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.
