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SULTANAHMET MOSQUE
Builder : Sultan Ahmet I (1590-1617)
Architect : Sedefkar Mehmet Agha
Date : 1609-1616-7
Ahmet Khan I who is the 14th Sultan of the Ottoman
Empire, acceded at the age of 14 and reigned for 14
years had the Sultanahmet Mosque built facing Saint
Sophia in the quarter called by his name.
Sultanahmet Mosque is a masterpiece built with the
understanding of Architect Sinan in the 17th
century.
Architect Mehmet Ağa, after he was admitted to the
sedefkarlık (inlaying of mother-of-pearl) and
architecture department of the palace in 1569-1570,
he found himself in a new world and he worked as an
apprentice and thereafter, a master-builder under
the supervision of Great Architect Sinan Agha for
just 21 years. After Great Sinan’s death, he became
the Chief Architect. Having become the Chief
Architect, his first work was the reparation of the
Kaaba and installation of its famous golden gutters.
Location and construction of the mosque: The
Princess Ayşe Palace that was located in the
southern direction of the Horse Square (hippodrome)
was close to the Topkapı Palace. This place was
facing the sea, its area was very wide and its
surroundings were not much inhabited; and the Sultan
was convinced. He send thirty thousand gold coins of
standard fineness to the said Princess, and she
immediately transferred her realty in the Land
Registry to the Sultan willingly. When it was the
turn of the excavation of the foundation of the
mosque, a great ceremony in the Ottoman way was
organized for this purpose. The date was October
1609. The senior officials of the state assembled at
the land cleared by demolitions. Sultan Ahmet Khan
hit the pickaxe against the ground for the first
time. This pickaxe is in the Topkapı Museum today.
When the excavation of the foundation started, first
Sultan Ahmet Khan carried earth in the fringe of his
robe and had prayed, “O the Lord God, this is the
service of your servant ...”. Innumerable sheep were
sacrificed at the ceremony place and the poor people
were given a feast on that Thursday. Favors were
bestowed and gifts were given. The mosque was
completed in June 1617. Thus the construction had
lasted for 7 years, 5 months and 6 days. The opening
of the mosque to worship had been majestic. Numerous
sheep were sacrificed on that day. All the poor
people other than the master workmen and workmen
were given a feast and alms. All the people were
made contended; it was like a festival. Coral
rosaries were made gifts to the congregation with
the first ritual prayers performed in the mosque.
The officials were distributing these rosaries
leaving them on the knees of the people who sat for
the prayers. When the corals finished, the
“kelembek” rosaries were distributed. It is known
that this “kelembek” is made from the
sandalwood-tree with a pungent and beautiful smell
that is found at the Indian Ocean.
Description of the mosque: The plan of the
worship area that is bounded by the walls of the
mosque is a rectangle in form that is close to a
square. Its dimensions are 53.50x49.47m. The entire
hall is 47m2. The inside part of the Sultanahmet
Mosque has a plan of a clover with four leaves.
Galleries were built at four sides at the outside of
the southern part in order to eliminate the
monotony. For this reason, the southern wall is
opposed to the others. It has no recesses contrarily
to the counterweight that remains entirely at the
outside. The “eksedra”s (“eksedra”: the small curved
meeting place where there is a preacher’s pulpit in
the ancient architecture) those are three in number
at each of the other sides are only two in number at
the southern side, because the one in middle was
compulsorily removed. The four elephant feet are
very effective. Though they are very large, their
marble portals have many convex profiles. At the
upper part, there is a band with inscriptions that
separates the lower part from the part whose foot is
ornamented. Its dimensions spoil the proportions of
the dome, because the dome has relatively modest
measures with its height of 43 meters and a diameter
of 23.5 meters. These measures show the ability of
Mehmet Agha as an engineer. The inside of the mosque
acquired a very spacious environment by means of the
260 window that was placed very skillfully. Due to
the placement of the windows, the grand dome looks
as if it were suspended in the air. The windows were
covered with stained glass ornamented with flower
motifs at the beginning; that is, there were no
plain window glass and this color glass engraving
was at the uppermost quality. All foreign tourists
who visited the mosque noticed this feature and were
impressed by this invention of riot of colors and
the perfection of applying it.
The tiles used in the wall cover of the Sultanahmet mosque were
arranged as panels consisting of the square
flagstones or large design compositions constituted
with the composition of the different pieces. The
colors and arrangements used display differences
with respect to the date of manufacture of the tiles
and the workshops where they were manufactured. A
rich visual diversity is noticed with respect to the
periods in the products of İznik and Kütahya
workshops by the end of the 16th century and at the
beginning of the 17th century. White was used in the
square pieces, the branches of vine, globe
artichokes, plums, pomegranate flowers, carnation,
mint, medallion-like flower groups, violets,
verbena, hyacinth and jasmines, hanging bunches of
grapes engraved on the rectangular border tiles navy
blue in color were used, shades of the colors such
as Turquoise, gray, brown, red, coral, navy blue,
blue, purple, black, green were used. According to
the records related to the mosque, 21043 tiles were
used.
The each one of the niche, pulpit and royal gallery of the
Sultanahmet Mosque is also a masterpiece. Its niche
whose inside is covered with tiles with flowery
motifs is ornamented with small columns made of
marble over which are the cypress-tree motifs. The
pulpit that has geometrical fittings and is embossed
have golden gilding. The royal gallery is a
masterpiece with its tiles with golden gildings,
door with mother-of-pearl inlays and fine wall
engravings. The inner courtyard of the mosque that
was paved with marble is surrounded by a colonnade
covered by 30 dome seated of 26 columns. In the
middle of the courtyard, there is the fountain for
ritual ablutions with six columns. The columns of
the fountain were ornamented with verbena and tulip
motifs. The beauty of the glass green tiles over the
windows of the royal gallery is being enhanced by a
verse inscribed with golden gilding in the cursive
style of Arabic calligraphy on them. This
inscription was never met at anywhere else.
It is the only mosque with six minarets. The four of the
minarets have three balconies each and two have two
balconies each. Before the construction of this
mosque, since the only mosque with six minarets was
the mosque of Mecca, in order to keep its honor, a
seventh minaret was added to it. The fact that the
minarets have 16 balconies possibly shows which
sultan was Ahmet I in order. ***Though Ahmet I was
the 14th sultan and though the number of the
balconies is 16, Emir Süleyman and Musa Çelebi who
were the sons of Yıldırım Beyazıt were included in
the sultans.*** The rumors concerning that Sultan
Ahmet wanted a mosque with golden minarets are
unreal. The fact that the cones of the 4 minarets
were coated with gold might have affected the
launching of such stories among the people.
Sultanahmet Mosgue Protection Upkeep Foundation
Eminönü ISTANBUL Tel & Fax : + 90 0 212 458 07 76
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