Turkey's Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque welcomed nearly 14,500 people on Monday, on the first day of Ramadan Bayram, also known as Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Those who wanted to perform the Eid al-Fitr prayer at Istanbul’s reverted Hagia Sophia Mosque began to come to the mosque from the early hours of the morning. Local and foreign tourists filled the mosque even before the prayer time. The faithful stood on the prayer mats, which they brought with them, outside the mosque.
Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque's imam Ferruh Muştuer led the bayram prayer.
After the prayer, Bünyamin Topçuoğlu, one of the imams of the mosque, delivered a sermon on the pulpit, which he climbed up with a sword.
