Süleymaniye, more than a mosque, is an important historical symbol for the Turks. It unites Sinan with Süleyman, one representing the best of the arts and the other most powerful of political strength.
Like other works of the time, Süleymaniye is not only a mosque but a huge complex. It is a work which typifies the Ottoman Empire at its peak. Its name, Süleymaniye, derives from the builder’s name, Kanuni Sultan Süleyman (Lawgiver), Sultan Süleyman I the Magnificent. The architect was the greatest of Ottoman architects, the incomparable Sinan.
The Süleymaniye Mosque was built between 1550-1557. A spacious courtyard surrounds the mosque. Similar to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, there is another inner courtyard surrounded by porticos with 28 domes supported by 24 columns. This courtyard is a little smaller than the main building. In the middle is located a sadırvan. In the four corners of the inner courtyard stand four minarets having a total of ten serefes. The interior of the mosque is rectangular in plan, 61m /200 ft in width and 70 m / 230 ft in length. The main section is covered by a huge dome with a diameter of 27.5 m / 90 ft and a height of 47 m / 154 ft. The dome is held by four piers and supported by two semi-domes in the E and W. The transition to the main dome is provided by pendentives.
The acoustics are among the distinctive features of the building, and were achieved by placing 64 pots in different places in the walls and the floor. Except for those above the mihrab, the stained glass is not original. When the mosque was built there were 4,000 oil candles, the smoke from which could have endangered the paintings on the walls. The architect avoided this, however, by creating a system for the circulation of air inside the building. Sultan Süleyman and Sinan are buried in their tombs in the Süleymaniye Complex.
Architect Sinan (c.1491-1588)
He was born in the village of Agırnas in Kayseri probably of a Christian family. At the age of about twenty, he was drafted for the service of the sultan. After being educated in the palace school, he joined some of Sultan Süleyman’s campaigns. His promotion in the Ottoman army was parallel to his success in architecture and carpentry. At the age of 48, he was appointed Mimarbası, Chief of the Imperial Architects, a post he held for half a century during the reign of three different sultans; Süleyman I, Selim II and Murad III.
His creativity was born of sensitivity to the cultural heritage and his power of identifying its dynamic points and taking them to their ultimate conclusion. He was not just an architect but an equally accomplished engineer, urban planner and administrator. In his time, Istanbul was one of the world’s largest cities with all the complex problems of a large urban population. When Sinan built, he took into consideration each structure’s relationship with its environment and also estimated conceivable future difficulties that might arise.
What were his visual sources?
Selçuk architecture, churches carved in solid rock in Cappadocia, domed churches of Byzantium and being well traveled, his accumulated observations. He was constantly driven by the desire to learn to renew himself, to establish links with the past, present and future and to formulate reliable principles. Sinan retained this characteristic to the end of his life.
The total number of his works was 477 consisting of mosques, mescits, medreses, tombs, public kitchens, hospitals, aqueducts, palaces, storehouses, hamams and bridges. As an architect who built so many works, Sinan never repeated himself, an important feature, and for him, a remarkable achievement. A major aspect of his talent was the ability to transfer any possible architectural problems into esthetic accomplishments.
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Added By Serif Yenen
