Selimiye Mosque, Edirne, Turkey: Classical Ottoman Period Architecture
The Selimiye Mosque was built by the great Ottoman architect, Koca Mimar Sinan Aga, in an area called Kavak Meydanı or Sarıbayır. Considered as his masterpiece it is one of the most important buildings in the history of world architecture both for its design and its monumentality. The mosque, together with the two madrasas on its southeast and southwest, is located within a courtyard measuring 190 m x 130 m. The row of shops (arafat) and recitation school (darukurra) to the west of the courtyard were added to the complex by the architect Davud Aga in the reign of Sultan Murad III (r. 982–1003 / 1574–95).
The mosque consists of a rectangular, nearly square prayer hall and, on the north side, a courtyard with porticoes. There are three entrances to the courtyard: north, east and west. In the centre of the courtyard is a 12-sided fountain. Two of the bays of the portico for latecomers have panelled vaults, while the rest are covered with domes. Each corner of the prayer hall features a minaret nearly 71 m high with three balconies. The balconies of the minarets on the northeast and northwest corners are accessed by three separate staircases.
The main feature which makes the Selimiye Mosque such a major work of architecture is the roof of the prayer hall. The monumental dome, 31.28 m in diameter, is carried on eight 12-sided pillars. The dome rises to 42.25 m in height. The zone of transition is made up of enormous squinches. The east and west pillars are supported by two buttresses each, concealed outside by the porticoes and galleries. Inside, the spaces between the walls and the pillars are adorned with galleries.
In the Selimiye Mosque, Sinan abandoned the half-domes and secondary domed spaces he had used in his other buildings with centralised plans (with the exception of the half-dome covering the space with the mihrab); he thus solved the problem of the unity of the interior space. In the centre of the prayer hall is a loge for chanters with a fountain underneath it; the sultan’s loge is in the southeast corner.