12/25/2024
Two medieval Arab descriptions of the Hagia Sophia:
The first is from Ibn Battuta: “I will describe its exterior having not seen its interior. It was built by…the cousin of Solomon….It is one of the greatest churches of the Rum. It is surrounded by walls, as if it were a city. Its gates are thirteen in number, and it has a sacred enclosure. No one is prevented from entering the enclosure…It is like an audience hall paved with marble and traversed by a water stream…that flows between two walls constructed of marble, inlaid with pieces of different colors and cut with the most skillful art.”
The second is a somewhat strange description: “The church is one of the most considerable and marvelous buildings to be seen…On the walls of this church are represented all of the cities of the world and all of the skills. When one of them wants to choose a skill for his son, he takes him to the walls and shows him the skills.” A merchant named Abdullah provided that description to the writer Al-Jazari.
Source: Byzantium Viewed by the Arabs by Nadia Maria El Cheikh
