Selimiye Camii- The Selimiye Mosque
The Selimiye Mosque (Turkish: Selimiye Camii) is an Ottoman mosque in the city of Edirne, Turkey. The mosque was commissioned by Sultan Selim II and was built by architect Mimar Sinan between 1569 and 1575. It was considered by Sinan to be his masterpiece and is one of the highest achievements of Islamic architecture.
Selimiye Mosque was built at the peak of Ottoman military and cultural power. As the empire started to grow, the emperor had found an immediate urge to centralize the city. Sinan was asked to help to construct the Selimiye Mosque, making the mosque distinctive and served the purpose of centralizing the city.
Like all other Ottoman mosques in the earlier periods, the Selimiye Mosque had a multitude of little domes and half domes. However, the limit in building Selimiye was to viewing the mosque as a single unit from inside or outside rather than separate masses. Sinan believed that building a single dome would be the only resolution to achieve this. Hence, he ambitiously decided to replace the busy confused domes in the center with an enormous one. The author of Other Colors, Orhan Pamuk mentioned that he saw a connection between the wish of the central dome and the centralizing political and economic changes made by the empire, but the idea was later objected by another book written by Sinan’s friend, Sai, claiming that Sinan had taken his inspiration from Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia.
In order to accentuate and draw attention to the centralize structure of the mosque, the traditional placement of different sized minarets was abandoned from the design as Sinan believed that cascade of smaller domes and half-domes used earlier would play down the gigantic single-shell dome. Besides, four identical minarets were planted at each corner of the marble forecourt to enforce attention on the surrounded central dome. The four vertically fluted symmetrical minarets amplify the upward thrust, shooting towards the sky like rockets from each corner of the mosque. With the great dome rising subtlety from the center, it had harmoniously interplayed with the half domes, weight towers, and buttresses crowded around it. It was believed that the circular architecture was to affirm the oneness in humanity and called out the simple ideology of circle of life. The visible and invisible symmetries that were called out from the exterior and interior of the mosque was to evokes God’s perfection through the plain and powerful structure of the dome and the bare stone.
Selimiye Camii Edirne'de bulunan, Osmanlı padişahı II. Selim'in Mimar Sinan'a yaptırdığı camidir. Sinan'ın 90 (bazı kitaplarda 80 olarak geçer) yaşında yaptığı ve "en iyi eserim" dediği Selimiye Camii gerek Mimar Sinan'ın gerek Osmanlı mimarisinin en önemli yapıtlarından biridir.
Caminin kapısındaki kitabeye göre yapımına 1568 (Hicri:976) yılında başlanmıştır. Caminin 27 Kasım 1574 Cuma günü açılması planlanmışsa da ancak II. Selim'in ölümünün ardından 14 Mart 1575'te ibadete açılmıştır.
(Kaynak: Wikipedia)
Selimiye Camii- The Selimiye Mosque
The Selimiye Mosque (Turkish: Selimiye Camii) is an Ottoman mosque in the city of Edirne, Turkey. The mosque was commissioned by Sultan Selim II and was built by architect Mimar Sinan between 1569 and 1575. It was considered by Sinan to be his masterpiece and is one of the highest achievements of Islamic architecture.
Selimiye Mosque was built at the peak of Ottoman military and cultural power. As the empire started to grow, the emperor had found an immediate urge to centralize the city. Sinan was asked to help to construct the Selimiye Mosque, making the mosque distinctive and served the purpose of centralizing the city.
Like all other Ottoman mosques in the earlier periods, the Selimiye Mosque had a multitude of little domes and half domes. However, the limit in building Selimiye was to viewing the mosque as a single unit from inside or outside rather than separate masses. Sinan believed that building a single dome would be the only resolution to achieve this. Hence, he ambitiously decided to replace the busy confused domes in the center with an enormous one. The author of Other Colors, Orhan Pamuk mentioned that he saw a connection between the wish of the central dome and the centralizing political and economic changes made by the empire, but the idea was later objected by another book written by Sinan’s friend, Sai, claiming that Sinan had taken his inspiration from Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia.
In order to accentuate and draw attention to the centralize structure of the mosque, the traditional placement of different sized minarets was abandoned from the design as Sinan believed that cascade of smaller domes and half-domes used earlier would play down the gigantic single-shell dome. Besides, four identical minarets were planted at each corner of the marble forecourt to enforce attention on the surrounded central dome. The four vertically fluted symmetrical minarets amplify the upward thrust, shooting towards the sky like rockets from each corner of the mosque. With the great dome rising subtlety from the center, it had harmoniously interplayed with the half domes, weight towers, and buttresses crowded around it. It was believed that the circular architecture was to affirm the oneness in humanity and called out the simple ideology of circle of life. The visible and invisible symmetries that were called out from the exterior and interior of the mosque was to evokes God’s perfection through the plain and powerful structure of the dome and the bare stone.
Selimiye Camii Edirne'de bulunan, Osmanlı padişahı II. Selim'in Mimar Sinan'a yaptırdığı camidir. Sinan'ın 90 (bazı kitaplarda 80 olarak geçer) yaşında yaptığı ve "en iyi eserim" dediği Selimiye Camii gerek Mimar Sinan'ın gerek Osmanlı mimarisinin en önemli yapıtlarından biridir.
Caminin kapısındaki kitabeye göre yapımına 1568 (Hicri:976) yılında başlanmıştır. Caminin 27 Kasım 1574 Cuma günü açılması planlanmışsa da ancak II. Selim'in ölümünün ardından 14 Mart 1575'te ibadete açılmıştır.
(Kaynak: Wikipedia)