PREVIEWCOPY Introduction Previewing this book? Please check out our enhanced preview, which offers a deeper look at this guidebook. Travel guidebooks for the ultra curious, Approach Guides reveal a destination’s essence by exploring a compelling aspect of its cultural heritage: art, architecture, history, food or wine. Presiding over the Ottoman empire at the height of its power, sultan Suleyman the Magnificent (ruled 1520-1566) championed the construction of large Friday mosques throughout Istanbul. Mimar Sinan, the chief royal architect who was himself a convert to Islam, oversaw this building campaign, trans- forming the landscape of the capital city. Sinan’s mosques — designed for sultans, royal family mem- bers and high-ranking government and military officials — are sublime works of art and architecture, featuring massive domes that take on mountain-like profiles, soaring pencil-shaped minarets, mas- terful Iznik tile decoration and inscriptions designed to communicate God’s will to the faithful. They are yours to discover. What’s in this guidebook • Art and architecture review. We provide background on the great architect and his de- sign aesthetic, isolating trademark features that you will see again and again while touring. To make things come alive, we have packed our review with high-resolution images. • Tour of the highlights. Following our tradition of being the most valuable resource for culture-focused travelers, we offer a tour of Sinan’s top Friday mosques in Istanbul (itinerary below). For each, we reveal its most important architectural and decorative features and offer a discussion that ties it all together. • Advice for getting thePREVIEW best cultural experience. To help you plan your visit, this guide- book supplies logistical advice, maps andCOPY links to online resources. Plus, we give our personal tips for getting the most from your experience while on location. • Information the way you like it. As with all of our guides, this book is optimized for intui- tive, quick navigation; information is organized into bullet points to make absorption easy; and images are marked up with text that explains important features. Itinerary This guidebook offers a tour of Sinan’s top ten Friday mosques in Istanbul: Atik Valide; Kara Ahmed Pasha; Kilic Ali Pasha; Mihrimah Sultan, Edirnekapi*; Nisanci Mehmed Pasha; Rustem Pasha*; Sehzade Mehmed*; Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, Kadirga*; Suleymaniye*; and Sultanahmet / Blue mosque (post-Sinan)*. See our Google Map for the detailed tour itinerary. Also, to help travelers with limited time prioritize their visits, we have marked the six stops that are absolute must-sees with asterisks (*). Contact us anytime Our readers are our greatest inspiration. Email us at [email protected] to let us know about your experience with Approach Guides — many of our recent updates have been inspired by customers like you. We personally respond to every email. We hope this cultural travel guidebook provides fresh insights into Istanbul’s fantastic Islamic archi- tecture and sets you on a path to making your own discoveries. Enjoy your trip! David and Jennifer Raezer Founders, Approach Guides www.approachguides.com Other Cultural Sites in Istanbul: Hagia Sophia A wonder of 6th century engineering Istanbul’s church of Hagia Sophia stood as a symbol of the Byz- antine empire for over 9oo years. So great is its magnetism that it was adopted by the conquering Ot- tomans and converted into a mosque to signal their rightful inheritance of the empire’s distinguished legacy. And the magic remains on full display today: a massive dome that appears to float weight- lessly above the floor, filtered light that infuses the interior with a glow symbolic of God’s wisdom and gold-filled mosaics that encourage contemplation. It is yours to explore with Approach Guides. PREVIEWCOPY Get the Approach Guide to Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia Istanbul Revealed: Sinan’s Mosques Version 1.0 by David Raezer and Jennifer Raezer © 2015 by Approach Guides All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, with- out permission in writing from the publisher (excluding Creative Commons images). Further, this book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be resold or given away to other people. Copyright, licensing and attribution information can be found in the metadata for all images and illustrations. Approach Guides and the Approach Guides logo are trademarks of Approach Guides LLC. Other marks are the property of their respective owners. Although every effort was made to ensure that the information was as accurate as possible, we accept no responsibility for any loss, damage, injury or inconvenience sustained by anyone using this guidebook. Approach Guides New York, NY www.approachguides.com ISBN: 978-1-936614-52-3 Contents Introduction Watch Before You Go SETTING THE STAGE Suleyman the Magnificent Meet the Chief Architect Mosque Overview Sinan’s Style Inscriptions Iznik Ceramic Tiles Inspiration: Hagia Sophia TOUR MAP AND ITINERARY Touring Tips 1. Sehzade Mehmed * Layout Exterior Interior PREVIEWCOPY Mausoleum 2. Suleymaniye * Layout Exterior Interior 3. Rustem Pasha * Layout Exterior Interior 4. Nisanci Mehmed Pasha Layout Exterior Interior 5. Mihrimah Sultan, Edirnekapi * Layout Exterior Interior 6. Kara Ahmed Pasha Layout Exterior Interior 7. Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, Kadirga * Layout Exterior Interior 8. Sultanahmet (Blue Mosque) * Layout Exterior PREVIEWCOPY Interior 9. Kilic Ali Pasha Layout Exterior Interior 10. Atik Valide Layout Exterior Interior Extras Sinan Mosque Chronology Continuing on Your Own Continuing Travel in the Middle East Our Recommendations Where to Eat, Stay and Shop Packing List About Approach Guides Join Us! Videos More from Approach Guides Free Updates and Enhancements PREVIEWCOPY — I have built for thee, O emperor, a mosque which will remain on the face of the earth till the day of judgment ...” — Sinan to sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, on completion of his mosque, Suleymaniye, as recounted in Evliya Celebi’s travelogue. Download a free copy of Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall’s 1834 translation of Evliya Celebi’s “Book of Travels [Seyâhatnâme].” PREVIEWCOPY Watch Before You Go Watch the Istanbul episode of On Location, an online travel show from the creators of Approach Guides. In this quick video of Istanbul’s skyline, we highlight the principal monuments in the old city (Fatih) visible from the Galata tower across the Golden Horn. PREVIEWWatch the videoCOPY on Istanbul’s skyline. To see all episodes in our video series, visit approachguides.com/video or subscribe to our YouTube channel. SETTING THE STAGE PREVIEWCOPY Suleyman the Magnificent PREVIEWCOPY Fig. 1. Suleyman the Magnificent. Painting by: Titian, 1530. Before we introduce this guidebook’s central protagonist, Koca Mimar Sinan, it is valuable to set the stage by profiling the Ottoman sultan who enabled him to leave such a profound mark on Istanbul’s urban fabric: Suleyman the Magnificent (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2). Background on the Sultan • Reign. Suleyman I — known as “the Magnificent” in the West and “the Lawgiver” (Kanuni) in Ottoman territories — ruled as Ottoman sultan from 1520-1566. He was symbolically linked to the biblical Solomon not only in name (Suleyman is Arabic for Solomon), but also as the tenth ruler in the line of Ottoman sultans (Solomon was King David’s tenth son). • Presided over peak of the empire. Suleyman presided over the Ottoman empire during its golden age, fighting battles that brought its controlled territories to the greatest extent and sponsoring unrivaled artistic, literary and architectural endeavors. • Wife and children. In a break with Ottoman ruling tradition, Suleyman married one of the women of his harem. Taking the royal name Haseki Hurrem Sultan, Suleyman’s wife bore him four sons: Sehzade Mehmed, Bayezid, Selim (Suleyman successor known as Selim II) and Ci- hangir; they also had a daughter, Mihrimah Sultan. The royal family is closely tied to a number of the mosques that we will see on our tour that follows. • Champion of orthodox Sunni Islam. Although known for decadence in his youth (as we get some indication of in Fig. 1), Suleyman became increasingly pious with age and champi- oned an orthodox version of Sunni Islam over Sufism (mystical Islam) that had prevailed un- der prior rulers. As part of this initiative, he established sharia (sacred law derived from the Quran) as the legal foundation of the empire, while placing certain areas not addressed by the Quran (criminal law, land ownership and taxation) under his sole jurisdiction. • Sultan and caliph. As both secular “sultan” (head of state) and religious “caliph” (supreme religious leader), he viewed spreading Ottoman Sunni Islam through warfare as his most im- portant role: fighting Christian infidels in the West (the Pope and the Holy Roman emperor) and Shiite Islamic heretics in the East (Safavid Persians). PREVIEWCOPY Fig. 2. Royal signature (tughra), Suleyman the Magnificent. Janissary Corps as a Weapon of State Although the janissary corps had been operative for well over a century, it gained significant momen- tum under Suleyman. • Origins. Created by sultan Murad I (ruled 1362-1382), the janissary corps consisted of elite infantry units that functioned as the Ottoman sultan’s private standing army. • Kul system. In a practice likely originating in the conscription of Christian war prisoners, the corps was sustained through a “collection” or “gathering” (devsirme), in which Christian boys — typically under 20 years old and of Armenian or Greek ethnicity — were taken from their families in the Ottoman provinces of the Balkans and Anatolia, converted to Islam and enlisted as janissaries (Fig. 3). These kuls, slaves of the sultan, were subsequently trained and educated to the highest standard at the royal palace. • Warriors to statesman. After completing their mandatory service in the military, janissary corps members often took on political positions in the sultan’s government. In fact, the high- est positions in the military and the government were reserved for these slave-converts, in- cluding grand vizier, the sultan’s top-ranked government official.