Mimar Sinan was born in 1490 in Ağırnas. The chief architect of the Ottoman Empire for around fifty years, Sinan was born to a Christian family in Anatolia and taken into the Ottoman service as a youth through the devshirme system. He trained as a military engineer, took part in campaigns with the janissaries, and was named chief imperial architect in 1539. Working for Suleiman the Magnificent and his successors, he designed or supervised hundreds of buildings, including mosques, schools, bridges, aqueducts and baths. His principal works are the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul and the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, which he regarded as his masterpiece. He refined the large central dome supported by half-domes, a form influenced by Hagia Sophia.
Before and after
- c. 1490sThe Last Supper
- from 1490 to 1598Siberian Khanate
- 1490Release of Vitruvian Man
- 1490Birth of Titian
- 1490Birth of Mimar Sinan
- 28 June 1491Birth of Henry VIII of England
- 1 November 1491Birth of Ignatius of Loyola
- 31 December 1491Birth of Jacques Cartier
- 1492European colonization of the Americas
More in Art, literature & culture
- 787 CESecond Council of Nicaea
- 803 CELeshan Giant Buddha
- 11th centuryBayeux Tapestry
- 14th centuryPublication of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms
- from 5 November 1414 to 22 April 1418Council of Constance
- 15 April 1452Birth of Leonardo da Vinci
The era
This moment belongs to the Medieval world (500 CE to 1500 CE), kingdoms, faiths and trade routes. You can also browse everything in the 15th century.