Mimar Sinan

Mimar Sinan, born around 1490 near Kayseri in Anatolia and dead in 1588, was the chief architect of the Ottoman court for almost fifty years, serving the sultans Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II and Murad III. The son of a stonemason, he was conscripted under the devshirme system in 1512, trained as a Janissary officer and learned engineering on campaign, building roads, bridges, fortifications and ships. Appointed Architect of the Abode of Felicity in 1539, he turned that office into a government department with a corps of assistants and pupils, and is credited with more than 300 major structures, among them mosques, madrasas, bridges, aqueducts, baths and caravanserais. His Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul is his most famous work, and he regarded the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne as his masterpiece. His apprentices went on to design the Sultan Ahmed Mosque and the Stari Most bridge at Mostar. He is considered the greatest architect of the classical period of Ottoman architecture, and his family origins remain disputed between Armenian, Greek and other accounts.