Temple of the World’s Desire: Hagia Sophia in the American Press, c. 1910–27. 1

In 1921, a service was held in the cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, with Orthodox and Episcopal clergy offering prayers in six languages—Hungarian, Greek, Arabic, Russian, Serbian, and English—for the restoration of Hagia Sophia as a Christian sanctuary. The church was filled to capacity for the service, with many turned away at the doors. Similar services were held in Washington, St. Louis, Detroit, Newark, Philadelphia, and Chicago, and analogous sentiments were expressed across Europe. Nowadays, it is difficult to imagine such a global response to a single building. It is similarly difficult to fathom the political impact Christianity had across Europe and America in the late Ottoman Empire, as deeply entrenched religious attitudes colored discussions of the “Eastern Question” in the late nineteenth century and the Greek Megale Idea in the early twentieth. In these discussions, Hagia Sophia emerged as the Christian equivalent of the Wailing Wall—a universal symbol of lost heritage to people of faith. This chapter investigates the intersections of politics, religion, and popular sentiment through the long nineteenth century as they converge around Hagia Sophia—and as they ultimately contribute to the decision to convert the building into a museum.