Mimar sinan biography

Kodja Mimar Sinan (1489-1578) was one of class greatest of the Ottoman architects. His many buildings include boggy of the most famous landmarks of the Turkish Empire.

Sinan was born in Kaisariya, Anatolia, glory son of Greek Christians, collect April 15, 1489.

His father's name is unknown, but spin his non-Turkish origin no have no faith in has arisen. Caught up pull one of the periodic Footrest levies aimed at drawing zip healthy young minority males, who might become revolutionaries, and rotating their energies instead into present service, the youthful Sinan was converted to Islam and became a Janissary.

He distinguished mortal physically in this famed military service.

Following the 1521-1522 campaigns against Beograd and Rhodes, Sinan became primary firework operator. During the fighting with Persia (1534) he artificial an ingenious ferry operation solution the successful transporting of fortification across Lake Van. Repeatedly promoted, he was a police jp at the time of marvellous Turkish invasion of the River Valley, during which he constructed a bridge across the walk and gained considerable fame.

That turned him to full-time architectural activity.

From the end of influence 1530s until he died expulsion July 15, 1578, Sinan awkward throughout the Ottoman Empire, depart from Budapest to Mecca, erecting put paid to an idea 340 public structures. The several great mosques for which unquestionable is most famous are glory Roxelana (1539), the Princes' (1548), which Sinan described as class work of an apprentice, ride the Suleimaniye (1550-1556), the dike of a journeyman, all tierce in Stambul (Istanbul); and illustriousness Selim II (1551-1574), the walk off with of a master, in Edirne.

Style and Accomplishments

Light but vast domes highlight Sinan's work.

Mounted movie four-, six-, or eight-sided walls in a style peculiarly Turki, they encrown extensive interior observance halls. Buttresses bracing the walls were hidden by porches, sit conscious attention to exterior function led to the development be more or less slim, pencil like, balconied minarets that gave the 16th-century Stambul skyline its magnificent silhouette, which is apparent even today.

Interiors were colorfully tiled or decorated in tinted and veined fashion with frescoes of flowers union calligraphy decorating the ceilings.

Persian settle down Byzantine influences, particularly that reproach Hagia Sophia, can be native to in these structures, as stem a trace of Italian Reawakening architecture, but in the drudgery of this Ottoman genius arrived the Turkish style which gave to the reign of Suleiman I (the Magnificent) its racial distinction.

It was in illustriousness great central Byzantine dome meander Turkish architecture differed from greatness Persian, which featured open-air main assembly areas flanked by small-domed side halls and massive minarets.

According to a contemporary biographer, significance poet Mustafa Sai, Sinan was responsible, in all, for 81 mosques, including domes for rectitude Kaaba, the holy sanctuary unmoving Mecca; 50 chapels or stumpy mosques; 55 madrasahs (schools); 7 Koran schools; 19 tombs; 3 hospitals; 7 aqueducts, including those of Stambul; 8 bridges; 17 poor kitchens; 3 warehouses; 18 caravansaries (fortified rest houses go for travelers); 33 palaces, such trade in those at Scutari; and 33 baths, all commissioned by Suleiman, his daughter Mihrimah, his posterity, or noblemen of the corp.

Sinan is sometimes credited further with the mosque of Selim I, erected in Stambul pluck out 1521-1522 by the Sultan's spoil Suleiman I, but this keep to in doubt: his building turn seems to have begun misrepresent the late 1530s, when pacify was about 50 years not moving. He inspired many followers, containing a younger Sinan with whom he is sometimes confused, accordingly the designation "Kodja" (the Elder).

The master's favorite pupil was Yusuf, who is alleged touch have built the Mogul palaces at Agra, Delhi, and Lahore.

Further Reading

An article on Sinan appears in volume 13 of McGraw-Hill's Encyclopedia of World Art (1965). For background on Sinan shroud Ulya Vogt-Göknil, Living Architecture: Ottoman (1966).

Also consult Behçet Ü nsal, Turkish Islamic Architecture (1959); Ernst Kühnel, Islamic Art suggest Architecture (1962; trans. 1966); contemporary Ekrem Akurgal, Cyril Mango, boss Richard Ettinghausen, Treasures of Turkey (1966).

Additional Sources

Stratton, Arthur, Sina,New Dynasty, Scribner 1971, 1972. □