On a recent visit to Turkey this idea was reinforced in many
ways, and I realized that as unique as this blend is, it is not
an entirely new concept or purely a product of Atatürk's vision.
During my time in İstanbul I had the opportunity to revisit some
old monuments I had seen many years before. One of these was the
Hagia Sophia, a mosque that has now been converted into a
museum. The Hagia Sophia, originally a basilica, was filled with
frescos of scenes from the Bible. Built in A.D. 360 by
Constantius II, it served as the cathedral of Constantinople and
a monument to the Byzantine Empire. In 1453, during the Ottoman
conquest, the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque and
became the Ayasofya. While the church suffered some destruction
during the siege of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks,
subsequent rulers, including Suleiman the Magnificent, ordered
restoration of the structure and added to it with minarets on
the outside, and verses of the Quran in calligraphy on the
inside. About 600 years ago, desp