After 79 years the first Friday prayer was held in the “Kariye” Mosque in Istanbul

Friday prayers were held at the "Kariye" Mosque for the first time in 79 years of its conversion into a museum and warehouse in Istanbul in 1948, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened it last Monday for worship again, after 4 years of restoration work.

Supplications were read over loudspeakers in the mosque's minarets as part of the program to reopen the mosque for worship again.

Worshipers flocked in large numbers from Istanbul to the mosque and its surroundings to perform prayers, and raised the takbirs.

The square of the mosque, located in the Al-Fateh area, was filled with worshipers who expressed their joy at its return as a mosque as before, asking God to bring goodness and blessings to the Muslims.

Last Monday, Erdogan opened the mosque located in Istanbul via video call from the presidential complex in the capital, Ankara, as part of an opening ceremony that includes 201 projects.

The "Kariye" building was built as a church in the early fourth century and was transformed into a mosque by decision of Grand Vizier Atiq Ali Pasha, during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II.

The mosque was turned into a museum in 1948, but President Erdogan issued a decree in August 2020 to restore the status of a mosque to the building and open it for worship.

Following the issuance of the presidential decree, the authorities launched an extensive restoration process in the mosque that lasted 4 years and ended with it being opened for worship again.