ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday led thousands in the first Muslim prayers in Hagia Sophia since the Istanbul landmark was controversially converted back into a mosque. Massive crowds gathered both inside and outside the UNESCO World Heritage site, some draped in Turkish flags and others waving Islamic banners. Erdogan put the total number of people at 350,000, but the figure could not be independently verified.

There were some scuffles between worshippers and police as crowds scrambled to get into the overcrowded plaza in front of the Byzantine building in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, where some had even camped out the night before. Inside, the faithful, wearing protective face masks, took photos and selfies as they waited for prayers to begin.

As the sounds of the call to prayer from the Hagia Sophia's four minarets reverberated around the area, huge crowds of the faithful spread prayer mats on the lawns outside. Inside, the president, wearing an Islamic skullcap, recited a verse from the Koran.

In a sermon, the head of the state religious affairs agency, Ali Erbas, said the reopening "is the return of a sacred place, which had embraced believers for five centuries, to its original function."

Also in attendance was Erdogan's ally and leader of the ultranationalist MHP, Devlet Bahceli, but no opposition party leaders were present.

Galvanising voters?

The Hagia Sophia was built as a cathedral during the Christian Byzantine Empire and converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. In 1934, modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk ordered it be turned into a museum.