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INFORMATION |
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SULEYMANIYE MOSQUE;
Suleymaniye, rather than a mosque, is an important
historical symbol for the Turks. It unites Sinan with
Suleyman, one representing the best of the arts and the
other most powerful of political strength.
Like other works of the time, Suleymaniye is not only a
mosque but a huge complex. It is a work which typifies the
Ottoman.
Empire at its peak. Its name, Suleymaniye, derives from the
builder's name, Kanuni Sultan Suleyman (Lawgiver), Sultan
Suleyman I the Magnificent. The architect was the greatest
of Ottoman architects, the incomparable Sinan.
The Suleymaniye mosque was built between 1550-1557. A
spacious courtyard surrounds the mosque. Similar to the
Sultan Ahmet 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 sadirvan. 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, 61 m /
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 were one of the distinctive features of the
building which 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 Suleyman
and Sinan are buried in their tombs in the Suleymaniye
complex.
Arcitec Sinan (c.1491-1588)
He was born in the village of Agirnas in Kayseri probably in
a Christian family. At the age of about twenty, he was
levied for the service of the sultan. After being educated
in the palace school, he joined some of Sultan Suleyman'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 Mimarbasi, Chief of the Imperial
Architects, a post he held for half a century during the
reign of three different sultans; Suleyman I, Selim II and
Murat 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? Seljuk 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 between 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 esthatic
accomplishments.
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