The legacy of the Ottomans

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Ottoman Architecture

By Doğan Kuban

Thanks to the publication of Doğan Kuban’s impressive work, the entire history of Ottoman architecture is available in one volume. At first sight this heavy, 733-page tome is daunting. Nonetheless opening it at any page is likely to induce a sense of wonder: the exceptional photography by Cemal Emden offers a new way of seeing the buildings. Perusing the first page of any chapter invites one to read further. Although written in a scholarly manner by Turkey’s leading expert, it is genuinely readable. Kuban tackles the important issues in a way that is easy to understand; description and analysis flow through 57 chapters and a conclusion. The text is enhanced by a multitude of clear, specially drawn plans, sections and three-dimensional drawings, as well as historic engravings.

Doğan Kuban has developed an ideal formula for an endeavour as encyclopedic as this one. Each of four parts represents a phase of Ottoman architecture. These are each divided into many short chapters, all self-contained enough to stand alone as independent essays, but well enough linked to offer a coherent whole. Few people, however eager, will read this book from cover to cover, but many will find that particular chapters or groups of chapters will give them the information and interpretation they seek and they will soon return for more.

Kuban suggests that Ottoman history has been ‘shaped in three separate moulds, Turkish nomadism, Near East Islam, and Byzantium in the Mediterranean and Baltic region’. Mehmet II, who conquered Constantinople in 1452, was rooted in the traditions of his nomadic ancestors, but well versed in Roman history and law. He saw himself as ‘the true heir to the Byzantine-Roman Empire’. Kuban confirms the strong link to Seljuk architecture, and the lack of interest by sultans after Mehmet II in Italian culture and also the lack of written architectural theory. Ottoman architecture of note was only built in the first capitals Bursa and Edirne, in Istanbul and a few provincial capitals.

Kuban explains the evolution of early Ottoman architecture, discussing single-domed mosques, multidomed ulucamis, and devotes an entire chapter to the pivotal mosque in Edirne which was the first to possess a central dome larger than the others. This is crucial stage in a story of design evolution that he resumes in several subsequent chapters. We see the addition of one half-dome in the Fatih Mosque, a second one in the Beyazit II Mosque, and finally the four half-domes surrounding the central one in Mimar Sinan’s first large masterpiece, the Şehzade Mosque.

In ‘Sinan and the Classical Ottoman Architecture’ Kuban separates accounts of the historical context from those focusing on structural and spatial development, or decoration, and from others with a more theoretical purpose. He sheds light on different aspects of Sinan’s work and leaves no doubt in the reader’s mind that the mosque built for Selim II in Edirne is the crowning stroke of genius in Ottoman architecture. He describes it ‘as a masterpiece displaying the characteristic features of Ottoman architecture in a global context’ and asserts that ‘There are few other examples in the history of domed buildings in which the interior and exterior are integrated with such complete correspondence’.

The pages devoted to Sinan’s Sokollu-Ismahan Sultan Mosque in Kadirga, Istanbul, present a convincing argument, with which I concur, that this is Sinan’s finest small mosque. Kuban describes its brilliant siting on the slope below the Hippodrome, and the relationships between the elements of the complex and the visitor’s passage through them, before analysing the interior. The superb decoration features ‘one of the finest tile compositions of the period’. Among the more theoretical chapters, one devoted to a discussion of the relationship between Ottoman architecture and the Italian Renaissance, a topic with which the author has been concerned for years, is a valuable element of this book.

The story of Ottoman architecture concludes with a detailed account of the Tulip Period, the Rococo and Baroque phases, Neoclassical developments and other examples of Westernization up to 19th-century eclecticism and Art Nouveau. Throughout the book Kuban deals with a variety of building types and he does not neglect vernacular architecture. Having myself struggled over the years to understand Ottoman architecture, I am grateful to Kuban for providing me with a new, user-friendly companion that will give me many new insights.

Since this book will be used for reference, the omission of dates from the captions of pictures is unfortunate. Readers will also be frustrated by the lack of subheadings in the index. I should also mention that although the Seljuks are discussed in several places I found no entry in the index for ‘Seljuk’; furthermore, searches in the index for Aleppo, Damascus, and Jerusalem, the sites of Ottoman buildings covered by Kuban in the chapter on ‘Architecture in the provinces’, drew a blank. Otherwise I am full of admiration for this well-conceived and beautifully designed book. It should be in every major library.

Ottoman Architecture  by Dogan Kuban is published by Antique Collectors’ Club, 2010. 720 pp., over 1000 illus, most in colour, £65.00 $115.00.ISBN 978-975-8599-89-9