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.
Out of curiosity where are the muvakkithane/ timing rooms located on the Hagia Sophia grounds? I was looking at the structure of the Hagia Sophia and couldn’t quite locate where these are. I mean the building is huge and I wouldn’t doubt the ability to have them housed inside I just for some reason can’t wrap my head around the large number of them being housed in it with still a plethora of space.
Could you imagine if your sole purpose was keeping time? Kind of crazy to think about. Obviously the grounds are huge, but what was the purpose of having 38 timing rooms?
That’s crazy that someone would only rely on things like the sun to keep time. How much time were they allowed for prayer? What would they do for things like daylight savings? I think it is awesome that they put a lot of thought in the design for the rooms. It probably helps relax and focus on the prayer. Were they assigned certain prayers or things to prayer about when the five times were to occur or was it able to be about anything?
I can’t imagine staying in a room for the sole purpose of telling the time; the crazy part is that people did not know any different then, there were no clocks. Did they pray for different things at different times? It is a little sad that some of these rooms have been lost to tourist attraction-geared businesses and conferences, but with so many there are probably still a few left.