Problem
Compare the issues surrounding the controversies over the naming of The Great Mosque at Cordoba and the return of Muslim prayer services to the Hagia Sophia. Use the video news stories below as sources to be cited for discussion. In addition, cite sources in-text.
How do these controversies highlight the complexity of identity and history when discussing architecture created by a culture that is no longer dominant in the state in which the building now stands?
As a clarification, the Hagia Sophia, now like many historical mosques in Istanbul, is open to visitors except during prayer times five times each day. Formerly, as a secular museum, there were no religious observances in the building, and it had hours like other museums in Istanbul. The Great Mosque (or Mosque-Cathedral) in Cordoba also hosts Catholic religious services each morning and twice on Sundays; the complex is not open to tourists during those times.