ARCHITECT OF THE SULTANS
One man shaped the way Istanbul looks today: Mimar Sinan.
Right around the same time that Michelangelo was redesigning the plan for the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, one of the world’s greatest architects was reshaping Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire with his works. At least 314 projects — and a probable 163 others — were built under the direction and according to the designs of Sinan. Often referred to as Mimar (Architect) Sinan, his work would define the height of the Ottoman Empire.
Born in the early 1490s near Kayseri in modern Turkey, Sinan came from a Christian family but at the age of 14 was conscripted to be a janissary. These elite soldiers were Christian sons taken as slaves and required to convert to Islam to serve the sultan in Istanbul. Unlike typical slaves, janissaries were paid and had a great deal of social respect. As a janissary, Sinan gained important experience, especially in carpentry and waterworks. This was in an era when the Ottomans were expanding their empire in all directions and as such, Sinan was involved in many military campaigns. Sinan advanced through the ranks, supervising the construction of a stone bridge in Bulgaria in 1529, and restoring many shrines along the military routes. Praise from a superior reached the right ears and helped Sinan secure the position of Court Architect in 1537 — even though he had never worked within that office. Legend has it he built a wooden bridge in 13 days that could support the great weight of the army and its equipment during the 1538 Moldovan campaign. But his first big commission was a külliye, a mosque complex for the sultan’s chief consort and legal wife, Haseki Hürrem, in 153839. The Haseki Sultan Complex consists of a mosque, hospital, kitchen and two schools. Sinan served under three sultans: Süleyman the Magnificent (1520-1566), Selim II (1566-1574) and Murad III (1574-1595). His constructions changed Istanbul’s skyline, and remain a part of that skyline today. As an architect he didn’t merely design buildings, but rather entire complexes that showed his eye for topography. He has been called the Euclid of his time for his mastery of geometry. No one knows for sure how he managed to learn all the engineering behind his works, other than through observation in his travels and just plain experience. But one thing surely inspired him: the magnificent Byzantine basilica, Hagia Sophia, commissioned by Emperor Justinian and
completed in 537 C.E. Even the Muslim Turks who finally conquered Constantinople in 1453 were left breathless at the architectural wonder. Here, he could observe the great open space within and gain knowledge of structural support for such a space. Certain of Sinan’s building elements, especially his two larger mosques named for two of the sultans he served, show how he tried to outdo the great church and how he learned progressively from his own designs. The growing empire — it reached its maximum size in Sinan’s century — meant bigger budgets for building projects as well as more patrons who could commission works. Each sultan commissioned his own mosque, and Sinan, in turn, designed each of their tombs. But the royal architect also ventured outside Istanbul. Sinan went on the hajj in 1583, but returned to finish at least two more mosques in his 90s. In 1588, he passed away in his mansion next to his finest work, Süleymaniye Mosque. His tomb stands right outside the complex walls.
SINAN’S WORKS
Many of Sinan’s works have been lost to demolition, disrepair or renovations, but several of his finest works remain open to visitors. The mosques are the most obvious, but many of his other constructions — tombs, bridges, aqueducts, bathhouses and guesthouses — remain today, still shaping the city’s space five centuries later.
MOSQUES Sehzade Mosque
When Süleyman’s son and heir Mehmed passed before his time in 1543, the sultan turned to Sinan for a mosque dedicated to the prince. Sinan improved upon his design for the Mihrimah Mosque across the Bopshorus in Uskudar. The central dome is surrounded by four half-domes with subtle supporting piers rather than columns, which magnifies the impression of the open space. The colonnades along two façades of the mosque also conceal the building’s supporting buttresses, and the entire structure resembles a pyramid in its layout.
Süleymaniye Mosque
Completed in 1557, the largest of Sinan’s square-based mosques features two semidomes, a design feature similar to Hagia Sophia. The lower level around the dome features varying sizes of cupolas to repeat that pyramid effect seen in Sehzade. Two minarets of 76 meters (249 feet) and two of 56 meters (184 feet) stand at the corners of the courtyard with the taller ones closer to the mosque and showing three balconies while the shorter structures only bear two. Sinan gave the three-story façade of the courtyard wall a tall, palatial look, unlike any of his other mosque complexes. So magnificent was this project that the sultan even let his architect lead the procession to its opening.
Selimiye Mosque
This mosque was commissioned by Sultan Selim II in 1568 and took seven years to complete. Located in Edirne, the second city of the empire at that time, it’s often considered Sinan’s masterpiece.
The interior space is defined by a colossal central dome that measures 31.22 meters (102.4 feet) in diameter and 42.25 meters (138.6 feet) in height, and is perforated with carefully arranged tiny windows allowing in sunlight. Sinan used an octagonal, rather than square, base to support the dome, lending the space a complicated geometry. The surrounding eight arches are smaller and narrower, making the space feel even more immense.
TOMBS
Hürrem Sultan gave Sultan Süleyman six children. When she died in 1558, Sinan designed her tomb. Her name meant “cheerful one,” so within, Sinan had special Iznik tiles installed depicting the Garden of Paradise. The octagonal exterior masks a 16-sided interior under the central dome. When the sultan himself passed in 1566, Sinan again designed a tomb, one which consists of an octagonal-base dome above a matching portico and abundant malakari trowel work, a Turkish plaster-relief technique that dates back centuries before the Ottomans. Both tombs stand within the sultan's own mosque complex. Completed in 1577 — three years after the death of its occupant — the tomb of Sultan Selim II lies within the Hagia Sophia compound and is Sinan's most beautiful mausoleum. The tiles inside and on the two panels at the entryway are beautiful. The sultan shares the space with 42 sarcophagi for his various family members.
BRIDGES, BATHS AND BEYOND Haseki Hürrem Hamam
Built on the original site of the baths for the Hagia Sophia community, this newer design was commissioned by Sultan Süleyman's chief consort and legal wife, Hürrem, and completed in 1556. The baths are divided symmetrically for male and female patrons and, in Turkish custom of the time, laid out on a north-south access. Today, they're open to the public.
Sultan Süleyman Bridge
Erecting a military bridge in 13 days might have built Sinan's reputation, but his finest bridge is the only one that bears his name — literally, inscribed in the stone like an artist's signature. The 28-span, 630-meter (2,067-foot) stone bridge crosses a shallow lake west of Istanbul at Büyükçekmece. The bridge consists of four sections, punctuated by three islets. Legend has it a near drowning of the sultan during a crossing there prompted its 1567 construction.
Maglova Aqueduct
Sinan built this structure in 1563 after his previous design succumbed to a flood. It stands about 10 miles north of Süleyman Mosque. As if to further establish Mimar Sinan's relevance today, his aqueduct still carries water to Istanbul. Sinan built a strong foundation for Ottoman architectural traditions, which spread across the Eastern World. His apprentices went on to help build two of the world's most famous buildings, Istanbul's Blue Mosque and the Taj Mahal in India.
SO MAGNIFICENT WAS THIS PROJECT THAT THE SULTAN EVEN LET HIS ARCHITECT LEAD THE PROCESSION TO ITS OPENING.