Cemetery of the Süleymaniye Complex

The cemetery of the Süleyman Mosque is situated behind the qibla wall, in an enclosed garden surrounded by a wall with rectangular windows. Among the many tombs and stelae of various periods stand the tombs of Süleyman and his wife Hürrem Sultan, known in the West as Roxelana. Two paths lead to the tombs from two gates. A guardian’s lodge stands to the south and an inclined table intended to hold cenotaphs is placed at one of the entrances.

These two mausolea designed by Sinan are structured in a similar fashion.  The octagonal domed room embodies a principle popular since the beginning of Islamic architecture[1]. The domed hall is often square, for example in Samanid[2], Fatimid[3] and North African architecture. In Iran and Seljuk Anatolia, while certain tombs reflect this design[4], most, however, are designed as towers surmounted by a dome or a conical roof[5]. Ottoman funerary architecture of the fifteenth century employed domed octagonal buildings from the reign of Bayazid I (Bursa, 1406) which displays a raised portico at the front. The tomb of Murad II (Edirne, 1451) presents a similar arrangement.

The Sultan’s tomb which was not complete at his death in 1566 was finished by his son Selim II. The building is encircled with a peristyle whose roof rest on classical marble columns bearing a triple arch. In front of the entrance is a raised canopy in painted wood[6] resting on a five bay arcade. The walls of the peristyle are decorated with Iznik tiled panels, with leaf and compound flower designs arranged in a central lobed medallion composition. The sumptuous colours of green, red and blue contrast sharply with the white ground. The palette and the style are characteristic of Iznikware from the middle of the sixteenth century[7]. The upper level of the building is punctuated with windows arranged in threes beneath a broken arch.

Inside, amongst many others, is a wooden cenotaph with a tall turban. The decoration is characteristic of the period and includes, Iznik ceramic revetments (which were already employed in the mausoleum of Shezade (1543)) which decorate the pendentives, a ceramic epigraphic border, panels of stone in imitation of marble and stained glass which lets abundant light enter the upper part; ceramic marbled tiles[8] decorated the lower walls. These elements are visible in many classical buildings surrounding the mosque.

The tomb of Roxelana is more modest[9]. The rhythm of the openings is simplified; only the canopy retains the tripartite scheme of the türbe of the Sultan’s tomb. Two levels of openings break up the façade, allowing lots of light to penetrate the building. The entrance is flanked with ceramic revetment panels decorated with flowering trees which also appear on the mausoleum of Selim II (Istanbul, 1576-1577). Inside the room with its truncated corners the alternating windows and triangular muqarnas niches are decorated with Iznik-tiled panels (a tympanum and cartouche for the windows, frames and interior and cornerpieces for the niches). The predominantly blue, turquoise and red decoration is more feminine than its neighbouring tomb. Flowering trees occupy the cornerpieces. The motif also recurs in the Rüstem Pacha Mosque (Istanbul, 1561-1563) at the back of the minbar. A border of Iznik tiles placed above the first level unifies the whole. The walls, which are alternately blind or with windows, echoes the upper level. In the centre, on a stage, amongst many others is the Sultana’s cenotaph, protected by a wooden platform.

[2] Samanid tomb, Bukhara, Uzbekistan, beginning C10th. 

[3] Tombs of the necropolis at Aswan, Egypt, C12th.

[4] Mausoleum of Sandjar, Merv, Turkmenistan, C12th.

[5] Türbe Döner, Kayseri, Anatolia, 1275.

[6] The mausoleum of Mürad II at the Müraddiye, Brousse, 1426-1428, already possessed a painted wooden canopy.

[7] Dish, fritware, painting on slip under transparent glaze, Iznik, Turkey, 1560s, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, inv. K. 3267.

[8] This decoration inspired from marbled paper is also used but relatively rarely on pieces in ceramic forms. See the jug with marble finish, Iznik, Turkey 1565-1600, Paris, musée du Louvre, MAO 1207.

[9] It resembles the mausoleum of Selim II (Istanbul, c. 1577) from which one of the exterior decorative panels is kept at the Louvre: the panel of the mausoleum of Selim II, Iznik, Turkey c. 1577, fritware, painting on slip under transparent glaze, Paris, musée du Louvre, inv. OA 3919/ 2-265.