ABSTRACT
In July 2020, Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul, Turkey was transformed into a working mosque. This chapter investigates three aspects of this conversion. First, it examines the events and individuals that enabled this transformation and highlights how selective historical interpretation played a role in this shift of status. Second, it demonstrates that many who opposed the conversion argued for a categorical difference between (Islamic) religious space and World Heritage sites, seemingly making religious use incompatible with heritage status. Given many World Heritage sites are active religious spaces, this chapter asks if this bifurcation between religious and heritage status is necessary. Third, it argues that Hagia Sophia's desecularisation challenges the linear, teleological notion of secularisation and considers the historic site within a postsecular framework. Hagia Sophia serves as a productive case study for thinking about religion's role and revival at heritage sites today, and within modern societies more broadly.
