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Mimar Sinan
Mimar Sinan
Mimar Sinan
WORK
an Armenian.[28] Lucy Der Manuelian of Tufts University suggests that he can be identied as an Armenian
through a document in the imperial archives and other
evidence.[29]
chitect, learning the weak points of structures when gunning them down. In 1535 he participated in the Baghdad
campaign as a commanding ocer of the Royal Guard.
In 1537 he went on expeditions to Corfu and Apulia and
[35]
The scholars who support the thesis of his Cappadocian Moldavia.
Greek background have identied his father as a During these campaigns he proved himself an able arstonemason and carpenter by the name of Christos (Greek chitect and engineer. When the Ottoman army captured
), a common Greek name.[30][31]
Cairo, Sinan was promoted to chief architect and was
Several scholars have cited Sinans possible Albanian given the privilege of tearing down any buildings in the
origin.[22] According to the British scholar Percy Brown captured city that were not according to the city plan.
and the Indian scholar Vidya Dhar Mahajan, the Mughal During the campaign in the East, he assisted in the buildEmperor Babur was very dissatised from the local Indian ing of defences and bridges, such as a bridge across the
architecture and planning, thus he invited certain pupils Danube. He converted churches into mosques. During
of the leading Ottoman architect Sinan, the Albanian ge- the Persian campaign in 1535 he built ships for the army
and the artillery to cross Lake Van. For this he was given
nius, to carry out his architectural schemes.[32][33]
the title Haseki'i, Sergeant-at-Arms in the body guard of
Sinan grew up helping his father in his work, and by the Sultan, a rank equivalent to that of the Janissary Aa.
the time that he was conscripted would have had a good
grounding in the practicalities of building work.[7] There When Chelebi Lt Pasha became Grand Vizier in 1539,
are three brief records (Anonymous Text; Architectural he appointed Sinan, who had previously served under his
Masterpieces; Book of Architecture) in the library of command, to the oce of Architect of the Abode of FeTopkap Palace, dictated by Sinan to his friend and bi- licity. This was the start of a remarkable career. The job
entailed the supervision infrastructure construction and
ographer Mustafa Si elebi. In these manuscripts,
Sinan divulges some details of his youth and military ca- the ow of supplies within the Ottoman Empire. He was
also responsible for the design and construction of public
reer. His father is referred to as Abdlmennan (literally "Servant of the Generous and Merciful One"), a title works, such as roads, waterworks and bridges. Through
the years he transformed his oce into that of Architect
which was commonly used in the Ottoman period to deof the Empire, an elaborate government department, with
ne the non-Muslim father of a Muslim convert.[8]
greater powers than his supervising minister. He became
the head of a whole Corps of architects, training a team
of assistants, deputies and pupils.
Military career
In 1512, Sinan was conscripted into Ottoman service under the devshirme system.[26][34] He was sent to Constantinople to be trained as an ocer of the Janissary
Corps and converted to Islam.[26] He was too old to be
admitted to the imperial Enderun School in the Topkap
Palace but was sent instead to an auxiliary school.[26]
Some records claim that he might have served the Grand
Vizier Pargal brahim Pasha as a novice of the Ibrahim
Pasha School. Possibly, he was given the Islamic name
Sinan there. He initially learned carpentry and mathematics but through his intellectual qualities and ambitions, he
soon assisted the leading architects and got his training as
an architect.[26]
During the next six years, he also trained to be a Janissary ocer (acemiolan). He possibly joined Selim I
in his last military campaign, Rhodes according to some
sources, but when the Sultan died, this project ended.
Two years later he witnessed the conquest of Belgrade.
Under the new sultan, Suleiman the Magnicent, he was
present, as a member of the Household Cavalry, at the
Battle of Mohcs. He was promoted to captain of the
Royal Guard and then given command of the Infantry
Cadet Corps. He was later stationed in Austria, where he
commanded the 62nd Orta of the Rie Corps.[26] He became a master of archery, while at the same time, as an ar-
3 Work
His training as an army engineer gave Sinan an empirical
approach to architecture rather than a theoretical one. But
the same can be said of the great Western Renaissance
architects, such as Brunelleschi and Michelangelo.
Various sources state that Sinan was the architect of
at least 374 structures which included 92 mosques; 52
small mosques (mescit); 55 schools of theology (medrese);
7 schools for Koran reciters (darlkurra); 20 mausoleums (trbe); 17 public kitchens (imaret); 3 hospitals
(darifa); 6 aqueducts; 10 bridges; 20 caravanserais; 36
palaces and mansions; 8 vaults; and 48 baths.[36] Sinan
held the position of chief architect of the palace, which
meant being the overseer of all construction work of the
Ottoman Empire, for nearly 50 years, working with a
large team of assistants consisting of architects and master builders.
The development and maturing stages of Sinans career
can be illustrated by three major works. The rst two of
these are in Istanbul: the ehzade Mosque, which he calls
a work of his apprenticeship period and he Sleymaniye
Mosque, which is the work of his qualication stage. The
Selimiye Mosque in Edirne is the product of his master
3.1
stage.
Sinans major works
ehzade Mosque - Istanbul
ehzade Mosque interior
Sleymaniye Mosque - Istanbul
Sleymaniye Mosque interior
WORK
3.2
5
the most beautiful hamams he ever constructed.
In 1559, he built the Cafer Aa madrasah below the forecourt of the Hagia Sophia. In the same year he began
the construction of a small mosque for Iskender Pasha
While he was fully occupied with the construction of the at Kanlka, beside the Bosphorus. This was one of the
Sleymaniye, Sinan or his subordinates drew up the plans many minor and routine commissions the oce of Sinan
and gave instructions for many other constructions. Sinan received over the years.
built a mosque for the Grand Vizier Pargal brahim Pasha
and a mausoleum (trbe) at Silivrikap (Constantinople)
in 1551.
Possibly Mimar Sinan (left) at the tomb of Suleiman the Magnificent, 1566
In 1561, when Rstem Pasha died, Sinan began the construction of the Rstem Pasha Mosque, as a memorial
supervised by his widow Mihrimah Sultana. It is situated just below the Sleymaniye. This time the central
form is octagonal, modelled on the monastery church of
Saints Sergius and Bacchus, with four small semi-domes
set in the corners. In the same year, Sinan built a trbe for
Rstem Pasha in the garden of the ehzade Mosque, decorated with the nest tiles Iznik could produce. Mihrimah
Sultana, having doubled her wealth after the death of
her husband, now wanted a mosque of her own. Sinan
built the Mihrimah Camii at Edirnekap (Edirne Gate)
for her on the highest of the seven hills of Constantinople.
He raised the mosque on a vaulted platform, accentuating its hilltop site. There is some speculation concerning
the dates; until recently this was supposed to be between
1540 and 1540, but now it is generally accepted to be between 1562 and 1565. Sinan, concerned with grandeur,
built a mosque in one of his most imaginative designs,
using new support systems and lateral spaces to increase
the area available for windows. He built a central dome
37 m (121 ft) high and 20 m (66 ft) wide, supported by
pendentives, on a square base with two lateral galleries,
3.3
WORK
3.4 Conclusion
At the start of his career as an architect, Sinan had to
deal with an established, traditional domed architecture.
His training as an army engineer led him to approach architecture from an empirical point of view, rather than
7
or supervised 476 buildings (196 of which still survive),
according to the ocial list of his works, the Tazkiratal-Abniya. He could not possibly have designed them all,
but he relied on the skills of his oce. He took credit and
the responsibility for their work. For, as a janissary, and
thus a slave of the sultan, his primary responsibility was
to the sultan. In his spare time, he also designed buildings
for the chief ocials. He delegated to his assistants the
construction of less important buildings in the provinces.
94 large mosques (camii),
57 colleges,
Mimar Sinans architectural concepts were incorporated into the
design of the famous Taj Mahal.,[41][42] in the Mughal Empire
by Shah Jahan.
35 palaces (saray),
from a theoretical one. He started to experiment with
the design and engineering of single-domed and multiple 22 mausoleums (trbe),
domed structures. He tried to obtain a new geometrical
20 caravanserai (kervansaray; han),
purity, a rationality and a spatial integrity in his structures
and designs of mosques. Through all this, he demon 17 public kitchens (imaret),
strated his creativity and his wish to create a clear, unied space. He started to develop a series of variations
8 bridges,
on the domes, surrounding them in dierent ways with
8 store houses or granaries
semi-domes, piers, screen walls and dierent sets of galleries. His domes and arches are curved, but he avoided
7 Koranic schools (medrese),
curvilinear elements in the rest of his design, transform 6 aqueducts,
ing the circle of the dome into a rectangular, hexagonal or octagonal system. He tried to obtain a rational
3 hospitals (darifa)
harmony between the exterior pyramidal composition of
semi-domes, culminating in a single drumless dome, and
the interior space where this central dome vertically inte- Some of his works:
grates the space into a unied whole. His genius lies in
the organization of this space and in the resolution of the
Azapkapi Sokullu Mosque in Istanbul
tensions created by the design. He was an innovator in
Caferaa Medresseh
the use of decoration and motifs, merging them into the
architectural forms as a whole. He accentuated the cen Selimiye Mosque in Edirne
tre underneath the central dome by ooding it with light
from the many windows. He incorporated his mosques
Sleymaniye Complex
in an ecient way into a complex (klliye), serving the
Kl Ali Pasha Complex
needs of the community as an intellectual centre, a community centre and serving the social needs and the health
Molla elebi Mosque
problems of the faithful.
Haseki Baths
When Sinan died, classical Ottoman architecture had
reached its climax. No successor was gifted enough to
emberlita Baths
better the design of the Selimiye mosque and to develop
Piyale Pasha Mosque
it further. His students retreated to earlier models, such
as the ehzade mosque. Invention faded away, and a de ehzade Mosque
cline set in.
Mihrimah Sultan Mosque in Edirnekap
Constructions
His most Important piece of architecture was Masjid AlHaram. During his tenure during 50 years of the post
of imperial architect, Sinan is said to have constructed
7 NOTES
Zal Mahmud Pasha Mosque
6 See also
Sinan (crater)
Mimar Sinan University
Atik Sinan
7 Notes
[1] Goodwin (2001), p. 87
[2] Kinross (1977), pp 214215
[3] De Osa, Veronica.
Death
[13] Jackson, Thomas Graham (1913). Byzantine and Romanesque Architecture, Volume 1. Cambridge University
Press. p. 143. They are many of them designed by Sinan,
who is said to have been an Armenian
[14] Sitwell, Sacheverell (1939). Old Fashioned Flowers.
Country Life. p. 74. The architect Sinan, perhaps of
Armenian descent, raised mosques and other buildings all
over the Turkish Empire.
[15] Talbot, Hamlin Architecture Through the Ages. University
of Michigan, p. 208.
[16] Byzantium and the Magyars, Gyula Moravcsik, Samuel R.
Rosenbaum p.28.
[17] Kathleen Kuiper. Islamic Art, Literature, and Culture.
The Rosen Publishing Group, 2009 p. 204 ISBN
9781615300976: The son of Greek Orthodox parents,
Sinan entered his fathers trade as a stone mason and carpenter. .
[18] Sinan: the grand old master of Ottoman architecture, p.
35, Aptullah Kuran, Institute of Turkish Studies, 1987
[19] Walker, Benjamin and Peter Owen Foundations of Islam:
the making of a world faith, 1998, p. 275.
[20] Goodwin, Godfrey (1971). A history of Ottoman architecture. Johns Hopkins Press. p. 199. ISBN 978-08018-1202-6. He came from the district of Karaman and
the Greek lands, but he does not, it is true, specically
call himself a Greek, which, in eect, he no longer was
from the moment that he admitted that there was no other
God but Allah. Yet after the conquest of Cyprus in 1571,
when Selim decided to repopulate the island by transferring Greek families from the Karaman beylik, Sinan intervened on behalf of his family and obtained two orders
from the Sultan in council exempting them from deportation. It was Selim I who ordered the rst devsirme levy in
Anatolia in 1512 and sent Yaya- basis to Karamania and
this is probably the year in which Sinan came to Istanbul.
Since he was born about 1491, or at the latest in 1492, he
was old for a devsirme
[21] Rogers, J. M. (2006). Sinan: Makers of Islamic Civilization. I.B.Tauris: Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. p.
backcover. ISBN 978-1-84511-096-3. (Sinan) He was
born in Cappadocia, probably into a Greek Christian family. Drafted into the Janissaries during his adolescence, he
rapidly gained promotion and distinction as a military engineer.
[22] Cragg, Kenneth (1991). The Arab Christian: A History in
the Middle East. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 120.
ISBN 0-664-22182-3.
[23] al-Lubnn lil-Dirst, Markaz (1992). The Beirut review,
Issue 3. Lebanese Center for Policy Studies. p. 113. Retrieved 2012-04-05.
[24] Brown, Percy (1942). Indian architecture: (The Islamic
period). Taraporevala Sons. p. 94. the fame of the
leading Ottoman architect, Sinan, having reached his ears,
he is reported to have invited certain pupils of this Albanian genius to India to carry out his architectural schemes.
[25] Akgndz Ahmed & ztrk Said, (2011), Ottoman History, Misperfections and Truths, IUR Press (Islamitische Universiteit Rotterdam), Pg.196, See online. Quoted
from the book: According to yet another view, Sinan
came from a Christian Turkish family, whose fathers
name was Abdulmennan and his grandfathers Doan
Yusuf.
[26] Goodwin (2003), pp 199200.
[27] This decree was published in the Turkish journal Trk
Tarihi Encmeni Mecmuas, vol. 1, no. 5 (June 1930-May
1931) p. 10.
[28] Muller, Herbert Joseph (1961). The Loom of History.
New American Library. p. 439.
[29] Architects, Craftsmen, Weavers: Armenians and Ottoman Art. Abstracts from the International Conference
ARMENIAN CONSTANTINOPLE organized by Richard G.
Hovannisian, UCLA, May 1920, 2001. Social Sciences
Division University of California, Los Angeles. Retrieved
13 September 2013.
[30] Muqarnas, Volume 24 History and Ideology: Architectural Heritage of the lands of Rum, p. 179, Gurlu Necipoglu, Bril, 2007, ISBN 978-90-04-16320-1
[31] Constantinople, de Byzance Stamboul, Cell Esad Arseven, H. Laurens, 1909
[32] Brown, Percy (1942). Indian architecture: (The Islamic
period). Taraporevala Sons. p. 92. Retrieved 2012-0405. the fame of the leading Ottoman architect, Sinan,
having reached his ears, he is reported to have invited certain pupils of this Albanian genius to India to carry out his
architectural schemes.
[33] Mahajan, Vidya Dhar; Savitri Mahajan (1962). The Muslim rule in India, Volume 1. S.Chand. p. 210. Retrieved
2012-04-07.
[34] Kinross, pp 214215.
[35] Sinan (in Dictionary of Islamic Architecture)
[36] A list of the buildings designed by Mimar Sinan
[37] The Drina Bridge gave its name to the famous novel by
the Yugoslav author Ivo Andri.
[38] Tracy, James D.; Savitri Mahajan (2000). City Walls: The
Urban Enceinte in Global Perspective. Cambridge University Press. p. 306. ISBN 978-0-521-65221-6. Retrieved
2012-04-07.
[39] (Articles author): Gjergji Frashri (2000). Fjalori Enciklopedik Shqiptar. Akademia e Shkencave e Shqipris. p.
2946. ISBN 978-99956-10-32-6.
[40] Albanian Cultural Heritage (PDF). Republic of Albania,
National Tourism Agency. 2000. p. 59. Retrieved 201204-07.
[41] William J. Hennessey, PhD, Director, Univ. of Michigan
Museum of Art. IBM 1999 WORLD BOOK.
[42] Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman. Architecture:
from Prehistory to Post-Modernism. p. 223.
10
10
EXTERNAL LINKS
[43] Haniolu, M. kr (2013). Atatrk: An Intellectual Biography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 171.
ISBN 9780691157948.
Sewell, Brian. (1992) Sinan: A Forgotten Renaissance Cornucopia, Issue 3, Volume 1. ISSN 13018175
[44] Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey. Banknote Museum: 7. Emission Group - Ten Thousand Turkish Lira I. Series, II. Series, III. Series & IV. Series. Retrieved
on 20 April 2009.
Further reading
(Armenian) Alboyajian, Arshag A.
(History of Armenian Kayseri). 2
vols. Cairo: H. Papazian, 1937.
(Turkish) elebi, Sai Mustafa (2004). Book of
Buildings : Tezkiret'l Bnyan Ve Tezkiret'lEbniye (Memoirs of Sinan the Architect). Ko
Kltr Sanat Tantm ISBN 975-296-017-0
De Osa, Veronica (1982). Sinan the Turkish
Michelangelo. New York: Vantage Press ISBN 0533-04655-6
(German) Egli, Ernst (1954). Sinan, der Baumeister osmanischer Glanzzeit, Erlenbach-Zrich, Verlag
fr Architektur; ISBN 1-904772-26-9
9 See also
(French) Roux, Jean-Paul (1988). Les Mosques
de Sinan, Les Dossiers d'archologie, May 1988,
number 127.
(French) Stierlin, Henri (1988). Sinan et Soliman
le Magnique, Les Dossiers d'archologie, May
1988, number 127.
(French) Topu, Ali (1988a) Sinan et l'architecture
civile, Les Dossiers d'archologie, May 1988, number 127.
(French) Topu, Ali (1988b)."Sinan et la modernit", Les Dossiers d'archologie, May 1988, number 127.
10 External links
Mimar Sinan founder of this Foundation - with a
picture of his last will and proof of his original name
(Turkish)
11
Pictures of the city of Edirne, with many pictures of
the Selimiye Mosque
A map and a short guide for Sinans works in Istanbul
(Turkish)
Photos of some Sinan mosques in Istanbul
Map of some Sinan mosques in Istanbul
Master Builder of the 16th Century Ottoman
Mosque
Mimar Sinan Bridge in Bykekmece
The Ottoman architect who linked East and West
Peerless Turkish architect claimed to be headless in
tomb
Mimar Sinans life and works (Turkish)
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11.1
11.2
Images
11.3
Content license
13
File:Mimar_Sinan_signature.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Mimar_Sinan_signature.png License: Public domain Contributors: Own work by uploader, traced by hand. Original artist: Mimar Sinan
File:Visegrad_Drina_Bridge_1.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Visegrad_Drina_Bridge_1.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Julian Nitzsche
11.3
Content license