The Architecture of Mimar Sinan

摘要

The distinguished Turkish architect Turgut Cansever remembers the work of Mimar Sinan, the celebrated 16th-century Ottoman architect who sought the Divine in Reason and Beauty, and whose work unified both in its aesthetic and functionalism. Each work of art comes into being as the unity of a message; thus, through the ages, in their quest to attain this wholeness, Islamic works of art have followed Islam's fundamental precept: convey the message, then cease; that is, do not carry on, do not insist. With their scrupulous timidness, with their quiet restraint, Islamic works have been designed to glorify their message. In the architecture of Mimar Sinan, the 16th-century master architect of the Ottomans, this quest achieves some of its finest flowering. This short essay is an attempt to understand the rationale that underpinned his preferences.