Haghia Sophia - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 53

its way into Haghia Sophia, bringing to an end the last tragic hour
of Byzantium.
THE CHURCH AS A MOSQUE
Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror entered the city late in the afternoon
of that same day, Tuesday 29 May, and rode slowly through the
streets of the city to Haghia Sophia. He dismounted at the door of
the church and bent down to take a handful of earth, which he then
sprinkled over his turban as an act of humility before God. Let us read
Evliya Çelebi's account of this historic occasion: “Sultan Mehmet II,
on surveying more closely the church of Aya Sofya, was astonished
at the solidity of its construction, the strength of its foundations, the
height of its cupola, and the skill of its builder. He caused the ancient
building to be cleared of its idolatrous objects and purified from the
blood of the slain, and having refreshed the brains of the victorious
Moslems by fumigating it with amber and lion-aloes, converted it
that very hour into a mosque.”
Immediately after the Conquest, Sultan Mehmet thoroughly
repaired the fabric of Haghia Sophia. Later sultans refurbished and
adorned the interior of the building in various ways, so as to restore
something of its ancient beauty. Evliya Çelebi describes some of these
benefactions: “Sultan Murat III brought from the island of Marmara
two princely basins of white marble, each of them resembling the
cupola of a bath. They stand inside the mosque, full of living water,
for all the congregation to perform their ablutions and quench
their thirst. The same sultan caused the walls of the mosque to be
cleansed and smoothed; he increased the number of lamps and built
four raised stone platforms for the readers of the Kuran, and a lofty
pulpit on slender columns for the müezzins. Sultan Murat IV, the
Conqueror of Baghdad, raised upon four marble columns a marble
throne for the preacher.”
All of these objects can still be seen in the nave of Haghia Sophia,
along with the gifts of later sultans. The two lustration urns which
Evliya mentions are located in the western exedrae. They are late
classical or early Byzantine urns to which have been added Turkish
lids. An English traveller in the seventeenth century reported that they