The Suleymaniye is the second largest but
by far the finest and most magnificiant of the imperial mosque
complexes in the city.It is a fitting monument to its founder,
Suleyman the magnificent, and a master work of greatest of
Ottoman architects, thi incomparable Sinan.The mosque itself, the
largest of Sinan's work, is perhaps inferior in perfection of design
to that master's Selimiye at Edirne, but its incotestably the most
important Ottoman building in Istanbul.
The construction of Suleymaniye began in 1550 and the mosque
itself was completed in 1557, but it was some years later before all
the buildings of the complex were finished.Where the lend slopes
sharply down toward the Golden Horn, the courtyard is supported by
an elaborate vaultedsubstructure; from the terrace here on has a
suberb view of the city.Around this courtyard on three sides are
arranged the other builings of the complex with as much symmetry as
the nature of the site would permit.Nearly all of these pious
foundatuons have been well restored and some of them are once again
serving the people of Istanbul as they did in the days of Suleyman.
The mosque is preceded by a porticoed courtyard of exceptional
grandeour, with columns of the richest porphyry, marble and grenite.The
western portal of the court is flanked by a great pyloon containing
two stories of chambers; these were the muvakithane, the house and
workshop of the mosque astronomer.At the four croners of the
courtyard rise the four great minarets.These four minarets are
traditionally said to present the fact that Suleyman was the fourth
sultan to reign in Istanbul; while the ten serefs or balconies
denote that he was the tenth sultan of the Ottoman.
Entering the mosque we find ourselves in a vast, almost square
room surmounted by a dome.The interior is approximately58.5 by 57.5
meters, while the diameter of the dome is 27.5 meters and the hight
of its crown above the floor is 47 meters.To
east and west the dome is supported by semidomes, to north and south
by arches with tympana filled with windows.The dome-arches rise from
four great irregularly shaped piers.Up to this point the plan
follows that of Hagia Sophia, but beyond this all is different.Between
the piers to north and south triple arcades on two enormous
monalithic columns support the tympana of the arches. There are no
galleries here, nor can there properly be said to be aisles, since
the great columns are so high and so far apart as not really to form
a barrier between the central area and the walls; thus the immense
space is not cut up into sections as at Haghia Sophia but is
centralized and continuos. The method Sinan used to mask the huge
buttresses required to support the four central piers is very
ingenious, the device is extremely succesful, and is indeed one of
the things which gives the exterior its interesting and beautiful
distinction.
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