Ogeebolu

Selimiye Mosque

Irving — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:15:30 +0000

This 1570s mosque in Edirne is considered to be Mimar Sinan’s best. It is composed of two parts – the courtyard (shan) and musalla (prayer hall). It was the model mosque for all subsequent mosques, and it has become the Ottoman mosque. With it, Sinan attempted to emulate Hagia Sophia.

The ratio of the rise to span of the dome is much better than Hagia Sophia’s. Sinan solves the low rise to span ratio of previous domes with the minaret. Selimiye’s dome sits on an octagonal structure having eight point columns loaded. The thrust is taken by the minarets. Buttresses are further weighted by members that are all in stone.

The call to prayer is made on the balconies of the minarets. There are eight people on the balconies in unison. They are muazzins who summon the faithful to prayer five times a day.

Bayezid II Külliye

Irving — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:05:43 +0000

This complex of buildings we visited on June 24, 1996, centered around a mosque and is patterned after Byzantine institutions. The Ottoman külliye was built in 1448 in Edirne and its donor was Bayezid II. It includes a soup kitchen, madrasa, and a medical facility for the mentally ill (asklepion).

The madrasa has a courtyard with arches and colored stone. The columns of the medical school have no base. Natural Sciences, Literature, Poetry, and Religious Law were some of the subjects taught here.

The hospital is a treatment building which is comprised of rooms on the side that supported different activities such as: surgery and pharmacy. The patients were treated on platforms which were heated. Potent drugs such as hash were used. The use of flute music, water sounds and scents were the other types of treatment methods used for the mentally ill.

The mosque is made of a single space. It contained a minbar and a dikka – a tribune raised on columns from which the Koran is recited and prayers are uttered by the Imam. The decoration is not original and is from the 19th century.

Eski Cami and Üç Serefeli

Irving — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:02:37 +0000

Eski Cami, also known as the Old Mosque in Edirne, is a 6 bay mosque of the early 15th century. The combined domed bays are of equal size. It has no articulation between one bay to another. The center bay has a mihrab and minbar. The decoration we saw here is from the 19th century, and is undergoing restoration at the time. The mihrab has been decorated. A sketch of the minbar is to the left.

To the right is Serefeli, originally called the New Mosque and is also known as the Triple Galleried Mosque. It was the first Seljuk mosque to have this 3 porch feature. It was built between 1437 and 1448 in the market center of Edirne. The thick walls carry the load. There is 1 dome in the main space, and we interpreted that to mean that this was a transitional mosque, which influenced Sinan’s mosque designs. This mosque really has been regarded as the culmination of early Ottoman studies with domed spaces.

The Serefeli introduced the large central dome to which the other domes are subordinated.

Sokullu Mehmet Pasha (Lüleburgaz)

Irving — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:17:16 +0000

The mosque is dated from 1569-71. Sinan probably designed the mosque complex before 1568, before he left for Edirne to build the Selimiye. It is not a very large mosque, but it is quite fine inside. The minbar is especially fine.

We were told that what we saw was not the original decoration inside.

The prayer spaces above were not unlike the synagogues of the 3rd century A.D., and subsequent synagogues in eastern Europe. Looking up, we saw the pendentive used as the transfer mode for a circular dome over the square room. The arches are loaded to take the thrust. The mosque has an interesting structural feature, an experiment which takes the form of a stepped outline for the dome thrust.

Semsi Ahmed Pasha

Irving — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:23:20 +0000

This is a really late Sinan building found in the district known as Üsküdar. It is tiny in comparison to his other built works by the same form, but with modest small additions. The pendentive is no longer used. There are some playful things like the porch. It is unique and more classical. All lessons Sinan learned are included here. The wooden minbar and clock are not originals. The decoration is restored.

Hagia Sophia

Irving — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:07:18 +0000

On June 26, 1996, we visited the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Let me give you a short history of the city. The occupation of this city goes back to pre-historic times. The city began as an ancient Greek colony and was called Byzantium around the 7th Century B.C. It had an agora along with at least three temples. Later the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus expanded it beyond the Greek acropolis by going further inland. He built walls and this expansion was known as Severus City. The turning point came when Constantine the Great shifted the capital of the Empire to Constantinople. The Roman Empire was weakening in the west and he decided to rebuild it. In 313 A.D. he signed the Edict of Milan, which proclaimed religious tolerance in the land. In 330 A.D. the city was inaugurated and became a Christian city. The revival of the Roman Empire came with Christianity’s expansion towards the west. In 395 A.D. the Roman Empire officially divided east and west.

In the 6th Century, Justinian took over the throne and Hagia Sophia was built as an imperial church. What Justinian had in mind was the same as Constantine’s. He wanted to restore Christianity in the west and the Ravenna building program was a big part of that. His campaign was set upon perfecting a formula for a domed centralized space for the church. The longitudinal axis of the basilica was dissolved to give rise to the vertical emphasis above.

Here at Hagia Sophia, we see a perfect synthesis of the basilica and dome. This church form continued in the eastern part of the Empire. The west continued to keep its basilica type, which evolved into the Romanesque and Gothic styles of architecture you see today. It was a remarkable sight to see the longitudinal directionality towards the apse coupled with the vertical symbolic axis up the dome.

The original dome collapsed because it was too shallow. You can compare it with the Pantheon. The structural system has 4 huge piers and arches spanning these piers. Buttresses take the thrust. It is similar to St. Peter’s Church in Rome with its courtyard and series of narthexes. Marble columns were brought from everywhere in the Empire.

The interior decoration came out of a mosaic program of fragmented, light and golden tesserae. The apse figure mosaic of the Virgin Mary and Christ Child is from the 9th Century. As this was an imperial church, there was no christian modesty here. The imperial family flanking the religious figures was part of the imperial propaganda.

Our eyes continued to move upwards. We noted that the upper parts were reserved for women. The quality of light and perforations can be compared to Sinan’s mosques. The columns have basket capitals and ionic volutes – solid and similar to San Vitale.

The sketch to the left is of Hagia Sophia. The one to the right is of the “Blue Mosque” – also visited on that day.

Sokullu Mehmet Pasha (Istanbul)

Irving — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:30:57 +0000

Sokullu Mehmet Pasha was one of Sinan’s preeminent patrons. He had the same vision as his first master Sultan Suleyman, who had emphasized the creation of complexes along the main diagonal route of the Ottoman Empire, culminating in Mecca and Medina. Sokullu along with his wife Ismihan Sultan jointly commissioned one of Sinan’s most distinguished mosque complexes, located in the Kadirga neighborhood of Istanbul. Here is the sketch of the interior toward the qibla wall.

There are Iznik tiles on the minbar cap and the qibla wall with black stones inset above the mihrab’s muqarnas and the minbar canopy. Looking up, we saw the six pendentives provided an interesting structural feature. The unifying force of the central hexagon is accentuated by the arches, which are loaded to take the thrusts. Sinan finally resolved the conflict between the circular dome and the rectangular ground plan in mosques with hexagonal baldachins.

Süleymaniye Mosque

Irving — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 02:50:06 +0000

It seems fitting for sultan Süleyman I, who was compared to the legendary builder-king Solomon, to be a friend of Mimar Sinan, the chief architect of the Ottoman Empire. It was designed as an imperial kulliye like the Hagia Sophia, and established by imperial creed in Istanbul. Completed in 1554, the mosque does not have a large dome. Being 20 years earlier than Sinan’s Edirne mosque with 20 years less experience, the building is still mature in the way its parts came together. The building was copied in 19th century Egypt.

We moved to observe that the porch columns were borrowed. The mosque appeared too tall. The Fatih tomb was off center. Its axiality consisted of the mihrab, entrance and gate. The madrasas, Koranic schools, medical school, hospital and welfare components surrounded the mosque. At this site, Mimar Sinan was buried.

Mimar Sinan Türbesi (1490-1588): When Sinan was in the process of the complex, he acquired a piece of property as he knew he would be buried here. I remember seeing the tomb with domed water dispenser and the empty plot of his endowed school and residence. The air was somber, the place quiet. The revered tomb is noted at the top of my sketch. At the bottom of my sketch is the mosque’s central fountain. It illustrates the enormous size of the north facade from the forecourt of the mosque.

Pantokrator

Irving — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:09:47 +0000

On June 28, 1996, we visited the second largest religious edifice built by the Byzantines in Istanbul behind Hagia Sophia. Originally known as Theotokos Pantokrator, and later renamed Molla Zeyrek Camii after the Ottoman conquest and fall of Constantinople in 1453, this building is a great example of medieval Byzantine architecture. It was first built by Princess Eirene of the Komnena dynasty. Her husband built another church to the north. There is a funerary chapel in between the two churches that became the imperial mausoleum.

The structure is raised on cylindrical drums with window perforations. Bands of brick masonry, particularly around the arches and niches, give the exterior some articulation and color that is distinctive of Byzantine architecture. The recessed brick technique was used and is typical of the Byzantine architecture of the middle period.

Natural light is used very well here. The light gave us good sight to the elaborate frescoes and floor decoration in opus sectile (marble cut into shape). The minbar inside is maybe built from spolia taken from this church itself or it may have been taken from other churches.

Church of St. John of Studios

Irving — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:56:19 +0000

This church is the earliest basilica in Istanbul and predates Hagia Sophia. Built in 463 AD, the church had traditional aisles, nave and apse. The roof didn’t survive at all as shown on the sketch. There were marble carvings on the classical capital of the column we observed. The capital seemed to be a dilution of the capitals in classical times. The base is not eastern, but a simulation of a western base.

On the same day, we went to Mihrimah Mosque.