1453 All Over Again

This past week, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Hagia Sophia will, once again, be converted into a Mosque. The cathedral was completed in the 6th century during the reign of Justinian I. And in 1453, Hagia Sophia was seized and made a Mosque by the invading Ottomans, who brought the ancient world to an inglorious end. In 1934, the secularizing Turkish government converted the cathedral into a museum, and it was designated a “World Heritage” site by the United Nations. Many in the Western world expressed shock and alarm by the latest developments. The Pope, reportedly, is sad. But being that Hagia Sophia was taken from the West more than 500 hundred years ago, are we really in any position to object? The panel discusses this symbol of Roman triumph and Medieval conquest—and how this might signal the coming to an end of 20th-century liberalism.