Hagia Sophia a symbol of authority

Because   it   was   turned   from an orthodox   church   into a mosque , it   survived
and it  becomes a symbol of authority   because if this   was the symbol of the
Byzantine Empires religious   authority and the emperor’s   authority , this   then
by converting   it  having   it  become a mosque   is a symbol of the sultan’s
power in the city and through the empire, and it has a huge   symbolic   quality
of sovereignty.
Th e mosaics   were   covered up not because   theMuslims   don’t   recognize
Christ as at least a prophet but because of the prohibition of figural
imagery   especially   within a religious   space , certainly   that and also Christ
when   he  is  depicted   he’s not depicted as Christ, he’s  Jesus , and he’s a
prophet , he   doesn’t   appear   with Mary, he   doesn’t   appear as Christ
Pantocrator   which   is  this  very   typical image in Eastern   Orthodox   churches .
You can’t have him   being   shown in those   ways   because   those are very
Christian depictions of Jesus.
While   we   may not have figural images, we   certainly have lots of symbols
and probably the most   obvious   thing   when   you come in are the enormous
bits of Arabic   calligraphy . Calligraphy   is  perhaps the most important Islamic
art.
Arabic in the word   is  critical to the foundation of Islam because the
belief   is   that Mohammed recited the words c God as told to him   directly .
Arabic   is   very important, a lot of these round drills which   were   later
additions they’re in Arabic   so a lot of the
community   couldn’t   read   them   even . .
though   they   were   Muslim   this   still   would have been a foreign   language ,
because   they   spoke   Turkish.