Editing Hagia Sophia (section)

===19th-century restoration===
Following the building's conversion into a mosque in 1453, many of its mosaics were covered with plaster, due to [[Aniconism in Islam|Islam's ban on representational imagery]]. This process was not completed at once, and reports exist from the 17th century in which travellers note that they could still see Christian images in the former church. In 1847–1849, the building was restored by [[Fossati brothers|Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati]], and Sultan [[Abdulmejid I|Abdulmejid&nbsp;I]] allowed them to also document any mosaics they might discover during this process, which were later archived in Swiss libraries.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlkkLNd4P44 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160518033735/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlkkLNd4P44&gl=US&hl=en |archive-date=2016-05-18 |url-status=dead |title=Hagia Sophia. Nova PBS program; originally aired 2/25/2015 |website=[[YouTube]] |access-date=15 July 2020}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=April 2022}} This work did not include repairing the mosaics, and after recording the details about an image, the Fossatis painted it over again. The Fossatis restored the mosaics of the two ''hexapteryga'' (six-winged angels; it is uncertain whether they are [[seraph]]im or [[cherub]]im) located on the two east pendentives, and covered their faces again before the end of the restoration.<ref name=ho207>Hoffman (1999), p. 207</ref> The other two mosaics, placed on the west pendentives, are copies in paint created by the Fossatis since they could find no surviving remains of them.<ref name=ho207 /> As in this case, the architects reproduced in paint damaged decorative mosaic patterns, sometimes redesigning them in the process. The Fossati records are the primary sources about a number of mosaic images now believed to have been completely or partially destroyed in the [[1894 Istanbul earthquake]]. These include a mosaic over a now-unidentified ''Door of the Poor'', a large image of a jewel-encrusted cross, and many images of angels, saints, patriarchs, and church fathers. Most of the missing images were located in the building's two tympana.

One mosaic they documented is [[Christ Pantocrator]] in a circle, which would indicate it to be a ceiling mosaic, possibly even of the main dome, which was later covered and painted over with Islamic calligraphy that expounds God as the light of the universe. The Fossatis' drawings of the Hagia Sophia mosaics are today kept in the Archive of the [[Canton of Ticino]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.arte.tv/guide/fr/047933-000/monuments-eternels |title=Monuments éternels |date=21 September 2014 |work=Programmes ARTE |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150505015235/http://www.arte.tv/guide/fr/047933-000/monuments-eternels |archive-date=5 May 2015}}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="135">
File:Hagia Sophia Imperial Gate mosaic 2.jpg|Imperial gate mosaic
File:Hagia Sophia Southwestern entrance mosaics 2.jpg|Southwestern entrance mosaic with [[Justinian I|Justinian the Great]] (left) and [[Constantine the Great]] (right) with the [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Virgin Mary]] in the center 
File:Apse mosaic Hagia Sophia Virgin and Child.jpg|Apse mosaic of the [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Virgin Mary]] and [[Christ Child|Christ the Child]]
File:Empress Zoe mosaic Hagia Sophia.jpg|The [[Zoë Porphyrogenita|Empress Zoe]] mosaic
File:Comnenus mosaics Hagia Sophia.jpg|The [[John II Komnenos|Comnenus]] mosaic
File:Deesis mosaic Hagia Sophia.jpg|The [[Deësis]] mosaic
File:Johnchrysostom.jpg|Mosaic in the northern tympanum depicting Saint [[John Chrysostom]]
File:Jesus-Christ-from-Hagia-Sophia.jpg|Detail of the [[Christ Pantocrator]] mosaic, also known as the [[Deesis|Deësis]] mosaic
File:2. Seraph angel. 13th century CE. Ceiling mosaics, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey.jpg|A Seraph angel. 13th century CE.
</gallery>