The Ottoman architect "Sinan" .. the story of the man who made for Turkey the unique design of its mosques

"I am the blessed architect and presenter

I am the sheikh of the world guesthouse

God knows that I built many homes of God

And made a thousand mihrabs a place of prostration

Thank God I kept my Islam 

My judgments were justly made 

God suffices me, I do not know the intention of showing off 

Just wait for the best prayer

The one who builds money will build a mosque 

And this poor man asks supplication.

(Khoja Senan) (1)

In the year 1490 AD, the small village of Agernas was on a date with history, as a boy was born in it whose name will be changed so that the village will be called after his name and become Sinan Koy, meaning the village of Sinan. The boy grows up and reaches its most intense, and when he reaches the age of twenty-three, he declares his Islam and goes on to join the Ottoman army, desiring to smile at him with luck, learn carpentry, and become a simple carpenter, no more. 

Sinan did not fail luck, but gave him the gift, as he became a soldier from the Janissaries accompanying the Sultan on his travels and conquests. Sinan joined the Janissary Army within the engineering force and proved his skill there. The bridge he built over the Prut River in thirteen days was only a testimony of his genius and his amulet of fortune as well, as he admired the greatest chest and then mentioned it to the Sultan, becoming Sinan the chief architect of the Ottoman Empire. 

His position did not intercede for him in front of his love, and the saying that: “There is no intercession in love” is valid for him, as the chief architect has approached the daughter of Sultan “Sultana Mahrama” (2). And when the meaning of its name was Sultana the sun and the moon, he built two mosques for her: one in the European part in the Edirne Kapi region, and another in the Asian part in the Uskudar region, and the secret of these two mosques is that on March 21 of every year the sun sets over the minaret of the mosque European to see the moon complete over the minaret of the Asian Mosque, and this day is the day of the birth of the Sultana of the Sun and the Moon (his pyramid), and this indicates that he and his Sultan are like the sun and moon not meeting them. 

A comparison of the mosques of Mimar Sinan, Hagia Sophia, and the Blue Mosque.

Sinan divides his architectural life into three stages: the first of which is the Shahzadah complex, which he calls "the creativity of the trained worker," then the stage of the Sulaymaniyyah Mosque and he called it "the creativity of the associate", and finally the Selimiyya Mosque is its last work and its stage is called the creativity of the professional or teacher. What made Senan the architectural figure, and what were the characteristics of his school, both visible and subtle?

Sinan Mobile and Hagia Sophia's charm

Thanks to my beautiful creation from among the children of the “Ajami Uglaner” school, I fell in love with the trade craft, and worked in the service of my teachers firmly like the calipers' stationary station completely, so I watched my region and the surrounding areas, then I was interested in roaming in other countries like the calipers also moving, so I fell and floated the Arab countries and the Persians during my service To the Sultan, I would not leave a high angle and not a devastating hospice unless I floated around and wandered, then I returned to Istanbul. "

(Khoja Sinan)

Sinan's intellectual horizon has expanded as the lands of the Ottoman Empire expanded, from the coasts of Italy to Aleppo and Baghdad, and from Tabriz Iran to Cairo, and to and from Anatolia. Sinan was honored by the ex-Hassan, and he enjoyed his eyes the traces of the Seljuks, the Arabs and the Byzantines, and because he was an architect no less than his predecessors greatness he took from them and increased what they reached.

Muqarnas used by Mimar Sinan

Sinan saw the Seljuk architecture with its tall buildings and the domes of its various mosques between small and large, and the combination of engraved precious stones and ornate niches, and the creation of muqarnas, which is an architectural and decorative element found in the corners of domes to move the top of the building from the square shape to the round shape, so the dome is fixed and centered and the point of its meeting with the wall is formed in form Aesthetically pleasing as well. From the miniature Seljuk minarets that resemble a pencil (3), later minarets of his architectural masterpiece, "Sulaymaniyah", will follow. 

Sinan also contacted mosques of different ages and styles, and to understand the philosophy of its construction and what is essential in the structure of the mosque, as it is the "mirror of Islam" according to what Roger Jaroudi called, and as Afif Al-Bahnasi says: "The believer in the mosque is an object that is monitored to look for divine transcendence, interacting with the escalation of verses Mosque architecture from minaret to dome, to sky brides and decorations "(4). Then Sinan devised what suited and served this philosophy, and he took into account the sky, the philosophy of light, shadow, sound frequencies, and other philosophical elements of the structure of the mosque. 

Despite his contact and connection with the ex-mosques, his heart fell completely in love with Hagia Sophia, so Hagia Sophia was a masterpiece of his sight that challenged him as much as he inspired and dazzled him. Hagia Sophia was a masterpiece of its time, as Ibn Battuta describes it as "one of the greatest churches of the Romans, and it has a wall that surrounds it, as if it is a city and its gates are thirteen gates, and it has a sanctuary that is about a mile, with a large door on which no one is allowed to enter ... and it is almost A flat roof with marble, and a raft of a female leg that comes out of the church, has two walls raised towards an arm made of divided marble with best workmanship, and the trees are organized on both sides of the waterwheel "(5).

The architectural miracle of Hagia Sophia lies in its huge dome, as it appears 54 meters high, and its dome is a base of 40 windows. The dome appears to be hanging in the air to be seen. Nearly 10,000 workers worked in its construction, and its dome was built and destroyed several times by earthquakes (6), and its last restoration was what Sinan did, adding to its dome minarets that worked to strengthen the dome and fortify it against earthquakes (7), and thus Sinan left his mark on his impact Inspiring, but not only that, he sought to accomplish more than Hagia Sophia. 

"Greater than Hagia Sophia" .. Sulaymaniyah is Sinan's masterpiece

"Unique Bone, Super Power, Solomon has a magic over Hagia Sophia"

(Charles Diehl, French historian) 

The first thing Sinan learned from Hagia Sophia was and applied it is to choose a wonderful place suitable for a new architectural masterpiece, so the Sulaymaniyah Complex was built on a hill that controls both the Golden Gulf and the Bosphorus. Sulaymaniyah was a huge complex of eighteen buildings, between a feeding house for the poor, a pemaristan, a medical school, and a bathroom, and the mosque was the center of all these buildings (8). Here we see in this council a meeting of Sinan's architectural philosophy, which he himself summarized in three words: “Power, utilitarianism, and beauty”, a force that defies time and utilitarian benefit to people, and is not a masterpiece without meaning, and beauty purifies the soul of the beholder and reminds him of God’s greatest beauty (9).

And when the goal of Hagia Sophia was so great as its dome, Sinan created for Suleimaniya a sky-like dome with a height of 53 meters, centered on four pillars that resemble the feet of the elephant, and on the dome the great calligrapher “Hassan Qara Hosari” verse: “God holds the heavens and the earth” (10) ). The dome is surrounded by 32 windows with round arches, and the mosque includes more than a hundred windows with stained glass, to maintain the balance of light reaching all corners of the mosque. As for the minarets, the mosque has four tall minarets, two of which are more than 74 meters high.

Because Sinan puts force involved in a triangle of his philosophy, he was afraid that earthquakes would strike his mosque and do it as I did with the Hagia Sophia, so he set up the foundations of the mosque and then strengthened it, then left it for a year to test its solidity and its impact on earthquakes or other factors, and when he was sure of what he wanted to collect the mosque's pillars every column From a different country, and the length of one of them was like the length of a complete minaret, then he brought the alabaster from the island of Marmara, the green alabaster from the Arabian Peninsula, and other various countries to the Palace of Bilqis and the Temple of Solomon (11). 

In light of his preoccupation with the construction of the mosque and indicated that he turned to the Sultan saying: "He realized your mosque; Sinan smoked the hookah in his mihrab." The Sultan went to check for himself, so he heard the shisha sounds and asked him about it. Sinan replied: "It is more than a hookah, but it is all without smoke." And I distributed it in all of the mosque to calculate the balance of sound and its repercussion. "The Sultan was pleased with his answer, and he was amazed at his work, so he made him the one who opened the mosque in his presence (12).

In contrast to Hagia Sophia and a distinction from it, not only did Sinan have one door, but his mosque included several doors made of ebony and decorated with decorations, and unlike Hagia Sophia covered in darkness, Sinan illuminated his mosque with four thousand lamps (13), and the latest teeth made small holes for ventilation under the dome to ensure An ascending stream attracts smoke from oil bulbs that are frequently used to light the mosque. The mosque can accommodate 5,000 worshipers. 

Sulaimaniya did not satisfy Senan’s aspiration for his greatness, so he refused except to make what exceeds Hagia Sophia and not the like, so he built Sulaimiya in Edirne, whose dome surpasses the dome of the Hagia Sophia, and his minarets embrace the sky, and Sinan says: 

"Western architects were proud of us, saying: We have the upper hand over the Muslims; no dome was built in the Islamic state like the Hagia Sophia, and they claimed that it was extremely difficult to establish such a large dome, and they said: If they could do the same, they would have done so before. Words hurt me a lot, and thanks to God I was able, during the reign of Sultan Selim Khan, to construct this great dome, higher than the dome of the Hagia Sophia by six cubits, and its circumference is wider by four arms (14).

Al-Sulaymiyyah was the goal of Sinan's creativity, to the extent that the Bulgarian army, while withdrawing from Edirne, was determined to destroy the mosque, so when the matter was brought up to their Caesar (Ferdinad) he said: "I cannot take responsibility for such before the history, and I cannot issue an order like this" ( 15th).

Darwish builds ... the mystical meaning of Sinan architecture:

"My God, by the sanctification of your beautiful names

And the pride of your beloved Mustafa

And with the sanctity of the close saints of you

And the saints treasure secret 

And she supported him against the enemies

Make your success Ally

Make the foundation of this building strong. "

(teeth)

Sufism was the companion of the Ottoman Empire, taking a path with a path, and the esoteric interpretation of the Qur’an and the teachings of religion as a whole spread, and the meaning was divided into two parts: ostensibly it deepens in jurisprudence, and mystical deepens in it with Sufism (16). Looking at the Sinan diary, we see the mystical azimuth clearly in it, as it gives the Sulaymaniyah Mosque another esoteric meaning. According to Rajab Ashtaturk in his book “The Spirit of Islamic Architecture”: “Sulaimaniya and the world of the universe are the same. Who expresses revelation. " The architect likened Sinan himself to Farhat, who dug the mountain and opened a way to go to his lover. The symbolism here between human and divine love was a main topic in his days (17). Sinan says: 

Sherine 's passion for his influence gained him in stone

Look at Farhat as he is digging a mountain and a stone

Dhu al-Soul gives spirit to adversity for his art

Whenever his teacher came to work. "

Love is his religion and worms to build Sulaymaniyah, he presents it as a gift for his lover, and he invokes him to accept his gift, and Sulaymaniyah in the form of the Kaaba square is raised on four pillars, and the Kaaba in Sufi thought is the place of connection, so he says: 

"The Kaaba is the example from which this mosque is drawn

The four caliphs represented four pillars

The house of Islam also has four pillars

Pete has taken refuge in the existence of the four evacuations

This servant, the Munaji Al-Raji, wants to forgive his Lord for his love for them

To become a wind blowing day and night

And set an example for his great profit on the day of decision. " 

As for the dome and columns of Sulaimaniyah, it is the Prophet Muhammad and his four successors. Sinan says: 

"I brought to this mosque the four pillars that resemble four trees whose origins are fixed on the ground and their branches in the sky, which grew in the garden of Islam, and they are: Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman and Ali."

The dome also symbolizes monotheism, as it is the hump of the mosque, just as monotheism is the hump of religion, and is based on four pillars, as monotheism is based on the pillars of four, as the architectural historian Godfrey Godwin says: “Progress and movement in the mosque are always upward; that is, to the dome, which is the station of monotheism. ". 

Sinan came with columns of four diameters: from Egypt (Alexandria), Rome (The Stone of the Miss), Baalbek, and the Ottoman Palace, Sinan indicates that the pillar of Miss White's stone is the stable of the sky, and that the dome with the verse engraved on it as a wave adorns a vast sea, and he says: 

"The bright marble view reflects the eternal beauty of the sea wave." 

The colors of the windows of Sinan symbolize the faithful spirit and the multiplicity of colors of its wings. 

"The windows are a mirror that looks at the world

And windows wings of the faithful soul. "

But even the altitude of the mosque has another purpose in the teeth, so the height of the lower circle of the dome is 45 cubits, and the height of its flag is 66 cubits, and according to the alphabet it corresponds to 45 words of Adam, and 66 words correspond to "God." 

Sinan sang his music in the construction of Sulaimaniyah, and he made it clear in the splendor of the building, and we hidden what I believed, indulged and loved. Thus, he deserved the title given to him by German Clock, Professor of Architecture at the University of Vienna, that he was "Michelangelo of the East", his royal title "chief architect of the world", and his title that he removed from himself "the poor and poor Sinan."