Mimar Sinan (1490 - 1588) was the chief imperial architect and civil engineer of the Ottoman Empire, serving three sultans across roughly fifty years. [1] He was responsible for hundreds of buildings, including mosques, bridges, aqueducts, hospitals and caravanserais, and his mastery of the domed interior brought the classical Ottoman style to its highest development. [2] The Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul and the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne are his best-known works.
Origins and early career
Sinan was born around 1490 in the village of Ağırnas near Kayseri, in central Anatolia, to a Christian family of Anatolian Greek or Armenian origin. [1] He was recruited as a young man through the devşirme, the Ottoman levy of Christian youths for state service, converted to Islam and was trained in Istanbul.
He entered the Janissary corps and served on campaign in Europe and the Middle East, including at Rhodes, Mohács and in the Safavid wars. During these years he worked as a military engineer, building fortifications, bridges and ships, and it was this practical engineering experience rather than a formal architectural apprenticeship that formed the basis of his later work. [2]
Chief imperial architect
In 1538 Sinan was appointed mimarbaşı, chief architect of the imperial court, under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, a post he held until his death under Selim II and Murad III. [1] The office made him responsible for the empire's public building programme, and he directed a large office of assistants and apprentices whose work extended across Ottoman territory.
Surviving registers credit him and his office with several hundred structures. Alongside mosques these include madrasas, public kitchens, hospitals, bathhouses, mausoleums, caravanserais, bridges and water systems, among them the Mağlova Aqueduct supplying Istanbul.
Major works
Sinan divided his own career into three stages, describing the Şehzade Mosque in Istanbul, completed in 1548, as the work of his apprenticeship. [3] The Süleymaniye Mosque, finished in 1557 for Suleiman the Magnificent, he called the work of his qualification; it dominates a hill above the Golden Horn and anchors a vast charitable complex.
The Selimiye Mosque at Edirne, completed in 1575, he named the work of his mastery. Its single dome, carried on eight piers and surrounded by four slender minarets, achieved an unobstructed central space that Sinan regarded as surpassing the Hagia Sophia, the Byzantine church that had long set the benchmark for domed construction in the city. [2]
Death and legacy
Sinan died in Istanbul on 17 July 1588 and was buried in a modest tomb of his own design beside the Süleymaniye complex. [1] He trained a generation of architects who carried Ottoman building practice into the seventeenth century and as far as Mughal India.
The Selimiye Mosque and its social complex were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2011, and the historic areas of Istanbul containing the Süleymaniye and Şehzade mosques were listed in 1985. [4] Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul bears his name, and he is commonly regarded as the greatest architect of the Islamic world.
