Section: Week 2 Thursday, September 10 Queen of the Canon: Hagia Sophia | HART 310 SURVEYING BYZANTIUM

Select activity Submit reading response for 9/10 here

Submit reading response for 9/10 here Assignment

Due: Wednesday, September 9, 2026, 11:59 AM

Due to Moodle by midnight Wed 9/9
Select activity Tuesday, September 8 - Introduction

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Background reading:
Select activity Dr. William Allen, "Hagia Sophia, Istanbul," in Smarthistory, August 8, 2015, accessed September 4, 2026.

Dr. William Allen, "Hagia Sophia, Istanbul," in Smarthistory, August 8, 2015, accessed September 4, 2026. URL

This multimedia introduction to Hagia Sophia provides a good overview of the monument and a basic timeline for its history. Spend some time with the videos and photos, which are high quality, dynamic, and will help you make sense of some of the readings that have primarily black and white images.
Select activity Discussion reading:

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Discussion reading:
Select activity Robert Ousterhout, “The Holy Space: Architecture and the Liturgy,” in Linda Safran, ed., Heaven on Earth: art and the Church in Byzantium (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998), 81-120.

Robert Ousterhout, “The Holy Space: Architecture and the Liturgy,” in Linda Safran, ed., Heaven on Earth: art and the Church in Byzantium (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998), 81-120. File PDF

This brief survey of Byzantine architecture relates Hagia Sophia to a broader Byzantine tradition of sacred art.

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Select activity Gülru Necipoğlu, “The Life of an Imperial Monument: Hagia Sophia after Byzantium,” in ed. Robert Mark and Ahmet Cakmak, Hagia Sophia: From the Age of Justinian to the Present (1992), 195-225.

Gülru Necipoğlu, “The Life of an Imperial Monument: Hagia Sophia after Byzantium,” in ed. Robert Mark and Ahmet Cakmak, Hagia Sophia: From the Age of Justinian to the Present (1992), 195-225. File PDF

This essay considers the “afterlife” of Hagia Sophia in the Ottoman era. You may find this reading a bit more dense (it was written for more of a scholarly audience), so do your best with it.

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Select activity Benjamin Anderson, “Hagia Sophia: Church, Mosque, Museum,” in David Ludden (ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History (New York, NY, online edn, Oxford Academic, 27 Feb. 2017 - ) (20 Nov. 2024).

Benjamin Anderson, “Hagia Sophia: Church, Mosque, Museum,” in David Ludden (ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History (New York, NY, online edn, Oxford Academic, 27 Feb. 2017 - ) (20 Nov. 2024). File PDF

· The Ousterhout and Necipoğlu readings focus on a single period of the monument’s life and afterlife. The Anderson reading is more synthetic. Notice the dates of the various readings. Do you observe any changes over time in how scholars talk about Hagia Sophia? Do you think the Anderson reading could have been written in the 1990s, when Necipoğlu and Ousterhout were writing?

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Select activity Robert S. Nelson, “‘That Domed Feeling’: A Byzantine Synagogue in Cleveland,” in eds. Emily Neumeier and Benjamin Anderson, Hagia Sophia in the Long Nineteenth Century (2024), 169-96.

Robert S. Nelson, “‘That Domed Feeling’: A Byzantine Synagogue in Cleveland,” in eds. Emily Neumeier and Benjamin Anderson, Hagia Sophia in the Long Nineteenth Century (2024), 169-96. File PDF

This close analysis of a synagogue in Cleveland offers alternative ways to think about canon formation and its impacts.

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Select activity Optional additional resources to consider: (copy)

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Optional:
Select activity Byzantium and Friends Podcast: 29. The many identities of Hagia Sophia, past and present, with Bob Ousterhout (Jul 30, 2020).

Byzantium and Friends Podcast: 29. The many identities of Hagia Sophia, past and present, with Bob Ousterhout (Jul 30, 2020). URL
Select activity Further reading:

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Further reading:
Select activity Gareth Harris, "First Hagia Sophia, now Turkey's 'Sistine Chapel of Byzantium' will be turned back into mosque," The Art Newspaper, 24 August 2020

Gareth Harris, "First Hagia Sophia, now Turkey's 'Sistine Chapel of Byzantium' will be turned back into mosque," The Art Newspaper, 24 August 2020 URL

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Select activity Holger Klein (Columbia University) Op Ed, "Why we should be concerned about President Erdogan turning museums into mosques," The Art Newspaper, 27 August 2020

Holger Klein (Columbia University) Op Ed, "Why we should be concerned about President Erdogan turning museums into mosques," The Art Newspaper, 27 August 2020 URL

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Select activity "An Open Letter about the Status of Hagia Sophia," 30 June 2020

"An Open Letter about the Status of Hagia Sophia," 30 June 2020 File PDF

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Please read pp. 1-4. The rest can be perused if you wish but is not essential.

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Section outline

Background reading:

Discussion reading:

Optional:

Further reading: