Hagia Sophia and Universal Power from Byzantium to the Modern World

Abstract This chapter examines Hagia Sophia’s transformation from Emperor Justinian’s architectural masterpiece into a symbol of imperial, religious, and political authority across centuries. It explores how the building’s acoustics and aesthetics shape sacred experiences from Byzantine music and liturgies to Sufi spirituality under Ottoman rule. It highlights how the sultan Mehmed Fatih (r. 1444–1446, 1451–1481) converted the Great Church into a mosque to reinforce the concept of the ruler as Khalifat Allah (Vicegerent/Representative of God), visually asserting the sultan as qutb (cosmic axis) and a divinely guided ruler. The chapter traces Hagia Sophia’s lasting influence on Ottoman mosque design, contrasting the Byzantine tradition of concealing structural logic with the Ottoman emphasis on revealing architectural structure. The chapter also connects Jalal al-Din Rumi’s imagery of the sea as a metaphor for divine union to Hagia Sophia’s luminous marble surfaces and reverberant acoustics, drawing parallels with Neoplatonic and Christian mystical traditions. Finally, the chapter critiques Turkey’s 2020 reconversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque, arguing that modifications such as floor carpeting obscure its audiovisual aesthetics of the sea, diminishing its universal spiritual and historical significance while serving nationalist political agendas.