MODERN or TRADITIONAL 3
The Beautiful Mosques in the World
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The SELIMIYE MOSQUE in Edirne Turkey.
The architect is : Sinan
Architecture: Ottoman
Date: 1568-74
Patron : Sultan Selim II
Size: Interior: 53m x 51m
Dome diameter: 31.5m
Dome height: 45m
Minaret height: 80m
The mosque was commissioned by Sultan Selim II and was built by architect Mimar Sinan between 1568 and 1574. It was considered by Sinan to be his masterpiece. Sinan was at the age of 80 when he started the construction of Selimiye Mosque. The Mosque is counted among the masterpieces not only in the history of Ottoman Turkish architecture, but also in the architecture history of the world with its dome, minarets, adornments and acoustics.
This grand mosque stands at the center of a külliye (complex of a hospital, school, library and/or baths around a mosque) which comprises a medrese (Islamic academy teaches both Islamic and scientific lessons), a dar-ül hadis (Al-Hadith school), a timekeeper's room and an arasta (row of shops). In this mosque Sinan employed an octagonal supporting system that is created through eight pillars incised in a square shell of walls. The four semi domes at the corners of the square behind the arches that spring from the pillars, are intermediary sections between the huge encompassing dome and the walls.
While conventional mosques were limited by a segmented interior, Sinan's effort at Edirne was a structure that made it possible to see the mihrab from any location within the mosque. Surrounded by four tall minarets, the Mosque of Selim II has a grand dome at top it. Around the rest of the mosque were many additions: libraries, schools, hospices, baths, soup kitchens for the poor, markets, hospitals, and a cemetery. These annexes were aligned axially and grouped, if possible. In front of the mosque sits a rectangular court with an area equal to that of the mosque.
The innovation however, comes not in the size of the building, but from the organization of its interior. The mihrab is pushed back into an apse-like alcove with a space with enough depth to allow for window illumination from three sides. This has the effect of making the tile panels of its lower walls sparkle with natural light. The amalgamation of the main hall forms a fused octagon with the dome-covered square. Formed by eight massive dome supports, the octagon is pierced by four half dome covered corners of the square. The beauty resulting from the conformity of geometric shapes engulfed in each other was the culmination of Sinan's life long search for a unified interior space.
Having been built on one of the most dominant sites in Edirne, final masterpiece of Mimar Sinan, Selimiye has minarets which play a harmonious role in the overall composition of the Mosque and which are unique in terms of both amount and placement style.
The harmonious stand of four minarets with three balconies each on the four corners of the biggest dome of Selimiye has a style which cannot be seen in any other mosque. When looking from the roads leading to Edirne, the four minarets seem as if they were only two as they are symmetrically placed.
All pulpits in the four minarets are plain. As in other works by Sinan, plainness is dominant here, too. All of the minaret doors are opened towards outside. Outer surfaces are adorned with perpendicular bars so that bodies seem thinner. These perpendicular bars are engraved with same style in all minarets. This is indeed another characteristic peculiar to Sinan. Bars connect with bezels tying each other up and down. The balconies are adorned with grid banisters designed in classical style of the age.
This unprecedented temple is such a paradise that the four minarets on its four corners are like four main duties of salaat. These four blue minarets are all at same distance with the dome in their center. It is as if the calculation was made with a compass; all of four minarets are tall and have three balconies. Of these four, two minarets next to side doors have three paths.
That means if three muezzins enter from the door below, go up using different paths and start saying “Esselâ” on three layers, they will not see each other. The minarets are also so thin that it is possible for a young person or two to embrace the whole minaret . However, two of the minarets on the corners of qibla wall have only one path.
Four minaret and three balconies each make twelve layers, which is a reference to the fact that Selim II is the twelfth sultan.
It is strange that when you go to Edirne, you only see two minarets and six balconies. Even if you come close, there is no doubt that you will see the same thing. The building has such geometry. However, four minarets are seen on the rippled city roads of Edirne. These are unprecedented, unique works of art; those who see them cannot resist from saying ‘Hail to you the master of craft and painting !’.
Edirne is 229 km from Istanbul.
(Tomorrow : I will present The Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan)
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