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The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmet II, conquered Constantinople after a 54 day siege, which was the location of the church, Hagla Sophia. Eventually, Mehmet converted the church into a mosque after witnessing a man saying that this church was for infidels. Over the years, the Hagla Sophia has gone over a few changes by the Empire. For starters, the Sultan Bayezid ordered a new minaret, which is a tall slender tower with a balcony from which prayers are called, to be built. In the 16th century, Suleiman the Magnificent had two Hungarian colossal candles to be placed on both sides of the mihrab, which is a is a semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque. Towards the end of the 16th century, the exterior of the structure was strengthen by famous architect Sinan. Sinan also built two minarets on the western end of the building and the mausoleum of Selim II, which is a building housing a tomb or tombs, to the southeast of the building. In the 17th century, two mausoleums were added next to Selim II’s: Murad III and Mehmed III. Over time, two restorations were done, one in 1739 and one in 1749.

Around 500 years of following the conquest of Muslims, it became a grand location for the Muslim community, with its beauty and history giving it something to be proud of. In 1935, Ataturk, the first President of Turkey, ordered to convert the mosque into a museum of Turkish Republic. It than became a rich foundation of history of Turkey and the world.

The timing rooms within the Hagia Sophia were prepared for the intent of keeping the time in order to instruct those within of when to pray within their walls. Prayer was integral to the Islamic traditions, which made the muvakkithane (timing room), extremely important to those inhabiting the Hagia Sophia. In part because the Islamic religion centered around praying five times a day, and with the help of time rooms keeping the time, they were able to stay on schedule and pray all five times at the correct times. In all, there are 38 timing rooms held within the Hagia Sophia complex and all were utilized for telling time and most were also used for praying due to the time being kept for that particular reason. Within a muvakkithane (timing room), can be found  muvakkit, also known as a teller of time. These were specially trained individuals whose sole purpose was to stay within the time room and keep the time for everyone else. They were well trained in the science of telling time using cues such as the sun.

As technology has progressed, the muvakkithane (timing rooms), have become less integral a part of buildings due to the invention of clocks and no need to measure the sun to keep the time. Because of this, many of the time rooms have now been utilized for different purposes, some even sold to create cafes or other public meeting places. Many of these timing rooms were the most beautiful parts of the Hagia Sophia.