Tarawih prayers, a special evening prayer done during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, were held in Istanbul’s Ayasofya Mosque for the first time in 88 years late Friday. Throughout the month of Ramadan, prayers will be held at the landmark monument.
The world-famous Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque was transformed into a museum in 1934, but on July 24, 2020, it was reopened as a mosque. However, due to the Covid epidemic, the mosque could not be used till now.
Turkish officials chose to reopen the mosque for Ramadan because the majority of the population has been vaccinated, daily cases and fatalities are dropping, and recovery rates are increasing, according to Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu. According to local sources, the mosque will host a number of Ramadan celebrations.
Similarly, hundreds of Istanbul residents and tourists gather in Istanbul’s famed Sultanahmet Square for Ramadan’s first iftar feast. Waiting for the adhan to break their fast, people were stretched on benches and the ground.
A two-hundred-year-old Ramadan tradition of firing a cannon in the plaza to signal the end of the fast was also carried out yesterday. Iftar is a sunset meal that marks the end of a Muslim’s fasting day.
The Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, was built in 537 as the largest Christian church in the eastern Roman Empire. After the conquest of Istanbul in 1453, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque. Hagia Sophia was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985.
