Introduction
The Ottoman Empire was one of the world’s largest empires with history dates back to the Islamic medieval period from the 10th to 11th centuries. The main religion of the Ottoman Empire was Islam and most of their architecture and art was based on the religion as well. The beautiful buildings that exist today were the relics of the old Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire was originally founded in 1299 by the tribe who distinguished themselves as Oghus Turks under the rule of King Osman I. Ottoman empire stretched from the mainland Turkey and controlled various countries in the Mediterranean such as Greece, and other countries in Africa. The legacy of the Ottoman Empire can be seen on its lasting architecture spanning from the Islamic medieval period standing majestically amidst the passage of time. Ottoman buildings as known today are rich decorated with golden arabesques, inlaid pearls, and monochrome pigments. Their styles reflect the beauty of ancient Islamic architecture and much of the Ottoman architecture features the distinct minarets richly engraved with Arabian calligraphy and other abstract designs. From the medieval period, the empire existed up to the early phase of the 20th century and eventually led to its downfall due to the scattered territories, stagnation of the Ottoman culture, the rising power of the Western nations, and the aging economy were only the few of the many reasons to the downfall of the once great Islamic empire. (Lewis 1958). Yet, despite their demise, the artistic communities still appreciate the old styles of Ottoman buildings as the legacy of their former civilization. Ottoman architecture is like the Renaissance; it was culture that combined other styles borrowed from other cultures and made their own improvisations to make the art as their own.
Perhaps the only thing that distinguished the Ottoman art from the Renaissance’s humanism was its favor towards the more elegant and grotesque art styles similar to the designs prevalent during the Baroque period. The Ottoman reign produced buildings built with flamboyant and overflowing decadence. The interiors of many mosques for instance reflect the lavish elegant display of Islamic culture. Originally, the Ottoman Empire was once a part of the Seljuk Empire located in Anatolia (now Turkey). Upon the collapse of the Seljuk civilization, the Ottomans established themselves as a separate kingdom and made their own government and the ruler of their own land. However, their culture never really left the traditions of their predecessors. (Yalman 2002a).
Suleymaniye Mosque (c.1550-1557)
This building was probably the most grand and magnificent of all the Ottoman architectures dating from the latter phase of the 16th century. The architecture style of the building still resembled the Islamic styles because of the presence of minarets and arabesques; however, the Ottomans also borrowed styles from other cultures such as the Byzantine period. An evidence of this can be found on the building itself. Looking closely on the façade of the mosque, one would note the presence of domes throughout the upper part of the mosques; this formed a rotunda ground floor layout. The Suleymaniye Mosque was built by its namesake, Sultan Suleyman who was then the ruler of Ottoman caliphate. Of all the Ottoman architectures, scholars of the Turkish architecture such as Kafadar noted that the Suleyman mosque was a building built for other purposes such as to educate the people about the religion as well as the temple for knowledge. “It is a rationally planned socioreligious [sic] complex with geometrically organized dependencies, consisting of monumental Suleymaniye mosque and two mausoleaat the center, separated by an outer courtyard from four general madrasas; two specialized madrasas-one for the study of medicineand the other for the study of Hadith.” (Kafadar 1985, p. 92).
Huge domes dominate the interiors of the mosque; a large central dome decorated with Islamic calligraphy, abstract designs, enhanced by the intense contrast of polychromatic colors such as red, blue, gold, and black. The central dome was encapsulated within a square formed by the arches. These arches further were not as heavily decorated like the central dome but were only made of windows to enhance the illumination. Curved glass windows with honeycomb hexagonal shapes form a repetitive pattern within the top arches. Meanwhile, on the either side of the arches, more glittering arabesques written inside small circles adorned the four sides of the central dome. Like the windows on the arches, the central dome also holds the same curved windows decorated with hexagonal patterns arranged with ample space away from each other in order to provide more illumination of natural light throughout the place. The systematic arrangement of these windows and the use of central dome and arches on the architecture of Suleymaniye Mosque reflect the old Byzantine style depicted by the Hagia Sophia also located in Istanbul, Turkey. Further repetition of dome designs can be seen on the farthest sides of the mosque’s roof; just like the central and the main arches and domes, the smaller half-domes were also richly decorated with curved windows of various sizes with the inclusion of other arabesque calligraphy on each four corners of the secondary and tertiary domes. From the roof down towards the low part of the ceiling, anyone would see the alternating patterns and curves of horseshoe arches painted with alternate red and white pigments. The horseshoe arches found in the interiors of the Suleymaniye Mosque follows the rows of arches within the Mezquita or the Great Mosque of Cordoba. The Ottomans followed the correct implementation of these design elements in order to make their buildings more elegant and beautiful.
The presence of numerous windows within the mosque’s interior symbolizes the divine presence of God inside the structure. Windows serve as the building’s passageway or entrance that lets the natural light from the sun to brighten up the interiors of the structure. The glasses illuminated with rows of oil lamps mimic the flickering light of the stars during the night sky. Furthermore, the walls of the mosque has been decorated with rich iconography depicting natural to abstract designs such as flowers made mostly from ceramic tiles; the purpose of having these adornments on walls was to emphasize the building’s purpose of representing the Paradise. (Kafadar 1985, p. 100). Upon entrance to the mosque, these glazed ceramic designs engraved with Islamic calligraphy are the main motifs which can be seen clearly even from below. The intricate carvings usually with gold enamel reflect the Ottoman tastes for elegance. Even from as early as 15th to 16th centuries, ceramic tiles had been utilized by Islamic architects to decorate the building interiors. Ottoman architecture already have decorations of tiles based from the borrowed design elements known as “Timurid” style which had been originated from the result of cultural intermingling of Anatolia and Persian Empires. The success of the Ottoman buildings in terms of aesthetic appearance had been recognized throughout the world especially in the 1550s where the Ottoman art and architecture reached its culmination. From this time, the small town of Iznik in Turkey had not yet gained the entire monopoly and production of the tile industry and yet, the Ottomans managed to create buildings such as mosques that rival the more decadent European Baroque Palaces. (Necipoglu 1990, p. 136).
“post-Timurid aesthetic developed under Ottoman patronage by Turcoman artists from Tabriz and Herat who defined the dominant taste of court workshops in the early part of Suleyman’s reign.” (Necipoglu 1990, p. 153).
The influences of Seljuk and Safavid design elements on the Suleymaniye Mosque are the mosque’s favor towards the incorporation of abstract floral motifs often depicted in repetitive patterns often with a central motif as its starting point. Despite their differences, the Ottoman architecture shares the same tastes in design like those from the Seljuk and Safavid cultures. The Ottoman decorated their carpets with intricate abstract designs featuring flower motifs often enclosed within abstract shapes and interconnected with other similar motifs to form a latticework repeating the same designs to cover the whole carpet. Just like the Ottomans, Seljuk and Safavid cultures are related in terms of creating successful buildings that function not only as a religious center of the community but also a temple for learning science, and art appreciation. The Ottomans were also the primary patrons of artwork and building commissions just like the Seljuk and Safavid civilizations; their art and architecture styles reflects a unified design based on one common goal which was to portray the elegance, simplicity, and lavishness at the same time through continuous repetition of the same motifs in their buildings, mosque adornments, and wall paintings. (Yalman 2001; Yalman 2002a; Yalman 2002b). As a conclusion, the Ottoman Empire was a culture that utilized the various designs borrowed from foreign nations in order to create a unique design of their own which was basically a combination of all the designs derived from the Seljuk, Safavid, and Byzantine civilizations; this created a flamboyant and expressive architecture style unique only to the Ottoman architecture. The Ottomans efforts to preserve their culture reflect on the designs they created on every structure they made. Suleymaniye Mosque, an Ottoman relic, a legacy of a culture forgotten by the modern age, yet the grand architecture still stands in modern Istanbul unfazed by the passage of time.
REFERENCES
Kafadar, G. (1985). The Suleymaniye Complex in Istanbul: An Interpretation. Muqarnas, 3, 92-117. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1523086
Lewis, B. (1958). Some Reflections on the Decline of the Ottoman Empire. Studia Islamica, (9), 111-127. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1594978
Necipoglu, G. (1990). From International Timurid to Ottoman: A Change of Taste in Sixteenth-Century Ceramic Tiles. Muqarnas, 7, 136. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1523126
Yalman, S. (2001). The Art of the Seljuq Period in Anatolia (1081–1307). Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 14 April 2016, from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aselj/hd_aselj.htm
Yalman, S. (2002a). The Art of the Ottomans before 1600. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 14 April 2016, from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/otto1/hd_otto1.htm
Yalman, S. (2002b). The Art of the Safavids before 1600. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 14 April 2016, from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/safa/hd_safa.htm
