(soft piano music)
- [Voiceover] We're in Istanbul
at the enormous complex Sulymaniye in the mosque.
- [Voiceover] Now this was the mosque
in the complex of Suleiman the Magnificent.
Suleiman the law giver as he is known.
He ruled for most of the first part
of the 16th century.
- [Voiceover] So this is in terms
of European history, the time when
Francois Premier was ruling.
This was the time of Charles the fifth.
The time of enormously powerful rulers.
- [Voiceover] And Suleiman certainly was
in that fame and this building
which was built 36 years into his reign,
is a testament to that greatness
and the greatness of the Ottoman Empire.
- [Voiceover] So this is interesting
because so many sultans built
their major mosque's early in their careers
and he was well into his reign,
really knew what he was doing
and had had tremendous military success.
- [Voiceover] So this was the time
to build something that would be his legacy.
- [Voiceover] There is a grandeur here
and there's a sense of sureness.
- [Voiceover] In really some ways,
we shouldn't find that surprising
because it was designed and built by Sinan,
Suleiman's great architect.
This is viewed as his crowning achievement
where Ottoman architecture reaches it's peak.
- [Voiceover] And of course the Ottoman Empire
was of an enormous scale.
It was an empire that ruled far
to the east, south to Egypt,
across North Africa and into
the Balkans, well into Europe.
- [Voiceover] But all of modern day Iraq,
Syria, basically the pilgrimage routes to Mecca
all of that was under control
of the Ottoman's.
It's a huge empire.
- [Voiceover] Sinan (mumbles) materials
from all over the empire and so
this building functions as a trophy
of imperial grandeur.
- [Voiceover] You have granite columns,
granite comes from Egypt.
- [Voiceover] But hold on, those granite columns
are enormous and look, there isn't a single cut.
These are (mumbles) they're
a single piece of stone.
Can you imagine what it would have taken
to just transport those?
To get them upright?
- [Voiceover] And of course,
one of the other things that's so amazing
about many of the stone columns,
they're taken from across the empire
whether it's Egypt or some are taken from
Baalbek, that's exactly what Justinian
had done in building Hagia Sophia.
- [Voiceover] There's no question
that this building is an attempt
to take that ancient building
and to remake it, to better it,
to show that Suleiman was
superior even to Justinian.
- [Voiceover] This plan goes back
to the plan of Hagia Sophia
with a big centralized dome on pendentives
and two semi-dome's which is not
what was being used in a lot of mosques
built between 1520 and 1530.
And so that change is a very specific decision.
- [Voiceover] When I enter the building,
my eyes immediately go upward.
There's something that feels as if
the heavens are contained within this space.
- [Voiceover] Well and that's interesting
because a lot of 16th century source
is contemporary sources.
They made that comment.
They felt like they were in
a cosmological space that was partially helped
by the hanging mosque lamps
that create a sense of the heavens
but also reflective metal balls were hung.
So things like that which would reflect light
and create a shimmering effect.
So that theory of space is not only
happening because you have light
coming in from the outside
but also the way the space is lit.
- [Voiceover] And like Hagia Sophia,
the walls and the dome are pierced
with an enormous number of windows
so light enters in and illuminates the space
in so many different complex ways.
- [Voiceover] If you think about
the pillars and columns in Hagia Sophia,
they're much more solid.
They're more columns, the light has
to fight to get through where here,
Sinan allows even more light in.
So in a sense, that's an improvement on the interior.
- [Voiceover] Well Hagia Sophia was
in every way an experiment
and here Sinan knew exactly what he was doing.
- [Voiceover] You can see all of those years
of experience where's he's been
chief architect for 12 years
before he starts on this.
- [Voiceover] Now we have to be careful
because much of what we see is not original.
A lot of the painting especially
the red and white is just paint
and likely was not there in the original building.
- [Voiceover] There was a big fire
in 1660 and then a massive earthquake
in 1766, both of which damaged
the interior and then it was heavily restored
in the 19th century but there were
renovations and restorations done
in the middle of the 20th century
which attempted to take this back.
- [Voiceover] What is original
is the building itself and then a few
other elements for instance,
the stain glassed windows that are
just to either side of the Mihrab.
- [Voiceover] They were created by (mumbles)
who's name was Abraham the Drunkard.
Clearly he must have been good
at what he was doing despite his drinking issues.
And what they do is they quote
the light verse from the Quar'an.
And that also give us feeling
of the mosque being illuminated
by divine light.
- [Voiceover] Light is almost an
architectural element in this building.
Not just something that passes through it.
It is the substance of this space.
- [Voiceover] Istanbul gets cold
and dark and gray in the winter.
To have wonderful light that comes in
from many different angles,
makes the interior far more effective.
If you think about the Pantheon,
it has an occulus that let's in light in
and then the door.
Those are two sources.
This has light coming from
all angles and directions.
- [Voiceover] It reflects and refracts.
It's almost as if we're in a gem
of extraordinary size.
- [Voiceover] For you to say gem
is really appropriate because
some of the blue pigments that were
used in the original decoration
were made of lapis lazuli.
This extraordinary expensive material.
- [Voiceover] The way ancient forms
are reused and rethought can be seen throughout.
Take for example, the capitals
at the top of the massive granite columns.
Those are not classical columns.
Those are not Doric or ionic
or Corinthian columns and they're not
the Byzantine columns that we see in Hagia Sophia.
These are muqarnas that is,
these stalagmite like forms that
create a series of convex as these
units that get multiplied that are
used in so many different ways
in Islamic architecture and here,
are being reinvented in the capital of the column.
- [Voiceover] It's interesting how light these feel.
- [Voiceover] That column is so dense
and so powerful but it's supporting something
that feels so light and almost feathery.
There is this miraculous quality
as the weight of this massive building
seems to literally dissipate before our eyes.
- [Voiceover] You almost feel like
you're in the presence of something
other worldly and does make one feel very humble.
It also is a great reminder
of the power of God and the power of the Sultan
as his divinely appointed ruler.
If we can imagine ourselves back into
the 16th century.
The pomp and circumstance that would have gone
with the Sultan arriving here
on Friday for the prayers.
He would parade through the city
with thousands of Janissaries
in front of him and behind him.
You couldn't help but be awed by the power
of the Sultan so not only is the building
overwhelming but the ceremony
that goes with it is overwhelming.
(soft piano music)