THE ST. SOPHIA EPIC

Evening Star, Issue 21904, 15 December 1934, Page 21

THE ST. SOPHIA EPIC

VIVID AND TRAGIC CHANGE , There are certain monuments of civilisation—the Parthenon at Athens, the Taj Mahal at Agra—that belong to no ora, to no faith, to no nation, hut are acclaimed as an imperishable heritage by mankind. Such an edifice is the superb basilica of Hagia Sophia, or Holy Wisdom—known to us as St. Sophia—which rises midway between Europe and Asia above the banks cf the Bosphorus.' Appealing to the. memories and | emotions of East and West, this great symbol of reverence awaits a change in its ever dramatic destinies. It was built as a Christian church. It was subdued into a Mohammedan mosque. A modernist Turkey has decided that henceforth it shall be the most magnificent of all museums. The glories of Byzantine mosaics, hidden . for nearly 500 years behind Islamic whitewash, are in process of skilful restoration. Vivid with mysticism and massacre, with rapture and riot, With dedication and desecration, the story of this church mosque, starting in 532, covers almost exactly fourteen centuries, and it may be told in three chapters. First, the building of a structure which, to this day, is regarded as a miracle of audacious design. Second, the unforgettable scene in the year 1453 when the great cathedral, like the city itself, was violated by the invading Moslem and stripped of its ornaments. Third, the long and picturesque use of the cathedral as a mosque, second only in prestige to Mecca itself. THE CURTAIN RISES. The curtain rises on an open-air hippodrome, shaped like . a huge horseshoe and crowded with an excited throng, rapidly getting beyond control. In the centre sits a glittering but embarrassed Emperor Justinian, trying to make his voice beard, and by his side, no less glittering in her extravagant regalia, the masterful Theodora. It k only yesterday that she was, a comedian and courtesan of the arena, where she aroused roars of laughter by puffing on her cheeks in buffoonery. Now she reigns, an Empress on the throne. There are dungeons under her luxurious palace where, in darkness, her enemies disappear. ' On the right of the Emperor, all are in blue; to the left, all are in green; they are the Republicans and Democrats of Constantinople.' At a festival ope faction —the greens—hid stones and daggers amid fruits and so slew 3,000 of their rivals. Suddenly there is a'cry of “nika,” or “ victory.” The hippodrome is filled with uproar, and incendiaries rush forth to burn and plunder. In that outrageous disorder the earlier St." Sophia—containing much wood within its fabric—perishes. ' The architects of the new cathedral were Anthemius of Tralles and Isodorus of Milesia, of which Anthemius . was a mathematician. He invented, it is said, a steam engine, also a searchlight,. withwhich he used to astonish his friends. For five years 100 master builders and 10,000 workmen were employed upon the structure, and every night they received their wages in 'silver . The cost of the building has been appraised at the equivalent of at least £10,000,000. Roughly, St. Sophia was the Byzantine way of spending what we spend on a modern battleship. , “ This church was given to God by Justinian the Emperor”—so, ran the inscription on the cornerstone; but m the night it was changed as. follows: “This church was given to God by Euphrasia the widow,” and repeatedly the correction was cut into the stone. There were inquiries as to who Euphrasia was and when she was found an obscure woman, she denied pointblank that she had built the cathedral. She did- admit, however, that she had given water to the oxen drawing the stone up the hill, and.the inscription was allowed to stand. A NOBLE DOME. There are x many famous domes in the world— Michelangelo’s above St. Peter’s; Brunelleschi’s over the Dupmo at Florence, and Wren’s at St. Paul’s. Mosques also have their domes; that of St. Sophia is notable chiefly for the reason that the dome’s circumference is inscribed in a large square and rests not in a circular wall, like that of the Pantheon at Rome but upon four curvilinear triangles at the corners. Thus is achieved a dome on a square. base. So radiant with light is this dome with its forty-eight windows, so independent of support does it appear, that it seemed to those who saw it centuries ago to be suspended from heaven itself by a golden^chain. The devout whispered that holy relics had been built into the spreading vault. The Moslems are sure that they include a hair of the Prophet. In a region of earthquakes the, dome —lo7ft broad and 48ft, high— has been none too stable. It is constructed in part of Rhodian bricks, much lighter than ordinary bricks, and the thickness diminishes as the dome rises. At the summit it is a mere eggshell. Even so, the houses of Constantinople were, robbed of their plumbing to provide lead to be poured into the masonry and at a later date, vast buttresses were built as additional supports against the lateral thrust of the superstructure.. FINAL TRIUMPH OVER PAGANISM. It was a symbol of final triumph over paganism that the basilica—intended to outshine the temple of Solomon—was acclaimed with such, enthusiasm. Shrines of the gods, once held in revereice, were despoiled of . their treasures and to this day St. Sophia displays eight serpentine columns that once adorned the temple of Diana at Ephesus. Eight other columns of porphyry were brought from the Temple of the Sun at Palmyra, where the Emperor Aurelian had overwhelmed Zenobia, the Queen who graced his triumph as a captive. Other columns are traced, more or less confidently, to: the sanctuary of Apollo at Dephi and to the Temple of, Pallas at Athens. Here were emperors crowned and wedded. Here were their children baptised. And in the narthex, or western corridor, where to-day mosaics are uncovered, penitents awaited pardon and catechumens received instruction. To maintain this magnificence 10,000 shops paid rental. The church was not sufficient in itself. St. Sophia was surrounded by what can best be described—allowing for, differences—as a kind of Vatican City, an immense agglomeration of libraries and colleges where, were stored and studied those manuscripts of which merely the remnants are to-day the priceless materials of scholarship. The distribution of those manuscripts throughout Europe was the: sowing of the seed of which the Renaissance was the harvest. In his sardonic way, Gibbon describes the glories of St. Sophia as a Byzantine cathedral. He . adds that these glories were “ insignicant ” when “ compared with the formation of the vilest insect that crawls upon the surface of this temple,” and that was the Moslem view. Obeying the Mosaic veto on graven images and pictures of living creatures.

the Sultan cleared the cathedral, of idols—as he regarded them—and' whitewashed the gleaming mosaics on wall* and vaulted roof. There is an exquisite pulpit where every Friday the mullah recited the Koran, and, since the mosque is spoil of war, the holy man used always to pray with a drawn sword in his hand. Four minarets have been raised by- the Sultans. They stand as sentinels around the captive cathedral, and at tfie appointed hour there has been heard from one of them the call to prayer. ' ' . . . , „ The Moslem worship continued lor nearly five centuries, and Sultan after Sultan of the Hoiise of Othmann Entered the gallery reserved for majesty and prayed toward Mecca, No' mob of Greens and Blues now breaks into St. Sophia.. No Sultan strides over the traditions of a defeated Christendom. It is a new.atmosphere that pervades the ancient' splendours. Philistines hint, that St. Sophia, with! its minarets, is ho better than a birthday cake surrounded with candles. Yet, even the contour of the cathedral, emerging, above the Golden Horn, ia now an evidence that the triumph of force over faith, however absolute; doe* not endure.—(P. W. Wilson in th« ‘ New York Times.’)