8:16 PM Suyleman Mosque, at Istanbul, Turkey, 1551 to 1558. | |
Sinan
Modern Turkish: Mimar Sinan)
Suyleman Mosque, at Istanbul, Turkey, 1551 to 1558.
Modern Turkish: Mimar Sinan)
(b. Anatolia, Turkey 1489; d. Istanbul, Turkey 1588) Mimar Koca Sinan, the "Great Architect Sinan",
Koca Mi'mâr Sinân Âğâ
(Ottoman Turkish: خواجه معمار سنان آغا; (c. 1489/1490 – July 17, 1588)
was the chief Ottoman architect (Turkish: "Mimar")
and civil engineer for sultans Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II, and Murad III.
He was responsible for the construction of more than three hundred major structures and other more modest projects, such as his Islamic primary schools (sibyan mektebs).
The son of a stonemason, he received a technical education and became a military engineer. He rose rapidly through the ranks to become first an officer and finally a Janissary commander, with the honorific title of ağa. He refined his architectural and engineering skills while on campaign with the Janissaries, becoming expert at constructing fortifications of all kinds, as well as military infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges and aqueducts.
At about the age of fifty, he was appointed as chief royal architect, applying the technical skills he had acquired in the army to the "creation of fine religious buildings" and civic structures of all kinds.
He remained in post for almost fifty years.
His masterpiece is the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, although his most famous work is the Suleiman Mosque in Istanbul. He headed an extensive governmental department and trained many assistants who, in turn, distinguished themselves, including Sedefkar Mehmed Agha, architect of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. He is considered the greatest architect of the classical period of Ottoman architecture, and has been compared to Michelangelo, his contemporary in the West.[ Michelangelo and his plans for St. Peter's Basilica in Rome were well-known in Istanbul, since Leonardo da Vinci and he had been invited, in 1502 and 1505 respectively, by the Sublime Porte to submit plans for a bridge spanning the Golden Horn.
was born of Greek Christian parents in Anatolia, Turkey in 1489.
Drafted as a soldier into the Ottoman royal house in 1512,
he quickly advanced from calvary officer to construction officer.
As construction officer he built bridges and fortifications.
In 1538 he was appointed Architect of the Abode of Felicity.
During his career Sinan built hundreds of buildings including mosques, palaces, harems, chapels, tombs, schools, almshouses, madrassahs, caravan serais, granaries, fountains, aqueducts and hospitals. Of this diverse group of works, his mosques have been most influential.
of the Hagia Sophia to create a building in which the central dome
would appear weightless and in which the interior surfaces would appear bathed in light.
He used buttressing on the exterior of his buildings to open the interiors.
He often designed his mosques as part of a complex comprising schools, baths, guesthouses and hospitals.
Generally considered the greatest of all Ottoman architects,
Sinan's career spanned fifty years. His great mosques are the archetypal image of Turkish Ottoman architecture.
Sinan died in Istanbul, Turkey in 1588.
References Dennis Sharp. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and Architecture. New York: Quatro Publishing, 1991. ISBN 0-8230-2539-X. NA40.I45. p141-142. | |
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