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The commission
Sinan designed the mosque for Suleiman the Magnificent
The mosque was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent and designed by the imperial architect Mimar Sinan. An inscription gives the foundation date as 1550 and the inauguration date as 1557. It is the largest Ottoman-era mosque in the city.
To surpass
Suleiman wanted a mosque that would surpass all others
Suleiman's intention was to build a mosque that would surpass all others built by his predecessors. Popular tradition says Justinian I boasted on completing the Hagia Sophia that he had surpassed Solomon. Suleiman's mosque references the Hagia Sophia in its design and layout.
The complex
The mosque stood in a complex with madrasas, a kitchen and a hospital
The mosque is part of a larger complex with madrasas, a public kitchen and a hospital. Behind the qibla wall is an enclosed cemetery with the octagonal mausoleums of Suleiman and Hurrem Sultan. Suleiman's was built between 1566 and 1568 on the orders of his son Selim II.
The marble
Marble was gathered from across the empire, some from the Hippodrome
Marble spolia from various sites in Constantinople and other parts of the empire were reportedly gathered and shipped to the construction site. Petrus Gyllius wrote of an enormous porphyry column being cut down to size and of marble columns being taken from the Hippodrome.
Repairs
Fires and an earthquake damaged it, and Sinan had tried blue first
The mosque was damaged in the great fire of 1660. Part of the dome collapsed during the earthquake of 1766. In World War I, ammunition stored in the courtyard ignited and caused another fire. Recent cleaning has shown that Sinan experimented with blue before making red the dominant colour of the dome.
Day 3, midday
It comes after Grand Bazaar. Then Spice Bazaar.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Süleymaniye Mosque, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.