Commissioned by the emperor justinian in the early 6th century the
Byzantine Basilica was the greatest architectural achievement of the early Christian church
when the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453
Instead of demolishing the higher Sofia they converted it into a mosque
But there was no escaping the fact that this conversion was superficial is Lama
Kellerman's had merely been bolted onto a church
Somehow Christianity was always showing through
There came a time when this partial makeover wasn't good enough not at any rate for the greatest of the Ottoman rulers
Suleiman the Magnificent
So when he decided to build a new mosque
Unencumbered by Christian leftovers he was making a point for Allah
And he was making it directly at his rivals the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope
Ironically the master builder ordered to create the great Friday service mosque had been born a Christian
me Marcin on was a Janissary converted to Islam as a child and
conscripted into the crack household troops of the sultan
Süleyman's order was thrilling, but daunting a great dome surrounded by half domes
Four minarets a structure as immense as the to
Continent empire a mosque the would eclipse higher Sofia
The visible proclamation of Islam's victory
Zeno's great idea is the
indivisibility of
Space the architectural proclamation of the union of all believers here the space isn't chopped art
By forests of columns and barriers of choir and altar here. We are all in it together
Islam is a religion of law and simple faith everything revealed to all
Islam means submission
And what we submit to here is
The light the light of true faith than of the Quran its record the light of God's law
streaming through
249 windows drowning the space with radiance
How weightless this all feels even the gigantic dome and that's all a more extraordinary because it could only be supported
by
absolutely
Titanic
architecture these huge for
masonry piers
Everything is kind of airy and light and graceful, but you feel behind it is this hard
mathematical engineering
mind of ceylon
That achievement
something built on the ground that is full of this kind of
Planetary uplift towards, which our gaze is sent over and over again
Is what makes this place one of the most beautiful buildings on earth?
You