THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

E A R LY O T T O M A N A R C H I T E C T U R E

E ARLY O TTOMAN
A RCHITECTURE
IN THE 14TH AND EARLY 15TH CENTURIES, THE OTTOMANS BECAME
POWERFUL IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN.THEIR ARCHITECTURAL
STYLE WAS INFLUENCED BY BYZANTINE MODELS.
succession of victories against
the weakened Byzantine
Empire allowed the Ottomans to
expand their dominion at a fast
rate. In 1326, Orhan Gazi (reigned
132462) conquered Bursa, a town
near the southern coast of the Sea
of Marmara that became his capital.
The crossing into Europe in 1349
shifted the weight of conquest west,
and Edirne was declared the new
capital after its capture by Murad I
(reigned 136289) in 1365.

MERGING TRADITIONS
Both early Ottoman capitals
alongside Iznik, a town near Bursa
conquered in 1331, preserve a
large number of early Ottoman
buildings. These modest in scale
but ambitious structures can be
viewed as Ottoman variations on
traditional themes. However, their
experimental plans and novel ideas

cannot be explained without taking

into account the main outside
influence on the Ottomans, which
was Byzantium.
While adopting the fiscal and
administrative structures of the
fading empire for practical reasons,
the Turkish sultans also tried to
emulate the splendour and
continue the legacy of an ancient
Mediterranean imperial tradition.
They aspired to the conquest
of Constantinople, the ultimate
imperial Roman city of the East.
Ottoman builders made use
of the Byzantine repertoire of
architectural forms and techniques
that were drawn from buildings
within their conquered lands.
DOMED SPACES
The predominance of domes found
within Ottoman architecture has
been attributed to both an Islamic

216

Above A band of calligraphy forms part

of the ornate decoration on this 1396
column from the western portal of the
Ulu ami in Bursa.

Above Huge square pillars inside

the early 15th-century Eski ami
in Edirne, support the arches and
domes above.

tradition developed by the

Seljuks and a Byzantine influence.
However, it is in the treatment of
space under the dome and in the
techniques adopted in order to
support it that Ottoman originality
and Byzantine inheritance are
better demonstrated. The earliest
surviving Ottoman mosques were
cubic buildings crowned with
relatively large domes resting on
pendentives or squinches that
bridged the triangular spaces
between the corners of the walls
and the perimeter of the domes.
However, it was their builders
constant concern to expand the
space under the dome without
breaking up its unity with bulky
supports or blind walls. An easy
solution was to increase the number
of domes and place them on arches
resting on columns or pillars.

EARLY EXPERIMENTATION
The Ulu Cami (Great Mosque) in
Bursa, built in 13961400 for
Sultan Bayezid I (reigned 1389
1402), is the most representative
example of this multidomed type.
Despite its significant ground area,
the forest of 12 columns necessary
to support 20 domes marred the
desired feeling of expansiveness.
The same problem had been faced
a thousand years earlier by the
builders of the Early Christian
period, and several solutions had
been proposed, most popular being
the domed cross-in-square plan, in
which a central domed square space
is surrounded by eight square spaces
of equal or similar proportions.The
Eski Cami Mosque in Edirne
(140314) can be viewed either as a
concentrated version of the Ulu
Cami, with only nine domes

Left The Ottoman Empire was formed

by Turkish tribes from Anatolia.The
expanding state included Bursa to
the east and Edirne to the west.

Right The impressive 15th-century

Uc Serefeli Mosque (143847) was
the first in Edirne to have a large
courtyard adjoining the prayer hall.

supported by four pillars, or as a

version of the nine-bay solution, a
plan not unknown to Islamic architecture but better developed within
the Byzantine world.
Further proof of the Byzantine
origin of this idea is the late 14thcentury Didymoteicho Mosque,
in which the central bay is wider
and crowned with a dome, whereas
the surrounding eight bays are
smaller and covered with barrel or
cross vaults. This arrangement

217

appears frequently in Byzantine

buildings that were scattered within
the newly conquered Balkans, for
example at the 1028 church of
Panagia ton Chalkeon, in the
administrative and trade centre of
Thessaloniki, conquered in 1430.
Given the conscious adoption of
a Byzantine prototype for most
Ottoman mosques after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453,
it would be reasonable to assume
that
a
similar
desire
to
include Byzantine, and ultimately
Roman, imperial elements within
the designs of early Ottoman
architecture had encouraged these
experimental plans, although they
proved to be short-lived.
Nevertheless, the century that
predated the 1453 conquest has
offered innovative buildings. An
elegant example is the Uc Serefeli
Mosque (143847) in Edirne, built
for Murad II (reigned 142144,
144551) and featuring a 24-m
(79-ft) wide dome resting unusually
on a hexagon instead of a square or
octagon. The side pillars prevent
unimpeded views of the four side
bays, but the effect is novel and
challenging, and is unique within
the Ottoman architectural canon.

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

C O N S TA N T I N O P L E ( I S TA N B U L )

(14891588), the principal architect

of the Ottoman Empire, for Sultan
Suleyman the Magnificent (reigned
152066).The Suleymaniye Mosque,
the high point of classical Istanbul
architecture, bears a striking resemblance to the Byzantine cathedral in
both proportions and ground plan,
although the lofty arches opening to
the right and left toward the side
bays represent a step forward by
alleviating the restricting effect of
the churchs side walls.

C ONSTANTINOPLE
(I STANBUL )
THE OTTOMANS GAINED A NEW PRESTIGIOUS CAPITAL WHEN THEY
TOOK CONSTANTINOPLE IN 1453. THE CITY ALSO PROVIDED THEIR
BUILDERS WITH THE PROTOTYPE FOR THEIR GREAT MOSQUES.
stanbul, the Turkish version of the
Greek words eis ten polin, or to
the City, became the official name
of the city on the Bosphorus only
as late as 1930. Until that date, it
was still called Constantinople,
the city of Constantine, a name
reflecting its Roman and Byzantine
imperial past. The grandeur of this
capital of three successive empires
inspired several sieges by Muslim
rulers, but the prize of conquest
was reserved for Sultan Mehmet II
(reigned 144446, 145181), who
consequently assumed the epithet
of Fatih,the Conqueror.

THE FATIH MOSQUE

The first mosque to be built in the
soon-to-be-regenerated capital still
bears the same name, Fatih Mosque
(146270), and despite collapsing
and being reconstructed in 1771, it
retains its original plan. Like the
pre-1453 mosques of Bursa, Edirne

and Didymoteicho, it has a large

central domed roof and some lateral
bays, but it also presents the first
occurrence of a feature that later
would develop into the main
characteristic of classical Ottoman
mosques: a large semidome that
supports the main dome on the
qibla side (toward the direction of
prayer) over a long and narrow bay,
unlike the square side bays to the
left and right. Significantly, this bay
is separated from the domed central
bay by an arch supported by pillars
that recede to the sides, creating the
illusion of a unified roof consisting
of the central dome and the
semidome.
THE HAGIA SOPHIA PLAN
This effect was undoubtedly
inspired by the patriarchal church
of Byzantine Constantinople
and eventually mosque of the
Ottomans, Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya),

A b o vT
e he inter ior decoration of the
reconstructed Fatih Mosque follows
the Baroque style of 18th-century
O t t o m a n a r c h i t e c t u r e.

a building laden with imperial

connotations. Built between 532
and 537, it was an inventive and
short-lived answer to the problem
of a large floor area sheltered by a
domed roof. The Hagia Sophia
plan was popular with Ottoman
builders and characterized 16thcentury mosque architecture.
The original Hagia Sophia plan,
as in the 6th-century cathedral, was
finished with a second semidome
opposite, creating an elongated
oval shell. The complete version
first appeared in the Sultan Bayezid
Mosque in Istanbul, built for
Bayezid II (reigned 14811512)
around the turn of the century, in
which the central core (semidomedome-semidome) was flanked to
the right and left by eight domes
arranged over eight bays.
The most faithful Ottoman
version of the plan was erected
between 1550 and 1557 by Sinan

BEYOND THE PROTOTYPE

While little innovation can be seen
in the floor plans of sultanic
mosques because they adhere
to a venerated prototype, the
architectural designs of smaller
buildings are often more original.
The graceful Sehzade Mosque,
built by Sinan in 1543 to
commemorate the son of Suleyman
I, was a symmetrical departure from
the Hagia Sophia plan. Two lateral
semidomes balancing the ones on

and opposite the qibla side create a

strong central focus complementing
the single large dome. The pillars
carrying the main arches are pushed
toward the outside walls to allow
the play of curved surfaces on the
top half of the buildings interior to
counterbalance the strong vertical
lines of the supports. By this stage,
walls are simple screens bridging
the gaps between load-bearing
elements and they are profusely
pierced with stained-glass windows
in symmetrical arrangements.
Buildings other than mosques,
erected around the Ottoman
Empire in great numbers, were built
within the traditions of earlier
Islamic architecture. Surrounding
mosques and supporting them
financially were complexes of shops
and hammams (bathhouses), creating
income to cover the running costs
of mosques and charitable institutions complementing their social
role, such as imarets (public kitchens)
and madrasas (religious colleges).

Left This aerial view of the Sultan

Bayezid Mosque (15016) gives some
idea of its relatively small scale, compared
with the Suleymaniye complex.

218

219

Above A drawing of the Suleymaniye

Mosque shows the domed roof based on
the Hagia Sophia plan.The grand scale of
the complex symbolizes the sultans power.
Below The Hagia Sophias domed
structure inspired Ottoman architects.The
giant Arabic calligraphy panels were added
to the interior in the 16th century.

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

THE CLASSICAL ERA

THE CLASSICAL ERA

CLAD

WITH IZNIK TILES AND DRESSED STONE, AND EMBELLISHED

WITH STAINED GLASS AND FURNITURE, 16TH-CENTURY OTTOMAN
MOSQUES ARE AMONG THE GLORIES OF ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE.

he grandeur of the classical

Ottoman mosques is not only
due to their vast size, ground plan
and height but also to their interior
decoration. The balance between
light and dark, straight and curved
lines, empty space and decorative
excess reaches its pinnacle in the
works of the master builder Sinan.

INTERIOR DECORATION
The striking colours of the tiles that
adorn the buildings, commissioned
from workshops in Istanbul and
the town of Iznik not far from
the capital, have preserved the
splendour of decorative schemes
from the 16th century.This is often
not true of other decorative
materials: few stained-glass windows
have survived and the wall paintings
have often been renewed several
times since first executed. Contrary
to current practice, it is possible that
the polished marble floors were

uncovered in hot summer months,

to reflect light streaming in from
the windows. However, bitter
Istanbul winters called for warmer
coverings, and the few period
carpets still extant testify to the
opulent, colourful woven fields of
flowers and elaborate geometry
added to the mosque interiors.
Sinans Rstem Pasha Mosque
(156163) in Istanbul, commissioned by the Grand Wazir and
son-in-law of Suleyman the
Magnificent, is an architecturally
unassuming edifice with an ornate
interior featuring a profusion of
tiles arranged in panels on the walls
both inside and under the front
porch. The splendour and expense
of the decorations enhanced the
visual impact of the building.
Even more impressive is the tile
cladding of the Sokollu Mehmet
Pasha Mosque (157172), again by
Sinan, for the successor of Rustem

220

A b o vT
e he floral patter n on the tiles in
t h e R u s t e m Pa s h a M o s q u e i n c l u d e s a n
i n n o v a t i v e r e d c o l o u r.

Pasha. In this simple domed space

with four semidomes over the side
bays, the stone surfaces of the walls
and bearing elements are only
selectively embellished with tiles,
custom-made to fit specific spaces.
The beautiful effect achieved, despite
the unremarkable architecture must
have been worthy compensation for
the time and effort needed. The
survival in more-or-less original
form of the stained-glass windows
completes the image of a restrained
yet elegant interior.

builders. Mihrimah
Sultana,
daughter of Suleyman the
Magnificent and wife of Rstem
Pasha, erected a mosque near the
Edirne Gate of Istanbuls walls
between 1562 and 1565. The
choice of architect was unsurprising: Sinans dense fenestration of
the elevated cube under the dome
dematerializes the Mihrimah Sultana
Mosques structure; he would fully
deploy this decorative device a
decade later in Edirnes Selimiye
Mosque.The comparatively modest
scale of non-sultanic buildings was
a testing ground for ideas that were
blended into an elegantly varied yet
homogeneous body of work.
THE ARCHITECT SINAN
Sinan was the most important mimar
(architect) in Istanbul and his long
career spanning the reigns of
three sultans, from the early 16th
century to his death in 1588, marks
the classical period of Ottoman
architecture. A cross between a civil
engineer, an architect and a minister
of public works with a portfolio of
hundreds of monuments across the
Ottoman dominion, Sinan was
revered even in his own lifetime.

His masterpiece is the lightfilled, delicately detailed Selimiye

Mosque, built in Edirne (156975)
for Selim II (reigned 156674).
With this mosque he claimed to
have surpassed Hagia Sophia in
building a larger dome. However,
his real achievement is the
distribution of interior space under
the vast dome, which rests on eight
arches supported alternately by
semidomes and window-pierced
walls. The arches spring from
capital-free pillars that recede
toward the outside of the
building, creating a huge unified
space unobstructed by structural
elements. The multitude of glazed
windows admits abundant daylight,
forming an open-air, ethereal
illusion. In the Selimiye Mosque,
Ottoman architecture had truly
surpassed its prototype, pushing the
capacity of building materials and
geometry to their limits.
The architecture of the late 16th
and 17th centuries added few
variations to the themes already
introduced by Sinan and his
predecessors, and there was a
decline in the standards of both
construction and decoration.

Above A main dome on a cubed structure

forms the base of the Mihrimah Sultana
Mosque. It was the first time Sinan used
semidomes flanking a central dome.

BUILDING DONORS
The relation between the donors
who funded the building of both
of these mosques and the
sultan emphasizes the social and
political dimension of such religous
foundations. The rulers family and
high officials of the empire erected
extravagant public structures as
status symbols advertising their
donors munificence and power to
the capitals citizens. Women of the
imperial family were also great

Above The impressive dome of the

Selimiye Mosque stands 42m (138ft)
tall.The slender towering minarets reach
a tapered point at about 71m (233ft).

Left Calligraphy and floral patterns are

among the design elements in the blue,
green, red and white tiles that adorn the
Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque.

Left Pillars arranged in an octagon

shape support the massive dome of the
Selimiye Mosque, creating a huge area
illuminated by natural daylight.

221

T O P K A P I P A L AC E
THE LEGENDARY TOPKAPI PALACE PRESERVES MOST OF ITS ORIGINAL
PLANS, ALONG WITH EXQUISITE ARTEFACTS. ITS HISTORY EPITOMIZES
THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, AN AMALGAM OF GRANDEUR AND TERROR.
he world-famous Topkapi
Palace preserves most of its
original architectural layout, along
with an extraordinary museum
collection formed from the original
Ottoman imperial treasury.
The Topkapi (Cannon Gate)
Palace
was
built
between
14591473. Intially the palace was
the seat of adminitration only the
royal family was housed in another
palace, known later as the Eski
Saray or Old Palace, in the Beyazit
area of Istanbul.They moved to the
Topkapi site after the harem was
built in the late 16th century.

AN ORDERED UNIVERSE
The palace is organized around a
sequence of courtyards, with
increasingly restricted privilege of
access and high security. This
sequential layout articulated the
state hierarchies with great clarity.
Much more than the sultans
residence, the Topkapi Palace was
the seat of government for the
entire Ottoman Empire. It was
home to hundreds of courtiers,

soldiers and slaves. The imperial

complex included the Divan, where
government ministers met, as well
as miltary barracks, workshops, the
royal mint, state treasury and
enormous kitchens situated around
beautifully planted and wellmaintained garden coutyards. The
harem was restricted to the royal
family and their servants, and
within these quarters were facilities
to serve the residents needs.
Being an imperial residence for
some four consecutive centuries,
the interiors of the palace were
regularaly updated and rearranged,
to follow new changes in interior
fashions, or to renovate after
occasional house fires.The splendid
palace rooms therefore show the
tastes of different periods from
16th century Iznik tiled pavilions to
18th century Baroque trompe loeil.
There was an exacting order that
permeated everyday life within the
enclosure. Specific groups were
admitted at particular areas during
determined times to perform
prescribed duties. Some quarters

Above The reception room is in the

sultans private quarters of the palace.

were altogether out-of-bounds,

except to a few. Famously, the only
non-eunuch adult male allowed in
the harem was the sultan himself.
HIERARCHICAL LAYOUT
The Gate of Majesty leads into the
first court, where the Imperial Mint
and the 8th-century church of
Hagia Irene, used in Ottoman times
as a warehouse and armoury, still
stand. Upon arriving at the Gate
of Salutation or Middle Gate,
everyone but the sultan had to
dismount in order to proceed
into the second court. The second
court was the main gathering place
for courtiers, the location of the
grandest audiences with the sultan
and the point of access to various
areas of the palace the chimneyed
kitchens, rebuilt by Sinan after a fire
in 1574; the Outer Treasury; the
Divan, seat of the government
council; the Tower of Justice and
the inner harem.
From here, through the Gate of
Felicity, or Gate of White Eunuchs,
the few that were granted access by
the sultan could enter the third
court, surrounded by the Chamber
of Petitions, or Throne Room, the
Left A dense array of buildings form the
Topkapi Palace, originally called the Yeni
Saray, or New Palace.The Tower of
Justice can be seen here (right).

222

Library of Ahmet III (reigned

170330), the Mosque of the
Aghas, the Kiosk of the Conqueror
(housing the Inner Treasury), the
Dormitory of the 39 Senior Pages
(the sultan himself being the 40th
page) and the sultans apartments.
ROUTE TO THE HAREM
The sultan accessed the harem from
the third court a complex of
palatial proportions. The individual
apartments featured mosques,
ancillary service rooms, hammams
(bathhouses) and warehouses.
Finally, in the innermost fourth
court, visitors can nowadays enjoy
the views and lofty quarters once
reserved for the sultan, among them
the superbly decorated Baghdad
Kiosk and Circumcision Chamber,
standing between decorative pools.
The slopes leading down to the sea
are still planted with landscaped
gardens, and give a flavour of the

tranquil atmosphere surrounding

the palace. In 1853, the Ottoman
imperial household moved out of
the Topkapi Palace, to the decidedly
more modern Dolmabahe Palace
on the shores of the Bosphorus.
Following the creation of the
Republic of Turkey, both palaces
became national museums.

223

Above The Circumcision Chamber was

clad with the finest tiles manufactured
during the peak of Iznik production.

Below The love of flowers is apparent in

the 18th-century Fruit Room, where
painted wooden panels of fruit and
flowers decorate the walls and ceiling.