Victor Vicente

Acoustic Clash: The Politics of a Sufi Musical Performance at Aya Sofia Square, Istanbul

In August 2009, at the opening of the holy month of Ramadan, a Sufi music concert was staged in the large cobblestone square in front of the famous Aya Sofia in the heart of Istanbul, Turkey. The Aya Sofia, once the center of the Christian world, was an important mosque for nearly five centuries, but it became a museum in 1935 when the secular government attempted unsuccessfully to neutralize the influence of religion in the public sphere. In the decades since, the adjacent plaza has served as the main public performance venue in the old city. Performances here are inevitably charged with the explosive political energies that reverberate across the ancient cobblestones, for Aya Sofia Square, lying at the crossroads of opposing Christian, Muslim, and secularist ideologies, remains one of the most hotly contested public spaces in the world.

This paper provides an ethnographic description and analysis of just how volatile this performance venue has become in recent years by focusing on a single performance of Sufi music and ritual. As a nexus of competing agendas, this performance reveals the nuanced ways in which politicians, citizens, tourists, worshipers, and performers vie with one another in their efforts to use and control public space. Ultimately, in reclaiming sacred space from secularism, this performance proves to be one of the key fronts in which the battle to fundamentally transform public life in Turkey is being waged.