Last summer, Turkish authorities transformed Hagia Sophia (“Holy Wisdom”) — which was originally built, and for a millennium functioned, as one of Christendom’s greatest cathedrals — into a mosque (again). On that Friday, July 24, 2020 (which for millions of Eastern Christians is now deemed a “day of mourning“), Muslims met inside the desecrated church, where they were led in prayer by a sword-waving imam, to spasmodic cries of “Allahu akbar.”
The Turks, beginning with their president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have been presenting this bit of cultural appropriation as their “right.” Imam Ali Erbas, Turkey’s president of religious affairs, has gone one farther, recently claiming that “the goal is for all our mosques and especially Hagia Sophia to become centers of knowledge about Islam.”
So be it. As the anniversary of the Turkish conquest of Constantinople and its Hagia Sophia recently passed (May 29, 1453), let us revisit what happened on that day — a day that truly does impart much “knowledge about Islam,” not least because we have primary source documents describing exactly what the Turks did, particularly in and around Hagia Sophia. (All quoted text in the following narrative was derived from contemporary sources, mostly eyewitnesses; exact references can be found in chapter 7 of Sword and Scimitar.)
Once they had penetrated inside Constantinople, the “enraged Turkish soldiers … gave no quarter”:
When they had massacred and there was no longer any resistance, they were intent on pillage and roamed through the town stealing, disrobing, pillaging, killing, raping, taking captive men, women, children, old men, young men, monks, priests, people of all sorts and conditions[.] … There were virgins who awoke from troubled sleep to find those brigands standing over them with bloody hands and faces full of abject fury[.] … [The Turks] dragged them, tore them, forced them, dishonored them, raped them at the cross-roads and made them submit to the most terrible outrages[.] … Tender children were brutally snatched from their mothers’ breasts and girls were pitilessly given up to strange and horrible unions, and a thousand other terrible things happened[.]
Because thousands of citizens had fled to and were holed up in Hagia Sophia, the ancient basilica offered an excellent harvest of slaves once its doors were axed down:
One Turk would look for the captive who seemed the wealthiest, a second would prefer a pretty face among the nuns. … Each rapacious Turk was eager to lead his captive to a safe place, and then return to secure a second and a third prize. … Then long chains of captives could be seen leaving the church and its shrines, being herded along like cattle or flocks of sheep.
The slavers sometimes fought each other to the death over “any well-formed girl,” even as many of the latter “preferred to cast themselves into the wells and drown rather than fall into the hands of the Turks.”
Having taken possession of the Hagia Sophia — which at the time of its capture had served as a cathedral for a thousand years — the invaders “engaged in every kind of vileness within it, making of it a public brothel.” On “its holy altars” they enacted “perversions with our women, virgins, and children,” including “the Grand Duke’s daughter who was quite beautiful.” She was forced to “lie on the great altar of Hagia Sophia with a crucifix under her head and then raped.”
Next “they paraded the [Hagia Sophia’s main] Crucifix in mocking procession through their camp, beating drums before it, crucifying the Christ again with spitting and blasphemies and curses. They placed a Turkish cap … upon His head, and jeeringly cried, ‘Behold the god of the Christians!'”
Practically all other churches in the ancient city suffered the same fate. “The crosses which had been placed on the roofs or the walls of churches were torn down and trampled.” The Eucharist was “thrown to the ground and kicked.” Bibles were stripped of their gold or silver illuminations before being burned. “Icons were without exception given to the flames.” Patriarchal vestments were placed on the haunches of dogs; priestly garments were placed on horses.
“Everywhere there was misfortune, everyone was touched by pain” when Sultan Muhammad finally made his grand entry into the city. “There were lamentations and weeping in every house, screaming in the crossroads, and sorrow in all churches; the groaning of grown men and the shrieking of women accompanied looting, enslavement, separation, and rape.”
The sultan rode to Hagia Sophia, dismounted, and went in, “marveling at the sight” of the grand basilica. After having it cleansed of its crosses, statues, and icons — Muhammad himself knocked over and trampled on its main altar — he ordered a muezzin to ascend the pulpit and sound “their detestable prayers,” wrote a disgruntled Christian. “Then this son of iniquity, this forerunner of Antichrist, mounted upon the Holy Table to utter forth his own prayers,” thereby “turning the Great Church into a heathen shrine for his god and his Mahomet.”
To cap off his triumph, Muhammad had the “wretched citizens of Constantinople” dragged before his men during evening festivities and “ordered many of them to be hacked to pieces, for the sake of entertainment.” The rest of the city’s population — as many as forty-five thousand — were hauled off in chains to be sold into Easter captivity.
Such is the “knowledge about Islam” that the Hagia Sophia’s experiences truly impart.
Setting the record straight concerning the conquest of Constantinople, as this article has done, is doubly important now that Google and Big Tech are, like the Turks, devoted to hiding the truth of this day. Before Turkey violently transformed the Hagia Sophia into a mosque, googling the date “May 29” — a day that for centuries before Pearl Harbor “lived in infamy” — produced numerous search results on the Muslim conquest of Constantinople; today, very few do.
Alas, It just sounded like what crusaders did in Jerusalem,
…there’s that ignorance of history revealing itself again.
Brother,
As you know, Islam has its pagan shrine on Mecca. It has nothing to do with Jersulem. Christisns and Jews mocked Mohamet early on when he started promoting its cult. That’s why the Qiran prescribes to hate and curse Jews and Christians.
For mudlims reading this, the Crusaders were created to defend against the Invasion of Mahomet hordes that attacked Christian lands in the midfle East. This cult originated in the 7th century, by then Christianity had been well established n the Middle East.
The Crusaders are back to defend against the new covert Islamic hordes in Academia in the West, as well as enemies within.
The fake Quran book, fake prophet and cult are being ridiculed in open debate (without blasphemy laws) by using your own book, ahadiths and tafsirs. The more one reads about Islam, the uglier it becomes. It is incumbent ipon every Christian to.read the unholy Quran to be in the know first hand about the poison it really is.
Christ and the communication age is destroying Islam. Islam can no longer hide. The lie in the mosque told to the young and ignorant muslim can no longer be hidden under the imperfect Arabic lingua.
Translations by your own linguists suffice to show that the unholy Quran IS NOT THE WORD OF GOD but the ignorant rantings of a lustfull, booty seeking caravan raider Mohamet, who is roasting in hell for all the killing and pillage he has promoted during the last 1400 years.
Mohamet endured the type of death their fake deity, allah, prescribed for a fake prophet in the Quran (i.e., idol allah cut Mohammet Aorta and made him feel such cut just before he died). Ironic is not it!!
Anyone who reads the unholy Quran (just the fiirst 9 chapters) realizes that it is a man made book made for violent, hateful and lustful men prompted to fight day and night for a heaven containing “heavely breasted houris ( prostitutes) and rivers of wine, that, somehow, while forbidden on Earth, become allowed in heaven. Endless penises are afforded in the Islamic lustful heaven. It is all there for the world to see in the most trusted Islamic sources and in the Quran itself.
Islam is DYING. Christ is King.
ALHAMDUYAWEH.!!
Yes Sam, if you mean the barbarity of the battle, which at that time was “barbarous” and primitive still, not having the weapons which we have today.
What the Crusaders did not take part in, was the absolute cruelty to the civilians and enjoyment of rape, mutilations, taking of slaves, various kinds of public torture for entertainment, and other heinous crimes that were and remain today – common – under Islamic conquest and even raids in African countries – and even in what we would call crimes, in our Western countries today by some Muslims living in our countries:
Think the Rape Grooming Gangs in the UK going on for almost 3 decades untouched by authorities: Sarah Champion (Labour MP) estimated possibly a – Million – underage girl victims captive for from 2-4 years of their young lives and used as sex slaves.
Former PM of UK David Cameron called it, “Rape on an Industrial Scale.” Still going on as I write this.
The rape and violent crime surges in all countries where mass migration has taken place in Europe if the immigrant population gains any size.
The two European girls camping in Morocco who were raped and killed and filmed by the assailants, young women in their 20’s I believe.
Etc., ” ” ” ” ” ad infinitum –
And I’ll add that there may have been by some Crusaders, committing some rape and even killing of innocents – but nowhere near what would be called a common or even condoned practice. War itself, can bring out the best and worst in humans. I have experienced war on a very small scale in Vietnam, enough to gain a better understanding.
So your somewhat snide statement is both erroneous and uninformed by the facts and also, a “false equivocation.”
Don’t be fooled Sam, this is a very dangerous group spreading rapidly in many places around the globe by both armed conquest and insidious emigration, propaganda and deceit.
If you want links respond to me or better, look at Raymond’s series of monthly articles on the Muslim persecution of Christians around the globe. He’s been doing them since July 2011. They are brief, 1-2 pgs each. I’m an old guy still working so limited time, read Raymond’s book and articles. I’ll give a few links if you like.
Best to you.
Thank you Don.
Thanks Raymond. On a weekend we usually enjoy, and give some respect to those gone before into battle for freedom, feelings of appreciation can’t help but well up for those especially who lost their lives in battle of were permanently infirmed by their injuries.
My eyes water at times when I imagine the impact of those events of The Great War and WW2, or at the site of our flag during the National Anthem, soldiers in uniform at attention, etc.
In remembering that day in Hagia Sophia at Constatinople 5.29.1453, and the events and your book describes and all we’ve learned about the history of Islam, I remain completely dry-eyed and ever more determined to get the word out in whatever way I can.
I remain thankful of all you courageous people who are out there publicly, but also like myself, there are many working quietly behind the scenes in support and spreading of the warning.
Recently linked one of your articles in commenting to Guy Milliere (a Gatestone Fellow), in one of his very riveting articles about the problems in France.
The article linked was: “Islam: The West’s Most Formidable and Persistent Enemy”
Don’t remember which source I used but here is the Frontpage Mag link of 9.2.2019 for anyone interested, special attention should be paid to Historian Hillaire Belloc’s quote:
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/09/islam-wests-most-formidable-and-persistent-enemy-raymond-ibrahim/
Thanks again for all your work.
Thank you again Don and many thanks to Raymond Ibrahim always.
Why do we not find, one day, films that tell and tell us of these tragedies that he has done and are still doing, the supporters of Muhammad and the God of Islam
لماذا لا نجد في يوم من الايام افلام تحكي وتروي لنا هذه المأسي التي فعلها ومازالوا يفعلون انصار محمد واله الاسلام
Speak English we’re in America.
What’s the problem? I’ve seen people write in Spanish, Italian and even Afrikaans in these columns. If I can’t undestand what they say I have it translated. Besides Magdy Saleeb’s view (including name and surname) is clear from the first para written in English. And BTW all who read Raymond Ibrahim’s books and articles are not always in America including myself. He is read all over the world.
PS to my above comment to EmeraldCityNotebook:
For your information::It says in Arabic exactly what it says in English.
Cheap and Snarky comment, Emeraldcitynotebook. Perhaps you might consider requesting what you need instead of belittling others….
Wikipedia has a reasonable amount of factual information. However, Britannica says this: “Mehmed II and his army were remarkably restrained in their handling of affairs after the fall of Constantinople. They largely refrained from slaughtering commoners and nobility, instead choosing to ransom them to their home states and primarily executing only those who fought after the surrender.” Clearly, the editors of Britannica have been cowed and fear for their lives.
‘Remarkably restrained?’ REALLY!!!
AMEN – the TRUTH of this satanic death-cult exposed