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The Age of Sinan Architectural Culture in the Ottoman
Empire Gulrü Necipoğlu
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Dimensions:
280 × 228 × 36
mm
592 pages
Format:
Paperback (View
all formats)
ISBN:
9781861892539
Illustrations:
546 illustrations,
250 in colour
Published:
01 Jul 2007
Mimar Koca Sinan (c. 1489-1588), the the Great Architect Sinan, was
appointed chief royal architect to the Ottoman court by Sultan Suleyman I in
1539. During his fifty-year career he designed and constructed hundreds of
buildings including mosques, palaces, harems, chapels, tombs, schools,
almshouses, madrassahs, caravanserais, granaries, fountains, aqueducts
and hospitals. His distinctive architectural idiom also left its imprint over the
terrains of a vast empire extending from the Danube to the Tigris, and he
became the most celebrated of all Ottoman architects, particularly renowned
for his influence on the cityscape of Istanbul.
Sinan's most influential buildings were his mosque complexes, where his
inventive experimentation with light-filled centralized domes, often
compared with parallel developments in Renaissance Italy, produced spaces
in which the central dome appeared weightless and the interior surfaces
bathed in light. In this monumental new study, Gulru Necipoglu argues that
Sinan's rich variety of mosque designs sprang from a process of negotiation
between the architect and his patrons, rather than from unrestrained formal
experimentation as has been previously described. The author is the first to
use published and unpublished primary sources to illuminate the cultural
setting in which Sinan's monuments were produced, received and
experienced.
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The author describes how Sinan created a layered system of mosque types, reflecting social
status and territorial rank, shaped by ideas of identity, memory and decorum. Seen from this
perspective, Sinan's works, with their highly standardized pattern of forms, used in ingeniously
varied combinations, acquire dimensions of meaning that have not been previously recognized.
‘Brushing aside skewed orientalist and nationalist readings which have coloured many previous
studies of his work, the author, using original documentation, provides the most detailed
written study ever, of not only Sinan's architecture, but also, arguably, of Ottoman culture,
politics and society in the classical age . . . Necipoglu's book is a publishing landmark an
astoundingly rich work that, as it boldly states on the back cover, is unlikely ever to be
superseded. Without question, The Age of Sinan is one of the most remarkable architectural
biographies ever written and the book Sinan's life and work richly deserves.’ — Prospect
magazine
‘The Age of Sinan, a close reading of historical archives and the architect's vivid autobiography,
is the best, most interesting book on the subject . . . Necipoglu's culturally specific, contextual
reading is rare.’ — Architects' Journal
‘this truly marvellous book, which brings together the skills of an architectural historian,
linguist and archival researcher, represents a profound advance over and above all previous
studies in the field. In its comprehensiveness, its insights, and its careful and close readings of
both monuments and documents, Necipoglu's book provides an indispensable and much
needed point of reference . . . a true tour de force, one that will instruct and inspire not only
students, but also seasoned scholars in the field, serving as a model and as a challenge for
many years to come.’ — Journal of Islamic Studies
‘[Gülru Necipoglu] has compiled and reordered all the useful observations made previously she
has re-examined the standard sources, viewing them critically but without obvious prejudice
and she has added an immense amount of information gleaned from the buildings themselves,
and from a wide range of narrative sources. The results can be enlightening.’ — Cornucopia
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magazine
‘The e"ort that has gone into the research and compilation of this publication is remarkable . . .
an essential text for anyone with a serious interest in architecture.’ — Architectural Review
‘Besides opening new avenues in studies of Ottoman architecture, [The Age of Sinan] provides
an enjoyable reading not only for Ottoman historians but also those who are interested in
Ottoman culture and architecture in general.’ — Journal of the Faculty of Architecture, Middle
Eastern Technical University
‘Gülru Necipoglu. . . o"ers a major new interpretation of his architecture that places him in the
context of his time. . . . The drawings in this book are of the highest quality . . . Indeed, this is
one of the most comprehensively illustrated books on architecture that I have ever seen . . .
[This is] an outstanding book’ — Henry Matthews, The Art Book
‘truly comprehensive survey of the great builder's work under the patronage of several Ottoman
sultans and their wealthiest subjects. The clear and elegantly written text is richly illustrated
with hundreds of superb photos and architectural drawings documenting the architect's
extraordinary achievement. The author's command of a vast array of both textual and visual
sources is equally extraordinary. Necipoglu not only opens up whole new ways of appreciating
prominent features of a major visual culture, she suggests innovative integrative categories for
understanding the interplay of royal patronage, socio-political hierarchies, and religious
symbolism. She has achieved a balanced and seamless melding of context and background.’ —
John G. Renard, Religion and the Arts
‘This book will stand the test of time, and much of it will not be superseded for several
generations. It will not only form a new and more solid foundation for all later Sinan
scholarship, but it will also shape the parameters of interpretation and discourse on classical
Ottoman architecture.’ — Yasser Tabbaa, Art Bulletin
‘An historical and sociological tour de force, this book is written with authority, skill, and grace.
The scholarship is of the highest order. Necipoglu is simply the most technically accomplished,
historically minded, and most important historian of Islamic art working today. This book will
become the definitive study of Sinan and of his age in cultural production’ — Cornell H.
Fleischer, University of Chicago, author of Bureaucrat and Intellectual in the Ottoman Empire:
The Historian Mustafa Ali (1541-1600)
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Gulrü
Author
Contents
Reviews
Necipoglu is the Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture in the Department of
History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University. She is the editor of Muqarnas: An Annual
of Islamic Visual Culture, and author of Architecture, Ceremonial and Power (1991) and The
Topkapi Scroll: Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture (1995).
Catalogues
Download PDF catalogues:
Spring 2019
Autumn 2019
Spring 2020
Autumn 2020
History catalogue
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