Adnan Rashid – How the Greatest Church Became a Mosque

			Salam aleikum, everyone I am in Turkey. Right now I'm in the city of Istanbul that was called Once
Upon a Time Constantinople.
		

			And this city was taken in 1453 by Sultan Muhammad Al Fatah. So right now I stand in front of one of
the most historic sites in the city, and that is the famous higher Sofia. Okay, this was the largest
church in the world. Once upon a time, it was the largest standing structure, indoor dining
structure for more than 1000 years. And you can see how giant a structure is just behind me. The
minarets were added later on by the Ottomans, once the ticket and after Sultan Muhammad party took
the city. It was made into a masjid. Okay, this church was taken by treaty. The Sultan actually
bought the space from the Christians and give another church to the Christians to function from. So
		

			this great church became a great mosque. Okay, so this particular building was completed in the 537
CEE by the Roman Emperor Justinian. And this was his masterpiece. So huge achievement. This was that
when he walked into the structure, upon its completion for the first time, having looked at what he
had created, or its architects had created, he said, Solomon, I have surpassed the, in other words,
Solomon, I have basically outdone you in architecture in construction, he was referring to the
Temple of Solomon, even though he hadn't seen it. But he had heard about it from earlier sources
that the structure of the First Temple of Solomon was a huge, magnificent structure. And he could
		

			not imagine that it would be something more magnificent than this behind me. So this very building,
everyone, you must pay attention is older than
		

			the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, the Prophet was born in the year 570. This was completed in
537, almost 40 years before the Prophet was born, salallahu Salam, and this structure is still
standing to this day later on what you see, like these blocks in front of the building, they were
put here by the famous Ottoman architect, architect Mimar. Sinan. He put the structure there are
these bricks are these blocks, not bricks, actually blocks, big stone blocks there to support the
building. Because Turkey is on a hotline, you may have heard about this recent big gigantic
earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people turkeys on a hotline many earthquakes happening. So
		

			to protect the building from earthquakes, he put this mechanism is defense or this protecting
mechanism that you can see these big pillars or big support blocks here, and then mineral mineral
mineral
		

			method. But if you go inside the building, it still has that old touch the pillars. The pillar heads
are still from the Roman period. And the building is still very much in its original state. It's a
masterpiece, one has to come and see it and so much of now, it is a machine. Okay, once upon a time,
a giant, magnificent tribute to the Christian civilization is now a tribute to the Muslim
civilization. Right. So this is a very important place for everyone to visit. And on my left, as you
can see, that's where we have the Topkapi Palace where the Ottomans will towns live for nearly 400
years until the move to another palace in the mid 19th century called the doorman butcher Palace,
		

			right. So this palace is wasteful.
		

			And sub sequential barns live with the wives and the you know the children and the families. So full
pounce on a man so can sleep Salim. And before Sultan's before the Sultan Vaizey, the second son of
Sultan, Muhammad, the Prophet, all of them lived here, even the famous forum Sultan or Rukhsana she
was here. And this is where all the decisions would be made in this palace inside. This is where the
public hall of audience was. And this is where the Sultan's would issue the decrees and appoint
governors and declare wars on Crusaders and, and even fight against the Holy
		

			Roman Empire. The Hapsburgs at that time, so there's a lot of history I can discuss and talk about,
but for now, just a glimpse into the history of this region. We will be doing these tours in the
future. I strongly advise you to go on Halal getaways.com Halal getaways, actually Google Halal
getaways. It is an organization that organizes these trips and the skier tours also check out the
skier tours. You will see a lot of these tours coming up and check out my social media accounts. I
will be announcing dates very soon on these history
		

			Heading towards to Spain to Al Andalus to Turkey and a lot more until then Samadhi come on fella