Mimar Sinan designed Istanbul’s Süleymaniye Mosque, completed in 1557.
The mosque was commissioned by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and built between 1550 and 1557 on one of Istanbul’s prominent hills. It forms the centre of a large külliye, or charitable complex, that included schools, a hospital, a public kitchen, shops, a bath, and tombs.
Sinan served as the chief imperial architect of the Ottoman Empire under Suleiman, Selim II, and Murad III. He regarded the Süleymaniye as one of his most important works, although he later described the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne as his masterpiece.
The Süleymaniye is sometimes confused with Istanbul’s Sultan Ahmed Mosque, which was designed several decades later by Sedefkâr Mehmed Agha. Sinan’s design combines a monumental central dome with Ottoman adaptations of Byzantine spatial ideas.