Eid al-Fitr prayers have been held at the historic Aya Sophia Mosque in Turkey. For the first time in 87 long years, Eid Jamaat was held by ensuring social distance by following the hygiene rules to prevent infection.
On July 10 last year, Turkey’s Supreme Court overturned a decision in November 1934 to keep Ayatollah Sofia in Istanbul as a museum of Kemal Atatালrk’s cabinet. Later, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a circular announcing the re-use of Aya Sophia as a mosque.
Regular prayers started there on Friday, July 24 last year with the Friday prayers.
In 57 AD, Aya Sophia was built as the largest Christian church in the Byzantine Empire. In 1453, Muhammad Fatih conquered Constantinople and bought it from the Christians. Then it was used as a mosque for 461 years. In 1936, Mustafa Kemal Atatুrk, the father of modern Turkey, turned it into a museum
