|
Mimar Sinan (The Architect) 1490 - 1588
He
is an architect who grew up in one of the most splendid periods
of the Ottoman State, and who contributed to this era with his
works.
Various sources state that Sinan was the architect of around 360
structures which included 84 mosques, 51 small mosques
("mescit"), 57 schools of theology ("medrese"), 7 schools for
Koran reciters ("darülkurra"), 22 mausoleums ("türbe"), 17 Alm
Houses ("imaret"), 3 hospitals ("darüssifa"), 7 aquaducts and
arches, 48 inns ("Caravansari"), 35 palaces and mansions, 8
vaults and 46 baths. Sinan, who held the position of chief
architect of the palace, which meant being the top manager of
construction works of the Ottoman Empire, for nearly 50 years,
worked with a large team of assistants consisting of architects
and master builders.
The
development and maturing stages of Sinan can be marked with
three major works. The first two of these are in Istanbul -
Sehzade Mosque which he calls his apprenticeship period work,
Sueymaniye Mosque which is the work of his qualification stage,
and Selimiye Mosque in Edrine the product of his master stage.
Sehzade Mosque is the first of the grand mosquws Sinan has
created. Mihriman Sultan Mosque which is also known as the
Uskudar Quay Mosque was completed in the same year and has an
original design with its main dome supported by three half domes.
When Sinan reached the age of 70, he had completed the
Suleymanile Mosque and the Complex. This building, situated on
one of the hills of Istanbul facing the Golden Horn, and built
in the name of Suleyman the Magnificent, is one of the symbolic
monuments of the period. The diameter of the dome which exceeds
31 meters at Selimiye Mosque which Sinan completed when he was
80, is the most significant example of the level of achievement
Sinan reached in architecture. Mimar Sinan has reached his
artistic summit with the design, architecture, tile decorations,
land stone workmanship displayed at Selimiye.
Another area of architecture where Sinan delivered unique
projects are the mausoleums. Mausoleum of Sehzade Mehmed gets
attention with its exterior decorations and sliced dome. Rüstem
Pasa mausoleum is a very attractive structure in classical style.
The mausoleum of Suleyman the Magnificent which is one of his
most interesting experimentations has an octagonal body and flat
dome. Selim II Mausoleum with has a square plan and is one of
the best examples of Turkish mausoleum architecture. Sinan's own
mausoleum which is located at the north-east part of the
Suleymaniye complax on the other hand, is a very plain structure.
Sinan, in the bridges he built, has masterfully combined art
with functionalism. The largest of his work in this group is the
nearly 635 m. long Büyükçekmece Bridge in Istanbul. Other
significant examples are Silivri Bridge outside of Istanbul,
Lüleburgaz (Sokullu Mehmet Pasha) Bridge on Lüleburgaz River,
Sinanli Bridge over Ergene River and Drina Bridge which has
became the title of the famous novel of Yugoslav author Ivo
Andriç.
While Sinan was maintaining and improving the water supply
system of Istanbul, he has built arched aqueducts at several
locations within the city. Maglova Arch over Alibey River, which
is 257 meter long, 35 meters high and displaying two layers of
arches is one of the best samples of its kind.
Historical context
While Italian architects from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo
contributed to the evolution of large domed churches, a parallel
and equally momentous development took place to the southeast in
the Ottoman Empire. Mimar Sinan, the Chief of Architects to the
Sultans from 1538 to 1588, experimented boldly with domed
structure and interior space in a vast array of mosques. On one
hand, the architects of the Italian Renaissance conceived their
designs in response to the demands of Christianity, and to the
architectural theory of humanist scholars. On the other, Sinan,
observing traditional principles, oversaw a great metamorphosis
of the mosque in the service of Islam. More than any other
Ottoman architect he set the course for the design of religious
structures for centuries to come. Both architectural traditions,
Italian and Ottoman, received influences from the Roman Empire,
but western and eastern architects interpreted the Roman and
Byzantine legacy in entirely separate ways. Naturally the
buildings that they erected differed in terms of structure,
space, symbolism and ornament. Mimar Sinster of the 16th Century
Ottoman MosquePrepared by Henry Matthews for Arch 324, History
of Archi to the NineteenthCentury.
Please e-any quesions or
comments t
Sinan’s mosques and buildings of other types offer enormous
scope for study because he and his assistants completed so many
of them. While no Italian architect built more than a few domed
structures, Sinan is credited with over a hundred, including
twenty-five in Istanbul alone. His works are spread from the
Balkans, through Anatolia to Damascus, Syria and even Jerusalem.
If we examine a select group of these, we will see that he not
only experimented vigorously with alternative schemes, but also
continued to refine his designs. Although his early mosques
built around 1540 show mastery of his profession, he was able to
progress over the next twenty years towards a peak in the
creation of the Selimiye mosque at Edirne. Since he held the
position of Chief of Architects for fifty years his
opportunities were unparalleled in architectural history.
The
Life of Sinan
Sinan was born a Christian, probably Greek, in a village near
Kayseri in central Anatolia at the turn of the sixteenth century.
In about 1512 he was enrolled in the Janissary Corps, an elite
wing of the Ottoman army whose members were all taken from
Christian families converted to Islam and trained to fight for
the Sultan. Sinan was taught the trade of carpentry, at which he
clearly excelled. He participated in many military campaigns
ranging from Central Europe to Iran and Iraq and received
regular promotions. In his role of military engineer he oversaw
the building of fortifications, ships and bridges, making his
reputation most decisively when he constructed a bridge over the
River Pruth in Moldavia in just a few days. During his extensive
travels for military purposes he must have seen fine examples of
the architecture of several civilizations, and taken note of
their qualities. On the basis of his exceptional talents and
flair for organization, he was appointed chief architect to the
Sultan in 1538. From then until his death at the age of at least
ninety he was responsible, with the assistance of a corps of
architects for the design and construction of over four hundred
buildings. While he cannot personally have designed all of them
or visited them during construction, there can be little doubt
that he exercised full authority over a significant number of
exceptional buildings, a few of which will be analyzed here.
The
Mosque
The
followers of Muhammad who after his death in 632 AD spread the
faith of Islam along the southern shores of the Mediterranean to
Spain and through the Middle East as far as the Indus had few
needs in their places of worship. While the Christian church,
with its elaborate liturgy, required buildings for the
celebration of Mass, the Islamic place of prayer demanded no
particular building shape or form. In Christian churches the
apse or choir, for the priests and monks, was separated from the
nave and transepts for the lay people. The altar, always at the
east end, was the focus of the service, and provision was made
for processions and other rituals. In the Islamic religion there
were no priests. Apart from readings from the Koran and Friday
sermons on moral, political and social issues, the sole activity
in the Mosque was personal prayer. This required a space
protected from sun and rain where the faithful could pray
together. The only other specific needs were a mihrab, a niche
in the wall on the side facing towards Mecca to which the
prayers were directed, the mimber or raised platform for the
delivery of sermons, and a place for ablutions. The minaret,
from which the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer five times a
day, became an essential element of the mosque from early times.
An important consideration in the design of mosques is the
prohibition of images representing humans or animals, which was
regarded as idolatry. While Christian churches were ornamented
with sculpture, painting and stained glass on religious themes,
Islamic religious buildings were enriched only with abstract
decorations and calligraphy.
Pre-Ottoman
Mosques
The
first Muslims, coming from a nomadic life in Arabia had
virtually no architectural traditions of their own, but the
lands that they and their converts conquered were rich in art
and architecture. The Greco-Roman sophistication of cities that
fell to Islamic warriors offered inspiration for a new
architecture fulfilling their own religious and social needs.
They adopted various Roman and Christian building types and
adapted them freely to serve their own purposes. The
longitudinal basilica, leading towards the altar in the apse had
proved to be ideal for Christian worship. For Islamic mosques,
similar aisled halls were built and further aisles were
sometimes added to make a larger space. Columns from existing
Roman buildings were often used. The axis of the interior was
not emphasized, and it could, if desired, be turned ninety
degrees. Large courtyards, providing a peaceful transition from
the city streets or the openness of the desert, as well as extra
space for worshippers, were often added. To give shade, the
courtyards were usually surrounded with arcades. An example of
an early mosque is the one built at Kufa in Iraq in 637. Here a
five aisled hall stands on one side of a courtyard, surrounded
on the others with two rows of columns supporting a roof. The
concept is extremely simple, a broad expanse of horizontal space
interrupted only by slender columns. A more complex design, with
the same horizontality is found in the Mosque at Cordoba, Spain
begun in 786.
Domed spaces, following another Roman type, also served as
mosques, but several centuries passed before they became common.
The foremost early example is the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem,
(completed 691) closely modeled after Early Christian Martyria .
Covering the rock where, according to Muslim belief, Abraham
sacrificed Isaac and from which Muhammad ascended to heaven, it
serves a unique purpose. Generally the aisled hall prevailed,
but occasionally domes appeared, to emphasize the entrance or
the area around the Mihrab. Eventually the dome was to emerge as
an essential feature in Ottoman architecture.
The
Ottoman Mosque Before Sinan
The
dynasty of sultans founded by Osman (1288-1324?) ruled over a
great empire that, at its peak in the sixteenth century
stretched eastwards from the Balkans through the Middle-East to
the shores of the Caspian Sea, south to the Persian Gulf and
west along the coast of North Africa to include Egypt and
Algeria. From 1333 until the fall of Constantinople in 1453
their capital was at Bursa. Sultans and other high officials
considered it his duty to build mosques and by the fifteenth
century they were making them part of larger complexes known as
külliyes. These typically included religious schools (medreses),
hospitals, hospices, and kitchens to feed the poor. The first
Ottoman mosques were Small Square structures covered with
hemispherical domes and surrounded by plain stone walls. No
windows penetrated these domes; the only openings were small
ones in the walls The Alaettin Mosque at Bursa, which is only
8.2 meters square, represents this type. But soon they were to
build on a larger scale and to add further domes of the same
size adjacent to each other. The Ulu Cami (Great Mosque) at
Bursa (1396 - 1400) was planned on a four by five bay grid with
twelve supporting piers and twenty equal domes on pendentives.
The interior offers long vistas on horizontal axes, illuminated
by the small openings in the domes. The concept of creating a
more vertical and centralized space appears in the Üç Serefeli
Mosque at Edirne (1437 - 1447.) A central dome is flanked by
four smaller domes, arranged in pairs at both ends of a long
interior. This design begins the transition towards the higher,
single domed mosques that were to dominate Ottoman architecture
in the time of Sinan. In a scheme somewhat similar to Hagia
Sophia, the Sultan Beyazit II Mosque in Istanbul (ca. 1500)
carries the same theme further.
The
images presented on this web site show a selection of Sinan's
mosques that demonstrate his experimentation with space and
structure from his Sehzade Mosque of 1543 to his masterpiece
the Selimiye Mosque at Edirne, begun in 1568 [#31 - 40] You will
be able to see square and octagonal plans, with and without
semidomes in the manner of Hagia Sophia. The influence of Hagia
Sophia is evident in the Sehzade and Süleymaniye mosques, but
Sinan tended to mimimize the structural supports, thus opening
up the interior space. In the octagonal Selimiye Mosque he
achieved an unprecedented spatial unity.
Mimar just to
mention had Hajrudin as his student, Hjarudin later went on to
design and build the "Old Bridge" (Stari Most) in Mostar Bosnia
Herzegovina.
|
