Sülemaniye Mosque



View the excellent walk through guide to this mosque and architectural complex at the ARAMCO  virtual tour
Location Istanbul, Turkey
Architect/Planner Sinan
Client Sultan Süleyman I
Date 1548-59 (inauguration 1557)
Style/Period Ottoman
Century 16th
The complex consisted of a hospital, medical school, hospice, soup kitchen, primary school, four madrassas (colleges), shops and coffee houses in addition to the mosque itself. The complex is built on an artificial platform on top of a hill that overlooks the Bosphorus; to the east the ground slopes away rapidly. The mosque precinct contains three main areas, the mosque itself in the centre, a courtyard to the north and a tomb garden to the south which contains the tomb of Suleyman and his wife. The mosque is covered with a large central dome (25 m diameter) with two large semi-domes of equal radius, one above the north entrance and one above the mihrab. The central area is flanked by side aisles covered by small domes of alternating size. Like that of its predecessor the Sehzade Cami, the central dome rests on four huge central piers placed in a square. The whole building is illuminated with more than a hundred windows and grilles, many of which are filled with stained glass made by the celebrated Ottoman glass-maker Ibrah¾m Sarhos. Outside at each corner of the courtyard are four minarets with balconies supported on muqarnas corbels. This is the first Ottoman building in Istanbul to have four minarets, although previously the Üç Serefeli in Edirne also had four. The sides of the building are enlivened with several entrances (three on each side) approached by steps and two-tier arcaded galleries placed between the outer corner buttresses.

The tomb garden behind the mosque contains a large cemetery which has grown up around the tombs of Suleyman and Roxanne. Both tombs are octagonal structures in the traditional Ottoman fashion, although Suleyman's tomb unusually faces east instead of north. Roxelane's tomb is smaller and placed to one side of Suleyman's tomb which stands in the middle of the garden. The interiors of both tombs are decorated with Iznik tiles, although Roxelane's tomb is significantly less grand. Suleyman's tomb is surrounded by a colonnaded veranda with a porch on the east side. This arrangement is echoed internally where Suleyman's sarcophagus is surrounded by a circular colonnade.

The arrangement of the complex outside the mosque precinct consists of an L-shaped arrangement of buildings on the north-west side and a smaller group to the east. The eastern complex is built on a steep hill so the madrassas are stepped into the hillside. On the north-west corner of the complex is the tomb of the architect Sinan.