the decision after a court annulled the site’s museum status.