Sinan was the greatest architect of the Ottoman Golden Age of the sixteenth century - when the Ottoman Empire reached its zenith of power and magnificence. His style marks the apogee of Turkish art. Under Suleyman the Magnificent and his succcessor Selmi II, Sinan designed hundreds of buildings: mosques, palaces, tombs, mausolea, hospitals, schools, caravanserai, bridges, aqueducts and baths, many of them presented and analysed in this book. In his greatest works, he adapted Byzantine and Islamic styles to produce something quite new: a centralized organization of absolute space unhindered by pillars or columns and covered by a soaring dome. An architect of genius in a dynamic new empire expanding into both Asia and Europe, he was a true man of the Renaissance.

The greatest architect of the Ottoman Golden Age of the 16th century, Sinan designed hundreds of buildings under Suleyman the Magnificant and Selim II. This volume pays visual tribute to his buildings, including the greatest of Turkish mosques, the Suleymaniye and the Selimiye, complemented by texts which offer new interpretations of Sinan's art.