Mimar Sinan

Mimar Sinan (c. 1488/1490–1588), called Koca Sinan, was chief architect of the Ottoman Empire under Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II and Murad III. The son of a stonemason from Ağırnas near Kayseri, he was conscripted in 1512 and trained as a Janissary officer.

In 1539 Lütfi Pasha made him Architect of the Abode of Felicity, and around fifty he became chief royal architect, a post he kept for almost fifty years. In 1543 he built the Şehzade Mosque for Suleiman's son Mehmed, dead at twenty-two, his first masterpiece. His most famous work is the Süleymaniye, and he also designed the Sulaymaniyya Takiyya in Damascus, introducing the Ottoman style.

In the Selimiye Mosque at Edirne, his masterpiece, he set an octagonal dome 31.28 metres wide on eight piers and claimed it surpassed Hagia Sophia. He died in 1588 and lies in a tomb of his own design.