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Sinan, History's Most Prolific Architect: How a Master Builder Transformed Islam
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11825 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1987 |
1,962 Words |
| Author
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Aptullah Kuran
Aptullah Kuran is professor of architectural history at
Bosphorus University in Istanbul. An expert in Islamic art,
Kuran's most recent work is Sinan: The Grand Old Master
of Ottoman Architecture. |
The great Turkish architect Sinan ibn Abdulmennan will be commemorated in Turkey and elsewhere next year on the occasion of the four-hundredth anniversary of his death. Sinan was chief court architect under three sultans: Suleyman the Magnificent (1520-1566), Selim II (1566-1574), and Murad III (1574-1595). He was appointed to this post in 1538 and held it until his death in 1588. During those fifty years, he was responsible for hundreds of buildings commissioned by the imperial family and important viziers. Sinan built from the shores of the Adriatic to the Persian Gulf and from the Crimea to the Hejaz. But more significant than the impressive number of buildings he designed is their remarkable quality.
Sinan brought Ottoman classical architecture to its logical conclusion. Under his dynamic direction and through his astonishing output, Ottoman architecture was transformed into a universal style as forceful and as refined as that of the contemporary Renaissance.
Sinan's Early Life
Little is known about Sinan's early life other than his origins in Cappadocia and conscription by the sultan's forces in Agirnas, a village near the city of Kayseri. Since he was recruited for the elite Janissary Corps, it can be assumed that he met the Corps' demanding requirements. But because records of the Janissaries have not survived, we do not know either his Christian name (all Janissaries were Christian-born) or date of birth. Judging by references in contemporary manuscripts containing biographical material about Sinan, we can surmise that he was recruited in 1512, soon after Selim I's accession.
The boys recruited into the Janissary Corps were first hired out to Turkish farms to learn the tenets of Islam, the Turkish language, and Ottoman customs. Later, after passing an examination, they became cadets and began their military training. As vacancies occurred in Janissary units and were reported to the Palace, they were filled by appointments from the cadet companies by decree of the sultan. Recruits serving in the provinces were brought to Constantinople and Edirne to fill the vacancies among the cadets.
Sinan completed his provincial service and term of cadetship in nine years, taking his place among the ranks of the Janissaries in 1521. He fought in Suleyman the Magnificent's Belgrade campaign during the summer months of that year. Then he participated successively in the imperial campaigns of Rhodes (1522), Mohacs (1526), Vienna (1529),
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