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Challenging the Past: Sinan and the Competitive Discourse of Early Modern Islamic

Author(s): Gülru Necipoğlu Source: , Vol. 10, Essays in Honor of Oleg Grabar (1993), pp. 169-180 Published by: Brill Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1523183 Accessed: 22-12-2015 19:05 UTC

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CHALLENGING THE PAST: SINAN AND THE COMPETITIVE DISCOURSE OF EARLY MODERN

Oleg Grabar compared architecturein the formativepe- As Spiro Kostofnoted, "The veryfirst monument of the riod of , with its novel synthesisof Byzantine and new faith,the of the Rock in ,was a pat- Sasanian elements,to "a sortof grafton other livingenti- entlycompetitive enterprise" thatconstituted a conspic- ties." "The ," he wrote, "did not inherit uous violation of the Prophet's stricturesagainst costly exhausted traditions,but dynamic ones, in which fresh buildings. The and other Umayyad interpretationsand new experimentscoexisted withold imperial projects not only challenged the modest archi- waysand ancient styles."'In thisstudy dedicated to him I tecture of the early caliphs stationed in Medina, but at would like to show that a similar process continued to the same time inviteda contestwith the Byzantinearchi- informthe dynamicsof later Islamic architecturewhose tecturalheritage of ,the center of Umayyadpower. historyin the early-modernera was farfrom being a rep- A well-known passage by the tenth-centuryauthor etition of preestablished patterns constitutinga mono- Muqaddasi identifies the competition with Byzantine lithic traditionwith fixed horizons. The "formation"of architecture,a livingtradition associated withthe great- Islamic architecture(s) was a process thatnever stopped. est rival of the Umayyads,as the central motive behind Its parameters were continuallyredefined according to the ambitious building programsof CAbdal-Malik (685- the shiftingpower centers and emergent identities of 705) and al Walid I (705-15):" successive dynastieswho formulateddistinctive architec- tural idioms accompanied by recognizable decorative The Caliphal-Walid beheld Syria to be a countrythat had modes. Novel architectural that both long been occupiedby the Christians, and he notedthere syntheses thebeautiful churches still to so enchant- remained rooted in a shared Islamic and self-con- belonging them, past inglyfair, and so renownedfor their splendor as are the fromit created a tension be- sciouslydeparted perpetual Churchof theHoly Sepulcher and the churchesof Lydda tween tradition and innovation, often articulated and Edessa.So he soughtto build for the Muslims a in through pointed references to the past that endowed Damascusthat should be unique and a wonderto the monuments withan intertextualdimension. world.And in thelike manner, is it notevident that his fa- therAbd al-Malik, the ofthe of the semiotic of withrefer- seeing greatness Though charging buildings theHoly Sepulcher and itsmagnificence was moved lest it ence to specific architecturalpasts had its roots in the shoulddazzle the minds of the Muslims and henceerected formativeperiod of Islam, it came to play a particularly abovethe rock the dome which is nowseen there? important role in the intertextual architectural dis- course of the early-modernera, extending roughlyfrom The Umayyadsand the earlyAbbasids, who were the only the sixteenth through the eighteenth century.This pe- caliphal dynastiesto have unifiednearly the whole world riod representing the "adolescence of modernization" of Islam, effectivelycompeted withthe past in construct- was characterized by its growingindependence fromtra- ing their imperial architecturalimage. Aftertheir cultu- ditional culture, but at the same time its reluctance to ral hegemony had ended, the smaller states that sever ties from the past.2 My essay will identifya shared emerged oftensought to legitimizetheir dynastic claims early-modernpreoccupation with challenging the past by making allusions to the prestigious monuments of without rejecting its heritage, firstby focusing on the these two early . For example, architectonic programs of Sinan's imperial and then by sit- and decorative elements fromthe eighth-centuryUmay- uating theircompetitive discourse withina broader spec- yad Great Mosque of Damascus were selectivelyquoted trum of examples chosen from the Uzbek, Safavid,and in the tenth-centuryGreat Mosque of Cordoba built by Mughal realms. the exiled Spanish Umayyadswho wished to establishan The competitiveness of Islamic architecture can be iconographic link with their imperial ancestral past to traced back to the imperial ambitions of the Umayyads. support their own claims to the .4 A similar

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claim was made through the Fatimid caliph al-Mansur's As forthe Madrasaof Sultan Hasan, thisedifice has no round of with its obvious equivalentin thewhole world. It wasreported that Sultan tenth-century city Mansuriyya, Hasan, whenhe orderedits construction, summoned all reference to the round of eighth-century city Baghdad, the architects(muhandisin) from all the countriesand the ultimate symbol of caliphal authoritybuilt by the asked them:Which is the highestbuilding in the world? Abbasid caliph al-Mansur. He was told: KisraAnushirwan. So he orderedthat The monumental south dome (1086-87) of the Great the iwanshould be measuredand revised(yuharrar) and thathis should be 10 cubits thanit, and it in ,which to have been higher Mosque appears inspired was constructed....Iwan Kisra has but one iwan, this that of the Great in by fire-damagedUmayyad Mosque madrasahas four!6 Damascus (rebuilt bya Seljuq vizierin 1082), can be read as yet another allusion to the royal authorityof the Timurid architectureshowed a similarpreoccupation Umayyads. Coupled with the palatial element of the with height,monumental scale, and spectacular effects. iwan, Malikshah's dome projected the prestigeof his sul- The unprecedented scale of 's Great Mosque in tanate which provided support to the weakened caliph- Samarqand (1398-1405) represented its patron's ambi- ate of the Abbasids who no longer enjoyed royal power. tion to build one of the most colossal mosques of the The numerous domed maqsuras it engendered in Muslim world in a capital he regarded as its microcosm. and in the smaller mosques of the splintered Seljuq suc- According to the historianSharaf al-Din CAliYazdi, with cessor states of Syria, Mesopotamia, and its soaring height "rubbing against the heavens," Tim- reflecteda resurgence of royalsymbolism at a timewhen ur's mosque proclaimed the verse frequentlycited by independent princelysuccessor states,who perpetuated fourteenth-and fifteenth-centuryhistorians: "Verily our the Sunni revivalof the Great Seljuqs, were establishing monumentswill tell about us, so look to our monuments themselvesin a no longer unifiedby colossal afterwe are gone!"7 When the fourteenth-centuryhisto- imperial caliphates.5 rian Ibn Khaldun wrote that "the monuments of a given The reverence towards the past seen in these exam- dynastyare proportionate to its original power," he ples fromthe middle period of Islam differsfundamen- noted that those of the Umayyads,Abbasids, and Fati- tallyfrom the referencesfound in early-modernmonu- mids surpassed the ones built by the "less important ments. They more frequentlyallude to the past in order dynasties"of his own time,among which he singled out to challenge it and to affirmthe superiorityof theirown the "Turksof " (Mamluks) and Timur (withwhom time. This competitiveattitude first emerges in the post- he had several meetings) as the two most powerfulrul- Mongol era in the fourteenth-and early-fifteenth-cen-ers.8 tury architectural projects of the Ilkhanids, Timurids, The competitivestreak that emerged in the architec- and Mamluks, whose domineering monumentality ture of these two late medieval dynastieswas to culmi- stands out from the modest structuresof their immedi- nate in the early-modernera withthe ambitious imperial ate predecessors, which had abandoned the ambitious projects of the Ottomans, Safavids,and Mughals. These scale of the early imperial caliphates. It is embodied in empires shared the same self-consciousattitude toward such monuments as the colossal domed mausoleum of the vast accumulated heritage of Islamic architecture the Ilkhanid sultan Uljaytuat Sultaniyya(d. 1316) whose that could endlesslybe elaborated to define new identi- sheer commented size, on by most contemporaryhistori- ties. No longer faced with the problem of inventingex ans, reflectedan attemptto challenge earlier royalmau- novobuilding typesor formsthat had preoccupied ear- soleums such as that of the Seljuq ruler Sultan Sanjar in lier generations, architects could now concentrate on . With its gigantic iwan the roughlycontemporary creating innovativereinterpretations of inherited mod- Masjid-iJamic at Tabriz, built by the Ilkhanid CAli els, with subtle quotations and intertextual allusions Shah (d. 1324), gave concrete expression to its patron's becoming the avenues for creative expression. They stated intention to the surpass Sasanian Arch of Chos- could draw on a multitude of codified Islamic building roes in Ctesiphon, the ultimate symbol of royal power. types,architectural idioms, and decorative modes await- The monumental funerarymadrasa of Sultan Hasan in ing to be revised,edited, and refined. (1356-61), which no doubt was a Mamluk response Such multi-ethnic,multi-linguistic, and multi-religious to the challenge posed by contemporaryIlkhanid pro- frontierempires as the Ottomans, and the Mughals self- jects, also boasted larger than the arch at Ctesi- confidentlysynthesized Islamic and non-Islamicregional phon; measurements were taken to prove the claim. formswith their shared Timurid architecturalheritage, Khalil al-Zahiriwrote in the mid fifteenthcentury: which had unified the internationalTurco-Iranian cul-

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The Safavids and manded them to erect a mosque which in height,beauty who occupied the long-Islamizedcentral zones primarily and size should compete withthe largestand finesttem- asserted their identitiesthrough competitivelyjuxtapos- ples already existingthere."'1 The late-fifteenth-century ing theirown monuments withthose built by theirpred- historian Tursun Beg provides more informationabout ecessors that conspicuously marked their territories. this competitiveproject, "And he [Mehmed II] built a They refined inherited formsand decorative vocabula- great mosque based on the design of ries to create theatricaleffects and grandiose ensembles (Ayasofyakarnamesi resminde), which not only encom- of polychrome splendor which medievalistsattuned to passed all the artsof Hagia Sophia, but in addition incor- the more restrained aesthetic norms of earlier periods porated modern featuresconstituting a freshnew idiom have tended to dismiss as unsubtle and unoriginal. The (tasarrufdt-imutd'ahhirin iizre nevC-i ?zve-i taze) unequaled result was an architecture that brilliantlyrefined older in beauty (hiisn)." The passage suggests that Mehmed's schemes and an age of spectacular monuments thatpro- mosque was a modernized reinterpretationof Hagia claimed imperial aspirationswith an unabashed self-con- Sophia whose selectivelyquoted features were synthe- fidence rooted in the notion of the superiorityof the sized with Ottoman-Islamicforms and such novelties as "moderns" over the "ancients."'9 the symmetricallayout of the complex, inspired by Ital- Centuries after the Umayyads,the Ottomans faced a ian Renaissance theories of ideal planning. Tursun's comparable problem when they inherited the magnifi- statement resembles Vasari's description of Bramante cent Byzantine churches of . Thus for a (1444-1514) as an architectwho translatedthe past into a second time in the historyof Islamic architecture an modern idiom through new inventions: "While the intense dialogue was taken up withthe classical heritage Greeks invented architectureand the Romans imitated of Byzantium.It was not the modest traditionof late-Byz- them, Bramante not only added new inventions, but antine architecture (the Ottomans had already selec- greatlyincreased the beauty and difficultyof the art, to tivelyassimilated that in their early capitals), but the an extentwe now perceive.",2 grand monuments of the golden age of Byzantiumthat Tursun Beg had a sophisticated abilityto distinguish caused them to redefine theirconcept of imperial archi- architectural idioms; in another passage he differen- tecture. In constructing their new imperial image the tiates the "Ottoman style/mode" (tavr-icosmdni)from Ottomans appropriated from early Byzantine architec- the Persian one.'" It was not, however,until Sinan's ten- ture elements that would simultaneouslyspeak to their ure as chief court architect (1538-88) that the Ottoman subjects, both Muslim and non-Muslim,and to their ri- idiom reached its mature expression. Sinan challenged vals, both in Europe and in the Islamic world. Umayyad not only Hagia Sophia, but also the Ottoman-Islamic architecturehad challenged Byzantiumby Islamicizinga architecturaltradition he had inherited.The architect's current Mediterranean visual language carryingwell-es- three great mosques - the Sehzade Mehmed (1543-48), tablished imperial associations. Siileymaniye (1550-57), and Selimiye (1568-74) - alluded to the architecturalglories of an empire thathad which he himself identified as the milestones of his ceased to exist at a time when the constructionof monu- career, exemplifythree differentways in which he re- mental domed structureslike the Hagia Sophia had be- sponded to thatchallenge. come a thing of the past. The late-antique architectural Sinan's several autobiographical essays,the onlyexam- traditionwas no longer a living cultural force as it had ples of theirkind in Islamic architecturalhistory, give us been for the Umayyads.It had to be revived,and it was a rare glimpse into the architect'sown assessmentof his revived by the Ottomans at a time when the Italian work. Although they have been used to reconstruct Renaissance architectswere involved in a similar enter- Sinan's career and identifyhis vast corpus, theirbroader prise. conceptual implications have not yet been considered. The Ottoman fascination with Hagia Sophia, which Composed at a time when great architecturalpersonal- had become the firstand foremost Friday mosque of itieswere emergingin Renaissance Italy,Sinan's autobio- - , inspired a series of imperial mosques start- graphical essaysreflect an acute individualismand pride - ing with that of Mehmed II (1463-70) that icono- in his triumphover the architecturalmasterpieces of the graphicallylinked the new rulersof the citywith the van- past. These texts,some of them unfinished drafts,are quished Byzantinepast. The Greek historianKritovoulos clearly the product of a collaborative effort.They were wrote of Mehmed II's mosque, "The sultan himselfse- dictated by the aging architect to his poet-and-painter lected the best site in the middle of the cityand com- friend Mustafa Saci, who transformedSinan's oral ac-

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count into prose and verse. In that respect they recall were invented forpatrons wishingto leave memorials of Manetti's life of Brunelleschi and Condivi's life of themselvesbehind. The difficultyof the architect'stask Michelangelo. Although Saci says that he conveyed the in satisfyinghis ambitious patrons makes his profession "blessed" words of Sinan, he no doubt added his own that much more important.From the primitivehut to touches. Nevertheless, the various versions of Sinan's Hagia Sophia the gradual development toward greater autobiographical essays- some of which have marginal aesthetic refinementculminates in Sinan's works,owing addenda and correctionsin a hand that may well be his to the grandeur of the Ottoman state and Islam and the own autograph - testifyto a process of editing in which virtuousarchitect's own God-giventalent. By mentioning the architectalmost certainlyparticipated.'" the collapse of "Agnados's" notoriouslyunstable "flat The laconic introductionof Tu4fetii'l-MiCmdrinabout dome," Sinan sets up a competition between his monu- "the canons of architecture,the foundations of build- mental domed mosques and Hagia Sophia, a building he ings, and the strengtheningof lands" provides a glimpse acknowledges to be "unequaled in the world." By into Sinan's competitionwith the past as well as his struc- reminding his readers of the failure of Hagia Sophia's tural and aesthetic concerns. It begins witha discussion dome, Sinan indirectlypraises the sound constructionof of the origins of architecture: his own, with their lateral thrustsskillfully counterbal- anced by a carefullyproportioned systemof supports. It is clearand obviousto personsof intelligence and to pos- His preoccupation withstructural stability, a resultof his sessorsof that comprehension buildingwith water and clay trainingas a militaryengineer, is, however,tempered by an being auspiciousoccupation, the Childrenof Adam an aestheticconcern with solutions. came to hate mountainsand cavesand showedan inclina- agreeable Achieving structural in a harmonious be- tionto found town and villages.Due to mankind'scivilized elegance correspondance naturevarious types of buildingswere invented day after tween the domical superstructureand its infrastructure day so thatrefinement (nezdket) increased and not one of supports is singled out by the architectas one of his momentwas lost by anyone in attemptingto leave an central concerns. [architectural]memorial. In fact,a like building Hagia The reference to architect as Sophia,which is unequaledin theworld, was built in four- Justinian's "Agnados" teen yearsthrough the effortsof the architect(micmdr) comes from popular semi-mythicalhistories of Hagia namedAgnados. But a fewyears after the completion of its Sophia in Persian and Turkish,which Sinan seems to the flatdome That design (tarh), (yassukubbe) collapsed. have known.'6His autobiographical essayswhich contain the above mentionedarchitect-engineer (micmar miihen- frequent allusions to Hagia Sophia testifyto its role as a dis) rebuiltit withmany difficulties is written in histories. vivid source of In the of Giventhis, your slave Sinan of ,too, has suffered inspiration. epilogue Tu4fetii'l greattoil in thecompletion of each building.There is no Micmdrin the architect compares his own imperial doubtthat all of themcame into existence with the help of mosques with earlier Ottoman examples inspired by God, and the and through auspicioussovereignty lofty Hagia Sophia: aspirationof the country-conqueringOttoman family, as wellas the bountiful of our own heart.In sincerity short, It is clear and obviousto the of the and thereis no art/craft(?ancat) more difficult than architec- engineers age to ture Whoeveris in thishonorable theoverseers of auspicious monuments that buildings con- engaged structed servicemust first of all be and He should in the style/modeof Hagia Sophia (Ayapofyatar- (micmdrhk.). righteous pious. did not to downfoundations if the construction site zmnda) notcarry refinement (nezdket) until this servant begin lay of thehonorable is not firm,and once he commencesthe foundationshe yourscompleted mosqueof Sehzade Sul- tan Mehmed should fullattention to their in orderto save - MayGod EnlightenHis Tomb - which give strength servedas hiswork from defect. And to theabundance or a model forthe honorablecomplex of Sultan according Han - His Gravebe Pure. in scarcityof elephant'sfeet piers, , and buttresses, Siileyman May Thereafter, he shouldbind the and half-domeson of thelatter lofty complex numerous graceful works were cre- top them, ated, each of whichwas withrefinement and tiethe arches in an agreeablemanner without designed (nezad- making ketle).17 an error.He shouldavoid hurryingup buildingrequire- mentsand bearhis load accordingto thesaying, "Patience bringsvictory to man,"in orderto finddivine guidance for The comment thatimperial mosques lacked refinement the ofhis work immortality throughthe assistance of God: until Sinan came shows that he himself "Thereis no doubtin this."'5 along regarded as having created a more refined "neo-Hagia Sophian" Ottoman style.The architect'sway of defining his own This rathersimple and prosaic commentaryis neverthe- style is not unlike that of contemporary Renaissance less pregnant withmeaning. It argues that,with the pro- architectswho used prestigiousmodels fromantiquity as gress of ,increasingly refined building types theirpoint of reference.Like his Italian contemporaries,

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Sinan was, on the one hand, conscious that he was an seen in several of his buildings for other patrons,where innovator,yet, on the other, reluctant to create ex novo. he paraphrased the schemes of older monuments in a He needed to his measure originalityagainst architectu- sixteenth-centuryidiom.20 In the Sehzade Mosque he ral exemplars fromthe past. Though his fascinationwith came up witha revolutionaryelevation, which featureda lacked the Hagia Sophia humanisticantiquarianism that novel approach to fenestrationand lateral facade order- had inspired Renaissance architectsto studythe ancient ing, and the harmonious stratificationof the domical su- monuments of Rome, it involved a comparable attitude. perstructurethat resulted in a stepped pyramidal sil- Sinan did not, however,make the architectureof Hagia houette. The late-sixteenth-centurygeographer-traveler Sophia his point of departure, but filtered its lessons Mehmed Apikacknowledged the mosque's unpreceden- through the accumulated heritage of Ottoman-Islamic ted refinementof construction (nezdket-ibind), which architecture.Unlike Renaissance architectswho rejected set it apart fromits predecessors.2' their immediate Gothic past, Sinan accepted Ottoman- If the Sehzade Mosque commemorating a deceased Islamic architecture as potentially perfectable. He set crown prince was Sinan's elegant response to earlier im- out to reinterpretthis well-establishedbuilding tradi- perial mosques inspired by Hagia Sophia, the Siileyma- tion. niye was his direct answer to the challenge ofJustinian's The problem Sinan faced, then, was not one of creat- masterpiece itself.Sinan chose to meet this challenge by a new architectural from but of ing language scratch, using themes alreadydeveloped in the Sehzade Mosque. criticallyrevising, editing, distilling,and refining one His building program can be seen as a sixteenth-century whose main outlines had already been formulatedby the revival of the competition Mehmed II's mosque had late fifteenthcentury. Instead of enrichingthat language opened up with Hagia Sophia, the ultimate imperial new he chose to make it more by introducing elements, symbol worthyof being emulated in Sfileyman'sown uniformby reducing its seriallyrepeatable vocabularyto mosque. Mehmed's architect, CAtikSinan, had been a few standardized canonical formsremolded into har- punished forhis shortcomings.The descriptionof a visit monious proportions. "Talent is a favor of God," said bySiileyman to the constructionsite of his mosque in the Sinan, and his artisticingenuity was God's will,to be car- Tezkiretii'1-Biinydn shows that the sultan reminded Sinan ried out his through own hard work and the diligent of his predecessor's tragic precedent in a threatening of historical study monuments. However, although he tone. The completion of the Silleymaniyeaccording to made valuable observationsduring his travelsin eastern the symbolicallycharged plan approved by the sultan Europe, the , Anatolia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Syria, thus marked Sinan's superiorityover his namesake and and direct Egypt, quotations from non-Ottoman monu- Ottoman architecture's triumph under the glorious ments are hard to find in his architecture.His buildings patronage of Sfileyman.22 remained strictlyself-referential exercises within the With itsvast, rationally planned complex the Silleyma- confines of the canonical Ottoman imperial idiom niye alludes to that of Mehmed II, until then the largest which he codified.'" imperial establishmentin Istanbul. Its four of The as Sehzade Mosque was, Sinan himself said, an varied heights framinga marble-paved courtyardwere to refinethe attempt Hagia Sophia-inspired styleof ear- drawn fromthe CJCSerefeli, the largestimperial mosque lier to imperial mosques. According the contemporary in . These references to prestigious imperial historian Sultan Celalzade, Sfileymanselected its plan mosques were complemented by an obvious quotation from a number of presentation drawings (resmlerve from Hagia Sophia, the central dome flanked by two because he found its to be the tarhlar) style most agree- half-domeswhich had already been used in the mosque able and well proportioned (matbucve mevzunolan uslftb) of Bayezid II. Sfileyman'soctagonal tomb withits double the With among proposals. its perfectlycentralized qua- dome alluded to the Dome of the Rock inJerusalem that trefoil structure,the $ehzade Mosque was the final stage had recentlybeen restored by the sultan and built on in a of sequence imperial mosque plans that began with what was believed to be the site of Solomon's Temple. the Uf in Serefeli Mosque (1437-47) Edirne, was Through these multiple references the Siileymaniye extended in Mehmed II's mosque (1463-70) with the enriched its imperial associations and its status as the addition of one half-dome,and in the mosque of Baye- most ambitious Ottoman mosque complex ever built. It zid II (1500-5) with two half-domes.'9This logical pro- was the new temple of Solomon commissioned by the shows gression that Sinan's design was informedby the Second Solomon (i.e., Sfileyman) and the new Hagia same conception of evolutionary architectural history Sophia, also built to emulate Solomon's Temple- when

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it was finishedJustinian is said to have exclaimed, "Solo- riorof thismosque havebeen builtin a graciousmanner In thewhole of we mon I have surpassed thee!"23Sinan's eclectic set of allu- (pirinkdrlzkiizre). Firangistan[Europe] havenever seen suchan exemplarybuilding so perfectin sions was what has been defined as a given unityby aptly thescience of geometry (Cilm-i hendese).27 "structural criticism" and "rationalization" of Hagia Sophia's scheme, based upon a more centralized spatial then asks the to definition.The Suileymaniyeintroduced a "classical" vo- Evliya European spokesman compare the with which shows how often cabulary of forms and a novel decorative idiom that mosque Hagia Sophia, aesthetic about architecturewere made came to be the stamp of Ottoman identityin later pro- judgments by monuments. is filledwith jects. In his autobiographySinan praises the mosque as a comparing Evliya'stravelogue such a common habit thatmade the inter- work uniting the best of the decorative arts. "Its like comparisons, of architecturalreferences to the (dnzi nazri) has not been created until now," he boasts, textuality transparent "nor will it be in the future."24 ordinaryobserver. The foreigneranswers: The mosque's pyramidallymassed exterioris verydif- ferentfrom Hagia Sophia's heavilybuttressed stark and True,it [Hagia Sophia] is an ancientwork built larger than this heavy facades. Sinan's orchestration of various sized [Siileymaniye]in brick.It is an immensebuilding of thatancient artisticin termsof domes around a central baldachin is absent in age solidity(metdnet iizre). entirely But in termsof pleasantness(letdfet), elegance (zerdfet), Hagia Sophia, and the architect declares this to be an propriety(nezdfet), and graciousness this (-rnkdrlzk), ingenious invention never before attempted.A passage exemplary building [Sfileymaniye]is more artistic. its more has been on in the Tuhfetii'l-MiCmd-rnsuggests that he determined Regarding costs, money spent this mosquethan on Hagia the placement of doors in the minarets so that they Sophia.28 would provide vistas for connoisseurs (literati, erbdb-i teclif)of the domes, which he compares elsewhere to The Siileymaniye is judged superior in its aesthetic "bubbles on the surface of the sea" around a colossal refinement,and its stone masonry structure is more heavenly dome whose gilt finial glitteredlike the sun.25 costlythan brick.Despite its monumental magnificence, This supports the argument of architecturalhistorians Hagia Sophia is perceived to represent the taste of an that Sinan's startingpoint in designing his mosques was ancient age, admired, but differentfrom the new Otto- the domical superstructureand not the ground plan. He man aesthetic. This perception foreshadows the assess- skillfullyintegrated innovative domical superstructures ment of the church by several eighteenth- and early- with the traditional rectilinear layout of the mosques nineteenth-centuryEuropean travelersas "Gothick." Al- without destroyingthe unityof inner space. Sixteenth- though Evliya's comparison almost certainlyis his own, and seventeenth-centuryOttoman writers such as his storyabout the foreignvisitors need not necessarily Mehmed Alik and Evliya(elebi oftencompare the dom- be dismissed as invention. The numerous European ical of configurations various mosques, and this does printsand drawingsof the Sfileymaniyetestify that for- suggest that they conceptualized space from above eign visitorswere common; among them the English ratherthan fromthe ground plan.26 travelerJohn Sanderson praised it in 1594 "as a work Sinan's eloquently articulated domical superstruc- which meritethto be matched with the seven wounders turesrationally reflect the structureof inner space to the of the world."29 exterior. The seventeenth-centuryOttoman traveler Justas representationsof the Siileymaniyewere readily EvliyaCelebi describes how ten European specialists in available in the West,so Sinan mayhave had access to the geometryand architecturewho visited the Silleymaniye illustrated architectural treatises published in increas- Mosque appreciated the unified design of its interior ingly larger numbers in sixteenth-centuryEurope. Al- and exterior. The foreignerswho allegedly kept biting though there is no evidence he was acquainted withPal- their in fingers astonishment, exclaimed "Maria! ladio's or Michelangelo's work,it is likelyhe knew about Maria!" and removed their hats in admiration as they their experimentswith monumental domed spaces, giv- toured the building. When Evliyaasks theirtranslator to en the close diplomatic and mercantile relationswithin describe theirreactions, he says: the Mediterranean world at that time. He must at least have heard reports about recent architecturaldevelop- mentsfrom Ottoman like those Everycreature and everybuilding is beautiful(giizel) travelers, who visitedthe eitherwithin or without,but neverdo thesetwo kinds of constructionsite of St. Peter's in Rome, where theyare beautyexist together. However, both the interior and exte- reported to have expressed their admiration for the

This content downloaded from 140.247.86.241 on Tue, 22 Dec 2015 19:05:25 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SINAN AND EARLY-MODERNISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE 175 unfinished project to the Italian militaryarchitect Fran- Sophia could ever be made/This soaring dome exceeds cesco de Marchi.30 it/I know not the rest,for God alone knows the best." According to the Tezkiretii'l-Biinydnit was Christian The architect'sclaim to have surpassed the dimensions (probably European) architectswho challenged Sinan of Hagia Sophia's dome has puzzled architecturalhisto- to outstripHagia Sophia's dome in the SelimiyeMosque rians because the diameter of Selimiye'sdome (31.22m) (which was centurieslater to liken to a "tia- approximates that of Hagia Sophia (ranging between ra of great splendor" crowningthe cityscapeof Edirne): 30.90m and 31.80m), and it is considerablylower. Sinan does not, however,say that he surpassed the diameter Thishumble servant drew up plans (resm)for a monumen- (commonly referredto as kutror adp)of Hagia Sophia's tal mosquein Edirnedeserving to be admiredby the peo- dome, but rather its circumference (devr). In addition, ple of theworld. Its fourminarets are placed on thefour he apparentlyconsidered each dome as sides of the dome. And each has threegalleries. Two of independently themfeature three separate staircases with different paths. an autonomous shell, measuring its height (kadd) not The minaretof the UgTSerefeli, built in theolden days,is from the ground, but from the level of its base. Com- likea tower.It is excessivelythick. However, it is apparent puted in this way, Selimiye's rounder dome with its to thejudicious thatmaking the minaretsof this [Seli- higher apex is in facthigher than the flatprofiled dome miye]both refined(nazik) and withthree separate stair- of On these Sinan could casesis quitedifficult. And one ofthe things that people all Hagia Sophia.33 grounds pro- overthe world used to saywas impossible was "a big dome claim thathe had not only succeeded in equaling Hagia like thatof Hagia Sophia [which]has not been builtdur- Sophia's dome, but also in surpassing it. EvliyaCelebi's theMuslim era"; on accountof this the so-called archi- ing description of the SfileymaniyeMosque's dome, which is tectsof theinfidels used to claim,"We have surpassed the Muslims."The heartof thishumble servant was troubled also lower than thatof Hagia Sophia, shows thathe mea- bytheir invalid presumption that "to supportsuch a [big] sured it in a similarfashion: "The elevated summitof this dome is extremelydifficult; ifit werepossible to matchit mosque's dome (kubbesiniifizirve-i acldsz) is rounder would have builtone like (na~premiimkin olsa) they it." (miidevver)than the dome of Hagia Sophia and seven Workinghard on theconstruction of this withthe mosque, cubits higher than it."34This peculiar method of com- help of God "the King,the Conqueror,"and under the a dome's from its base rather than from rule of Sultan Selim Han, I demonstratedmy power by puting height makingthe height (kaddin) of thisdome 6 cubits[4.50m] the ground level is in keeping with Sinan's conceptual- and its circumference(devrin) 4 cubits [3.00m] larger ization of mosque architectureas an elegant counterba- [thanthat of Hagia Sophia].31 lancing of a curvilinear domical superstructureand a strictlyrectilinear system of supports. The duality of This passage, recalling earlier attemptsby Muslim archi- these two distinct zones is always emphasized in his tects to surpass the Arch of Ctesiphon, announces mosques. Sinan's intentionto challenge twoancient buildings,the Sinan's autobiography suggests that the dome of the UC Serefeli and Hagia Sophia which were the largestim- Selimiye,built to compete withits predecessor, constitu- of perial mosques Edirne and Istanbul respectively.The ted his startingpoint in designing the restof the mosque Sfileymaniyehad reformulated Hagia Sophia's overall as a centrallyplanned octagonal baldachin. The allusion scheme filtered through references to earlier imperial to Hagia Sophia was furtherreinforced through a quota- but the mosques, Selimiye set out specificallyto chal- tion of its protruding apse, a feature not present in featsof lenge unsurpassed construction,Agnados's large Sinan's earlier imperial mosques. Unlike the Siileyma- dome and the 0U Serefeli's tall . With their ele- niye project where he was encumbered by a literal rein- gant design Sinan's virtuoso minarets eclipsed the U4I terpretationof Justinian'sbasilical church, Sinan could Serefeli Mosque's heavilybuilt, unintegrated triple-galle- freelyexplore his own imagination and mature experi- minaret ried featuring three separate staircases. The ence in designing the Selimiyewhich he regarded as his thinner and taller minaretsof Selimiye,built so close to masterpiece. The synthesishe achieved was as novel as their which until then rival, had remained the highest that of Renaissance architectsinspired by the Pantheon. in the Ottoman one world, proclaimed Sinan's triumph The domination of the Selimiye's great dome is em- over the past by combining an engineering featwith aes- phasized by eliminatingsmaller domes, half-domes,and theticrefinement.32 multiple-domed dependencies. The Tezkiretii'l-Biinyan, The rivalrywith Hagia Sophia focused on the unsur- which compared the cascading small domes of the Seh- passed size of its monumental dome. Sinan boasted: zade and Sfileymaniyemosques to "bubbles on the sea of "The world used to bet that no other dome/Like Hagia elegance," therefore omitted this strikingsimile in its

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Selimiyedescription.35 The colossal dome is surrounded intended to be a nazire,or competitiveresponse, to that by a belt of eight turretsframed by four identical mina- challenge. In the process of formulatinghis response rets, not around the courtyard- as in the &0CSerefeli Sinan went beyond mere emulation to remold his model and Siileymaniyemosques where theirvaried height ac- ingeniouslyinto a freshnew idiom. Once completed the centuates a pyramidal silhouette - but around the Selimiye dome itself became the new exemplar: "No domed baldachin. The closelyintegrated dome and four dome like it has been built or can ever be built on minarets (elements simultaneously signifyingsultanic earth/Itis a non-pareil equaled only by the sky."40 status and the power of ) thus focus atten- The deliberate references in Sinan's great mosques tion on the competitivecentral theme of Sinan's build- provide them withvisual lineages and chains of allusion ing program.36The minaretsalluding to &C,Serefeli and like those of the poets. His is an architectureconscious the dome referringto Hagia Sophia arejuxtaposed in an of itshistoricity, an architecturethat bridges the past and almost post-modernmanner to announce the architec- the present throughthe rhetoricaldevice of intertextual- tural triumph of Sinan's superbly sited mosque, a tri- ity.It not only reflectsan acute historicalconsciousness, umph that simultaneouslycommunicated the grandeur but also affirmsthe superiorityof the more eloquent pre- of the Ottoman state and Islam. sent. In his autobiographical essays Sinan deliberately The building programsof Sinan's three great mosques advertiseshis derivationsfrom older models, but he also have to be read as responses to the specificchallenges of distances himselffrom them in order to make his audi- the past rather than as part of a linear evolution of style ences notice both the allusions to the past and the depar- driven by some mysteriousimpulse towardcreating cen- turesfrom it to highlighthis own originality.The resultis tralized schemes."7Just as Ottoman intellectuals of the a dialectical emulation of the past, which calls attention time were busilyproducing criticalcommentaries (?erh) to, criticallyreflects on, and challenges comparison with on the classics, so Sinan busied himselfwith a structural admired exemplars. Sinan mingles his heterogeneous and aesthetic criticismof earlier masterpieces. His three allusions with rhetorical skill to update past achieve- great mosques are the architecturalcounterparts of nazzi- ments; he corrects,criticizes, and refineshis models to res,poems composed on the model of admired exem- demonstratehis superiority. plars to improveupon them ingeniouslythrough a novel Literarytheories of imitationas the proper framework twist.Emulating earlier poetry had always been prac- for creativityalso played a central role in Renaissance ticed, but by the late fifteenthcentury it had come to Europe. In the sixteenthcentury a vigorous debate over dominate the Timurid literaryscene, as "the styleof the the various modes of imitation and the proper role of ancients" had ceased to be the criterionby which poet- traditionover artisticoriginality was carried on all over ical production was judged. Since literary creativity the Mediterranean world.41Classical Ottoman architec- involved the elaboration of set themes dictated by con- ture was a product of the same environment. Sinan's vention, "refinementof expression" became the prime great mosques proclaimed imperial power,the triumph focus of Timurid poets who sought to reshape admired of Islam, and the role of the divinelyinspired architectin exemplars in accordance withmodern tastes.3"The com- codifyingthe canons of a historicallyconscious architec- position of imitational poetry became the means by ture expressing a glorious epoch. Sinan, aware of his which many early-modern poets, including Ottoman important role, recorded "his name and reputation in ones, established themselveswithin an increasinglyinter- the annals of time in the hope that he mightbe remem- textual collective literarytradition which by the late fif- bered with well-intended prayers." Eventually his teenth centuryhad "become an intricateweb of interre- exploits became folklore,his powers superhuman: like lationships and interdependencies between poets of Daedalus he could flyfrom one constructionsite to the differentgenerations and distantlocalities."" other.42 Justas contemporarypoets aspired to emulate former Sinan's assertionsthat his age was superior to the past poets who had been judged by critics as impossible to were repeated throughout the early-modern Islamic surpass, Sinan advertised his skill by challenging archi- world during the late sixteenthand seventeenthcentu- tecturalexemplars thatexperts had declared to be inimi- ries, as the Safavidsand the Mughals followed the Otto- table. The Tezkiretii'l-Biinydneven uses the term "naxzre" mans in creating their own distinctivearchitectural and when it refers to those non-Muslim architects who decorative idiom. Sinan's successors also followedhis ex- declared that it was unfeasible to build a dome equal to ample, even furtherrefining the "classical" Ottoman idi- that of Hagia Sophia. The dome of Selimiye was om he had codified. The (1609-

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17) in Istanbul, oftenjudged by modern architectural ness, and gloominess" of the old one with rational historians to be inferior to Sinan's masterpieces, was design principles, "so that now theycall the formerIsfa- regarded by seventeenth-centuryOttoman criticsas the han (Isfahan-isdbiq) the 'old city' and these places and "commander of the army of mosques" and the "most residences the 'new city,'" Junabadi boasted. "Through beautiful (giizel) of all the sultanic mosques in Istanbul." the circumstanceof these sublime buildings,the Cityof Noting that its plan was the same as that of the Sehzade Rule, Isfahan, is one of the mothers of cities of the civi- Mosque, Evliyapraised the "graciousness of its architec- lized world and its equal and like in the seven climes tural style/mode" (tarz-i micmdrisindeolan firinkdrlhk)does not exist."46With its monuments embodying the unknown in the mosques of any other country.In fact, distinctiveSafavid idiom and its Friday mosque (1611- with its exaggerated elegance and elongated propor- 30) that represented a refinementof Timurid proto- tions the Sultan Ahmed Mosque exemplified the chang- types, the brilliant theatrical stage of the new Safavid ing aestheticsensibilities of a age througha the- maidan eclipsed the old one whose antiquated Seljuq atricalitymissing in Sinan's restrainedclassicism. It faced great mosque still carried Sunni memories despite its a public maidan just across from Hagia Sophia, once transformationby a decorativeveneer of Safavidtiles car- again invitinga competitive comparison between past rying Shici inscriptions. The court historian Iskandar and present.43The Sultan Ahmed Mosque's six minarets Munshi asserted that Shah Abbas's new mosque was - alluding to those of the Masjid al-Haram in "withoutequal in Iran and possiblyin the entirecivilized (whose six minaretswere increased to seven to avoid crit- world."47 icism) - eclipsed the four used in Hagia Sophia. Its Shah Abbas once again challenged the past when he highlyarticulated ashlar masonryfacades and cascading enlarged the shrine complex of Riza in Mashhad domical superstructure contrasted sharply with the (1612-13), juxtaposing new structuresin the Safavid idi- bulkymonumentality ofJustinian's ancient masterpiece om next to its old Timurid core thatbecame integrated withwhich it was intentionallypaired. into a rationallyplanned symmetricalscheme. Iskandar The deliberate juxtaposition of new monuments with Munshi writes: old ones around public maidans became a particularly common mode of architecturalnazire in the early-mod- Afterperforming the pilgrimage ceremonies at theshrine ofthe Imam ern era, especiallyin the grand urban schemes of the sev- Riza,the Shah resolved...to restorethe build- ingsand dwellingsand to enlargethe main of enteenth century.Samarqand's Square is one courtyard the shrine,because he consideredthe existingone unim- of these maidans, withits between competitivedialogue pressive.The MirCAlishir portico was theentrance to the Timurid monuments and Uzbek ones that replaced shrine...but it was extremelybadly located in thecorner demolished Timurid structures.There the seventeenth- of the courtyard.The Shah's plan was to demolishsome older east of the and in century facade of the Shirdar Madrasa closely par- buildingslying courtyard already ruins,and to incorporatethe lands thusacquired within aphrases that of 's fifteenth-centurymadrasa the courtyardin such a waythat the MirCAlishir portico across fromit, as if tryingto outdo its model. This semi- wouldthen be locatedin thecenter of the southernwall. otically charged pairing of the old and the new pre- He also plannedto construct a secondportico in thenorth southand the Mir sented the Uzbeks as worthyheirs to theirTimurid pred- wall,facing opposite CAlishirportico, ecessors.44 and twoother porticos in the east and westwalls, respec- tively.An avenuewould then be constructedfrom the west In 1585, the Ottoman historianTaclikizade describes a gateof the city running east to theshrine; on reachingthe masjid built in the now destroyed maidan of Tabriz by shrine,it would circle around it, passing by all four the SafavidShah Tahmasp I (1542-76) as a "napire"to an entranceporticoes.4" earlier Fridaymosque on the opposite side by the Aqqo- yunlu ruler Uzun Hasan (1453-78).45 The old maidan of Around the same time the Mughal emperor Shah Isfahan also had its mixture of Safavid and pre-Safavid Jahan (1628-57), who after regularizing parts of Agra monuments, but it was not until Shah CAbbas I (1588- found it to be beyond repair, decided to build the new 1629) created the new maidan that the whole city cityof Shahjahanabad at Delhi. Like Isfahan, this ratio- became a which inviteda polarized by nazire comparison nally planned citycomposed of monuments in the new between past and present. The outcome of this open Mughal imperial idiom provoked a competitivedialogue match was obvious to contemporaryobservers; the early- with older settlementsestablished in Delhi by earlier seventeenth-centurychronicler Junabadi declared that Muslim dynastiesin termsboth of its architecturalstyle the new maidan corrected the "narrowness, crooked- and of its urban layout. The French traveler Bernier

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1. Richard and TheArt and Architec- (1656-68) writes,"Owing to theirbeing so near at hand, Ettinghausen Oleg Grabar, the ruins of old Dehlihave served to build the tureof Islam: 650-1250 (Harmondsworth,1987), p. 23. [material] 2. The intertextualdimension of Islamic architectureis over- and in the Indies more of new city, theyscarce speak any looked in positivisiticstudies concerned withthe taxonomic Dehli,but only ofJehan-Abad."The rational planning of classificationof buildings in termsof typology,chronology, the characteristicsof the Shahjahanabad withtree-lined axial avenues bisected by and regionalstyle. For early-modern see Fletcher, Parallels and water canals (recalling Isfahan's Chahar Bagh avenue) age, Joseph "IntegrativeHistory: Interconnectionsin the EarlyModern Period, 1500-1800,"in was in earlier The new unprecedented Mughal capitals. NigucaBicig: An Anniversary Volume in Honorof Francis Woodman citymay well have been intended as a nazire,a Mughal re- Cleaves,ed.J. Fletcher,R. N. Frye,Y. Lam, and 0. Pritsak(Cam- sponse to Isfahan. During an audience Shah Jahan even bridge,Mass., 1985), pp. 37-57. 3. A Architecture: and Rituals asked a Persian ambassador to compare the two.4" Spiro Kostoff, Historyof Settings (New York-Oxford,1985), p. 286. For Muqaddasi, see F. E. Peters, We know that the emperor had access to drawingsof Jerusalem(Princeton, 1985), p. 198. Oleg Grabar,in whose Isfahan and but he them in the Baghdad,50 reinterpreted oeuvre the Umayyadperiod occupies a special place, inter- distinctiveMughal architecturalidiom codified during pretedthe programof theDome of the Rock in his influential his reign when several old buildings in red sandstone, article, "The UmayyadDome of the Rock," Ars Orientalis3 33-62. judged to be unimpressive, were demolished and (1959): 4. M. Bloom, "The Revivalof Islamic Architec- withthose of Shah own in white Jonathan Early replaced Jahan's design tureby the Umayyadsof Spain," in TheMedieval Mediterranean. marble. The emperor considered among others his fa- Cross-CulturalContacts ed. M. J. Chiat and K. L. Reyerson(St. ther's red sandstone buildings in Lahore as "old fash- Cloud, Minn., 1988), pp. 35-41. The historianIbn CIdhari writesthat the al-Hakam who had the Cor- ioned and of bad design" (kuhnagiwa bad tarhzi);by con- caliph II (961-76), trast his own marble at Lake Ana in doba mosque remodeled,wished to imitatehis SyrianUmay- pavilions Sagar forebearal-Walid I who had built the Great of were to be in a "fresh yad Mosque Ajmer judged pleasing style.""'5 Damascus and decorated itwith mosaics (see ibid.,p. 38). This new style revised well-establishedMughal prece- 5. For allusions to prestigiousmonuments of the past in the dents, remolding them into a canonical language of har- mosques ofthe Seljuq successorstates, see mychapter, "Anato- monious forms with a novel decorative skin. lia and the Ottoman Legacy,"in TheArchitecture ofthe Mosque, stamped ed. Hasan-UddinKhan and MartinFrishman There remained littledoubt in the minds of (in press). contempo- 6. Al-Zahiri'sKitab Zubdat al-Mamalik wa bayanal-Turuq wa'l-Masa- raries that theirswas an architectureunsurpassed in its likas quoted in Nasser Rabbat, "The Iwans of the Madrasa of elegant refinement;the seventeenth-centurycourt histo- SultanHasan," Newsletterofthe American Research Center in Egypt, rian Lahori asserted that "in this tranquil reign, the art nos. 143-44, (Fall/Winter,1988-89): 6. 7. For Timur's in Yazdi's of building has reached such a as astonishes both great mosque Samarqand, description point of it, and the Timurid withcolossal scale, see the traveledconnoisseurs and the preoccupation widely magic-working Lisa Golombek and Donald Wilber,The TimuridArchitecture of engineers of thisincomparable craft."52 Iran and Turan, 2 vols. (Princeton, N.J., 1988), 1: 204-7, As these random examples demonstrate, Sinan was 255-60. 8. Ibn The trans.Franz 3 vols. not alone in assertingthe architecturalsuperiority of the Khaldun, Muqaddimah, Rosenthal, (reprt.Princeton, N.J., 1980), 1: 356, 366, 369; 3: 315. present in an early-modernage so deeply preoccupied 9. Beyondthe Turco-Iraniancultural sphere, the predominantly with the inter- challenging past through self-consciously Arab-speakingworld of Syria,Egypt, North Africa, and Spain textual monuments and urban schemes. This confi- preservedits traditionalidentity, even aftermost of it had be- dence would last until the eighteenth century,before come incorporatedin the sixteenthcentury into the Ottoman local architecturalidioms drawnfrom of self-doubt all over the Muslim world, realm, by elaborating signs emerged an idealized medieval and it to turn to artisticmodels in its past. began European 10. Kritovoulosof Imbros,History of Mehmed the Conqueror by Krito- search for differentvisual idioms that would express voulos (1451-1467), trans. Charles Riggs (Princeton, N.J., newlyconstructed modern national identities. 1954), p. 140. 11. TursunBeg, TheHistory of Mehmed the Conqueror, ed. H. Inalcik and R. 1978), Ottomantext, Murphey(Minneapolis-Chicago, fols. 56a, 59a-59b. As a reaction to scholars who Massachusetts foreign Cambridge, regardedIstanbul's royal mosques as poor imitationsof Hagia Sophia, nationalisticTurkish scholars have downplayedits in- NOTES fluence. For the Ottoman repairs of Hagia Sophia and its changing receptionthrough the ages, see Giilru Necipoglu, Author'snote: Those partsof thispaper dealingwith Sinan werefirst "The Life of an Imperial Monument:Hagia Sophia afterBy- presentedat the InternationalSinan Symposiumheld in 1988 at zantium"in TheHagia Sophia:Form, Structure and Meaningfrom Ankaraand at a symposiumon Turkisharchitecture held in 1991at theAge of Justinian to thePresent, ed. Robert Mark and Ahmet the MetropolitanMuseum ofArt in NewYork. Cakmak (Cambridge,Eng., 1992), pp. 195-225.

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12. For the possibleinvolvement of the Italianarchitect Filarete in Evliyarecognized the Sehzade Mosque's improvementon ear- the design of Mehmed's complex, see Marcell Restle, "Bau- lier models throughan originalsynthesis: "It has been builtby und unter Mehmed II ,"Pan- a refinement(nezdket) and a propriety from plannung Baugesinnung stealing (nedafet) theon39 (1981): 361-67; Giorgio Vasari, TheLives of Painters, each royalmosque thatpreceded it." See EvliyaCelebi Seyahat- Sculptorsand Architects,4 vols., ed. WilliamGaunt (New York, namessi,1. Kitap:Istanbul, ed. $inasi Tekin and G6nuilTekin 1963), 2: 183. (Cambridge,Mass., 1989). 13. He refersto the Persian styleas "tavr-iekdsire" (the mode of 22. TB., fol. 10b. For Siileyman'sapproval of his mosque's plan Persiankings); see TursunBeg, TheHistory of Mehmed the Con- and sitewhich he discussedwith Sinan in a meeting,see ibid., queror,text, fols., 59a-59b. fol 9a. The architectof Mehmed II's mosque is reportedto 14. The several versionsof Sinan's autobiographicalessays still have been punished for shortening the two tall marble await a criticaledition. Most of them have been compiled in columns supporting the dome's lateral arches, which had RifklMelul Meric,Mimar Sinan, Hayatz, Eseri I: MimarSinan 'n been transportedat greatexpense. Sinan is thereforecareful HayatznaEserlerine Dair Metinler(, 1965). Also see, Mus- to indicate in his autobiographythat the Sfileymaniye'sfour tafa Saci, Tezkiretii'l-Biinydn(Istanbul, 1315/1897), and the monumental marble columns brought from distant lands Englishtranslation of a more reliableversion of the same text were cut downto thesame heightwith the sultan's permission, accompanied bya facsimilein Metin S6zen and Suphi Saatii, ibid.,fol. 9b. MimarSinan and Tezkiret-iilBiinyan (Istanbul, 1989) (hereafter 23. Guilru Necipoglu-Kafadar,"The SilleymaniyeComplex in TB.). Unfortunatelythe Englishtranslation is not reliable,so I Istanbul:An Interpretation,"Muqarnas 3 (1985): 92-118. have providedmy own. Some archivaldocuments and Sinan's 24. The "rationalization"of Hagia Sophia's scheme is discussedin autobiographicalessays have been adapted to modernTurkish Kuban, "The Styleof Sinan's Domed Structures,"p. 84; TB., in Zeki S6nmez, MimarSinan ile ilgiliTarihi Yazmalar-Belgeler fol.10a. (Istanbul,1988). For the knownautobiographical manuscripts 25. For theminaret doors, see MeriC,Mimar Sinan, pp. 51-52. The in variouslibrary collections, see S6zen and Saatii, TB., pp. comparisonto bubbles is in TB., fol 10a. 20-28. A versionof Tezkiretii'l-Biinydn preserved in theTopkapi 26. For Sinan's conceptualizationof domed spaces fromabove, Library(R. 1456), in which the informationfound in see Kuban, "The Styleof Sinan's Domed Structures,"pp. 74, earlier copies is edited and interestingnew details added, is 92-95; Kuran, Mimar Sinan, p. 13. Ottoman architectural published in Suphi Saatii, "Tezkiret-illBiinyan'lin Topkapi descriptionscomparing mosques in termsof their domical Revan Yazma Niishasi," abound in Mehmed and Sarayi Kitapligindaki TopkapzSarayz configurations Ai1k'sMendzzr Evliya MiizesiYzllzk 4 (1990); 55-101. Celebi's Seydhatndme.Evliya, for example, observes that the 15. Merii, MimarSinan, p. 21. $ehzade Mosque has fourhalf-domes like the Sultan Ahmed 16. For an analysisof these popular textsand furtherbibliogra- Mosque and differsfrom the double half-domedmosques of phy,see Necipoglu,"The Lifeof an ImperialMonument," pp. Hagia Sophia and the Siileymaniye.He notes the common 198-202. Sinan's referencesto the architectof Hagia Sophia as scheme of the KiliCAli Pasha Mosque and Hagia Sophia, and "Agnados"and to the legendaryfounder of Constantinopleas also pointsout the parallelbetween Riistem Pasha's octagonal Yanko bin Madyanconfirm his familiaritywith these texts,see domed baldachin and thatof the SelimiyeMosque in Edirne, MeriC,Mimar Sinan, p. 21; and TB., fol.,56. Seydhatndme,1: 125-26, 149-50, 163, 302-3, 441; 3: 443-45. Evli- 17. Merii, MimarSinan, pp. 51-52. ya's referenceto the in , as "the Ayasofyaof 18. In his youth, Sinan had gone on militarycampaigns with Bursa,being the city'smost monumental mosque," showsthat Selim I in westernIran (1514) and Egypt(1516-17), because contemporaryobservers viewed mosques in a comparative 'just as a compass drawsan arc, so I desired to tourcountries. ,Seydhatndme, 1: 441, 2: 14. For a while in the serviceof the sultan I wandered the Arab 27. Evliya,Seydhatndme, I: 157-59. For the facsimileof the manu- and Persianlands, derivingmy sustenance from the pinnacle script,Evliya Celebi, ed. Tekinand Tekin,p. 94, fol.45b. of each iwan,and mylodging from the corner of each ruin," 28. Ibid.,pp. 157-59. TB., fols.2b, 3a. 29. John Sanderson, The Travelsof John Sanderson in theLevant 19. Celalzade Mustafa,Geschichte Sultan Siileyman Kdnunis von 1520 (1584-1602),ed. W. Foster(London, 1931),pp. 70-71. bis 1557, ed. Petra Kappert (Wiesbaden, 1981). fol 377b. For 30. I am indebtedto HowardBurns for the referenceto thevisit of this sequence of imperial mosques, whose intertextualpro- an Ottoman delegation to St. Peter's in Rome: Romeo de gramsdiffer from those of other patrons,see Dogan Kuban, Maio, Michelangeloe la Controriforma(Rome-Bari, 1978), pp. "The Styleof Sinan's Domed Structures,"Muqarnas 4 (1987): 322, 342, n. 64. Francesco de Marchi's passage cited by De 82-83; Aptullah Kuran, Mimar Sinan (Istanbul, 1986), pp. Maio fromArchitettura militare, book 6, Florence,Bibl. Naz. ms. 12-13,62-64. Magl. 11.1.277,fol. 105r-v reads: "I1tempio di S. Pietroe il pih[ 20. For example,the SelimiyeMosque in (ca. 1565) and the magnificodella cristianita,e quando sara fattosecondo il dis- Tatar Khan Mosque at G6zleve in the Crimea (1550's) are egno e modello non se ne troverfiuno semilein partenessuna based on the layoutof Mehmed II's mosque in Istanbul,and ... e certo tuttigli huomini che sono sopra la terradovriano the Sinan Pasha Mosque in BegiktaS(1550-55) reinterprets desiderareche detto tempiosi dovesse finiree porgerliaiuto the scheme of the UCSerefeli Mosque in Edirne. Towardsthe et favore;persino alli Turchi,nemici della vera fede, ho par- end of his life Sinan also paraphrased the scheme of Hagia lato con alcuni di loro in Roma,li quali desideravanoche detta Sophia on a smaller scale at the GKilCAli Pasha Mosque in Chiesa si finisse,secondo il bello et meravigliosoprincipio." Istanbul (1580's). 31. Le Corbusier(Charles-Edouard Jeanneret),Journey tothe East, 21. Mehmed Aqik,Mendzrii'l-CAvdlim, National Library,Vienna, ed. and annotatedIvan Zaknit,trans. Ivan Zakni: and Nicole ms. cod. mxt. 314, fol 264r.The seventeenth-centurytraveler Pertuiset(Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1989), p. 72. TB.,

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fols.15a-15b. In the published edition of thistext, instead of anthologyof Ottoman nazirescompiled in 1524 by Nazmi "circumference"(devr) the term"depth" (derinlik)is used; see Mehmed Celebi; see Faik Repad,ed., Tezkire-iLatifi (Istanbul, Saci, Tezkireti'l-Biinydn,pp. 71-72. This appears to be a typo- 1314/1896-97).Latifi's frequent use of "refined"(ndzik) with graphical error,given that the manuscriptversions consis- referenceto poems parallelsthe use of the same termin Otto- tentlyuse "devr";see, for example, the edition of the Revan man architecturaldescription. ms. bySaatfi in TopkapzSarayz Miizesi Yzllzk, p. 96. 40. TB., fols.15a, 15b. 32. The triple-galleriedminaret of U Serefeliis 67.65m high,the 41. I am gratefultoJohn Shearman forthe followingreferences: minaretsof Selimiyemeasure 70.90m according to Aptullah Thomas M. Greene, TheLight of Troy: Imitation and Discoveryin Kuran, TheMosque in EarlyOttoman Architecture (Chicago-Lon- RenaissancePoetry (New Haven, Conn., 1982); G. W. PigmanIII, don, 1968), p. 181. "Versionsof Imitationin the Renaissance,"Renaissance Quar- 33. TB., fol. 15b. The heightof Selimiye'sdome fromthe ground terly33 (1980): 1-32. is 42.25m, and thatof Hagia Sophia is 55.60m; Kuran,Mimar 42. TB., fol. 2a. N. Araz, "SelimiyeEfsaneleri (Myths about Seli- Sinan, p. 163. The Hagia Sophia was extensivelyremodeled miye),"Istanbul 4 (1954): 20-22. when the Selimiye was almost finished in 1573-74; its 43. CacferEfendi, Risdle-i Micmdriyye: An EarlySeventeenth-Century deformeddome was protectedwith added buttresses,its two OttomanTreatise on Architecture,trans. with notes by Howard minaretswere increasedto four,and Selim II's domed mauso- Crane (Leiden and NewYork,1987), p. 74; Evliya,Seydhatname, leum was built in its garden; see Necipoglu, "The Life of an 1: 216. In his early-eighteenth-centuryhistory, Cantemir wrote ImperialMonument," pp. 205-10. that had undertakenhis mosque's constructionin 34. See Evliya,Seydhatname, 1: 149-50; and the facsimileedited by order to compete withHagia Sophia. Referringto the Sultan $inasi Tekin and G6nill AlpayTekin, Evliya Celebi, p. 90, fol. Ahmed Mosque, he wrote,"Although it is not as large, this 43b. building surpasses Hagia Sophia in magnificence";Dimitri 35. For the comparisonwith bubbles, see TB., fols.4b, 10a. Cantemir,Osmanli imparatorlugu Tarihi, trans. 0. Cobanoglu, 3 36. Only mosques builtfor the sultanhimself featured more than vols. (Ankara,1979), 3: 148, 322. twominarets and large domes thatclearly stood out fromthe 44. The Uzbek competitionwith Timurid monuments is noted by smallerdomed mosques of otherpatrons. Sinan's autobiogra- the late-seventeenth-centurySamarqandi anthologist Muham- phy compares the dome and four minaretsin both the Seli- mad Badic:"CAbd Allah ibn Iskandarordered the razingof sev- miye and Silleymaniyemosques to the Prophet who is "the eral major Timurid buildings in Samarqand including the dome of Islam" surroundedby his companions,the firstfour great congregationalmosque, because he wanted no memo- Sunni caliphs;see ibid.,fols. 10a, 115b. rialof Timurid splendor left there and wishedinstead to make 37. The sayingattributed to Sinan: "The Sehzade is myappren- the cultural and architecturalcenter of Mawaran- ticeshipwork (fzraklzk),Shileymaniye is mywork as a journey- nahr," cited in R. D. McChesney, "Economic and Social man (kalfalhk),and Selimiyeis mywork as a master(ustalzk)," Aspectsof the Public Architectureof Bukhara in the 1560's has unfortunatelycontributed to viewingthe stylisticdevelop- and 1570'," IslamicArt 2 (1987): 228. ment of Sinan's mosques as a linear progressiontowards the 45. Taclikizade, Tebriziyye,Topkapi Sarayi Kiitiiphanesi,R. 1299, formulationof a perfectlycentralized scheme culminating fol.30v. with the Selimiye.According to thisview, Sinan's departure 46. Cited in R. D. McChesney,"Four Sources on Shah CAbbas's fromthe rationalityof Sehzade's centralizedplan in the Silley- Buildingof Isfahan,"Muqarnas 5 (1988): 112-14. maniyeis a retrogressionor anomaly,which Sinan correctsin 47. IskandarMunshi, Tdrikh-i Cdlam-drd-yi CAbbdst, translated as The the Selimiye;see Kuban, "The Styleof Sinan's Domed Struc- Historyof Shah CAbbasthe Great by Roger Savory,2 vols. (Boul- tures,"pp. 84-89; idem, "Sinan," in MacmillanEncyclopedia of der,Colo., 1978), 2: 1038. Architects(New York,1982), 4: 66, 68. Evliyareports that while 48. Ibid.,pp. 1064. servingas at the Selimiyehis fatherhad allegedly 49. FrancoisBernier, Travels in theMogul Empire (A.D. 1656-1668), heard fromSinan that the architectregarded the Sehzade trans.A. Constable (reprt.,New Delhi, 1983) pp. 241, 284-85. Mosque as hisjourneyman'swork, the Siileymaniyeas his mas- Bernierdescribes the questioningof the Persianambassador: ter'swork, and the Selimiyeas his masterpiece.Here the Seli- "The Mogol [Shah Jahan] inquiringwhat he thoughtof his miyeis stillsingled out as Sinan's most originalcreation, but newDehli, then building, as compared to Ispahan;he answered the Siileymaniyeis referredto as the workof a masterrather aloud, and withan oath, "Billah/Billah/Ispahancannot be com- than thatof a journeyman;see Evliyai elebi, 10 pared to thedust of your Dehli," which reply the Kingtook as a vols. (Istanbul, 1896-1930), 3: 443-44. This moreSeydh.atndme, balanced highencomium upon hisfavorite city, though the ambassador assessmentis also repeated in the Tezkireswhich say thatwith intendedit in sportivederision, the dust being intolerablein the SiileymaniyeSinan "broughtto completionhis skillin the Dehli,"ibid., pp. 152-53. fieldof architecture"and "sealed his artistictalent." The 7Tz- 50. AhsanJan Qaisar, BuildingConstruction in MughalIndia (Ox- kiresshow no sign of dissatisfactionwith the Silleymaniye,nor ford,Calcutta, Madras, 1988), p. 15. do theysupport an interpretationof Sinan's careeras a single- 51. Cited fromLahori in Ebba Koch,MughalArchitecture (Munich, minded search forperfecting centralized schemes; see MeriC, 1991),pp. 84, 103. MimarSinan, pp. 18,59. 52. Translatedfrom Lahori in W. A. Begleyand Z. A. Desai, Taj 38. Maria Eva Subtelny,"A Tastefor the Intricate:The PersianPo- : The IlluminedTomb (Cambridge, Mass., Seattle, and etryof the Iate TimuridPeriod," Zeitschriftder Deutschen Mor- London, 1989), p. 10. genlandischenGesellschaft, 136, 1 (1986): 57-79. 39. Ibid., p. 68. In his biographicaldictionary of Ottoman poets presented to Sultan Sileyman I in 1546, Latifirefers to an

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