Suleymaniye Mosque Completed

The Süleymaniye Mosque, completed in 1557 in Istanbul, is the great architectural monument of the reign of Sultan Süleyman I, known in the West as "the Magnificent." Designed by the imperial architect Mimar Sinan, it stands on one of the city's hills above the Golden Horn and remains among the most recognizable features of the skyline. It is widely regarded as a defining achievement of Ottoman architecture and a statement of the empire's wealth, piety, and confidence at its height.

Süleyman came to the throne in 1520 and presided over a period of military expansion, administrative consolidation, and cultural flowering. Istanbul, conquered by the Ottomans in 1453, had already been enriched with major mosques, but the Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine church converted to a mosque, loomed over all of them as a model and a challenge. Sinan, who had risen through the Janissary corps and served as a military engineer before becoming chief imperial architect around 1538, was well placed to answer that challenge. His task was to create a monument worthy of the sultan that would also draw on the Ottoman tradition of the domed mosque.

Construction began in the late 1540s, with work generally dated to about 1550, and the mosque was opened in 1557. It was not a single building but a külliye, a complex that included four schools for Islamic law and teaching, a medical school, a hospital, a public kitchen that fed the poor, baths, a caravanserai, and shops. The central prayer hall is crowned by a large dome supported by semi-domes, and four minarets mark the corners of the courtyard. The interior is notable for its light, its spaciousness, and its restrained decoration, including fine stained glass. Sinan later remarked that he regarded it as his work as an apprentice, though the accuracy of his comments as reported is hard to verify.

The mosque also became the burial place of Süleyman, who died in 1566, and of his wife Hürrem Sultan, in domed tombs in the adjoining garden. Sinan went on to design hundreds of structures across the empire, and his masterpiece is usually considered to be the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, completed in 1575. Even so, the Süleymaniye set a standard for imperial mosque design that influenced later Ottoman building.

The complex has endured fires, earthquakes, and damage during the First World War, and has been repeatedly restored. Today it remains an active place of worship and a major draw for visitors. It is part of the Historic Areas of Istanbul, a UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1985.