Thousands of Muslims have gathered outside The Hagia Sophia Mosque ahead of its first Friday prayer after it was turned back into a moque.

The Hagia Sophia will be open to visitors outside prayer times and its Christian icons will remain, after a court ruling paved the way for it to become a mosque.

On July 10, 2020, Turkey's Council of State annulled the Cabinet's 1934 decision to establish the museum, revoking the monument's status, and a subsequent decree of the President of Turkey ordered the reclassification of Hagia Sophia as a mosque.

The 1934 decree was ruled to be unlawful under both Ottoman and Turkish law as Hagia Sophia's waqf, endowed by Mehmed II, had designated the site a mosque.

Hagia Sophia is the former Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal cathedral, later an Ottoman imperial mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. It is famous for its large dome. Built in AD 537, during the reign of Justinian, it was the world's largest building and an engineering marvel of its time.

In 1453, Istanbul was conquered by the Ottoman Empire under Mehmed the Conqueror, who ordered this main church of Eastern Orthodox Christianity converted into a mosque.

It remained a mosque until 1931 when it was closed to the public for four years. It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum by the Republic of Turkey. (ILKHA)