The influence of Hagia Sophia on Ottoman architecture

The type of the small square-plan mosque, topped with a dome taking shape very low on the walls and covering the entire space, is characteristic of Ottoman architecture. New, more complex and monumental forms appeared with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. During the fourteenth century, Ottoman mosques featured increasingly large central domes covering larger interior volumes. The dome of the Üç Şerefeli Mosque, built for Murad II (1421–44 and 1446–51) in Edirne between 1438 and 1447, is 24 metres in diameter. On the other hand, the type of the hypostyle mosque, such as the Friday Mosque in Bursa, built between 1399 and 1400, began to disappear.

Nevertheless, the conquest of the Byzantine capital marked a turning point in the history of Ottoman architecture. In fact, Hagia Sophia so impressed the Ottomans that they incorporated its fundamental structural elements in their new constructions. Thus, in Istanbul, while Fatih Camii, the mosque of Mehmed II (1444–46 and 1451–81) built between 1463 and 1470, shows a certain similarity with Hagia Sophia, the latter’s resemblance to the Mosque of Bayazid II (1481–1512) – built in the early sixteenth century and using in its structure the architectural system of the great central dome, buttressed by two semi-domes and resting on par pendentives and four large arches on piers – is even clearer. This kinship is evident with the mosques built by the great architect Sinan, such as the Mosque of Süleyman (1520–66), built between 1550 and 1556, and the Mosque of Kılıç Ali Paşa, built in 1580, both of them in Istanbul, which reproduce its plan and structure surprisingly faithfully.

These borrowings did not prevent Sinan from bringing many innovations to his buildings. Moreover, he developed different models. Thus, the mosque that he built in Edirne between 1569 and 1575 for Selim II (1566–1574), one of his greatest successes, is of a type noticeably different from Hagia Sophia, although its dome, nearly 32 m in diameter, rivals that of the latter.

The architectural type of the “Great Church” therefore continued to be reproduced, adapted and reinterpreted, without for all that serving as a direct model for all the new mosques. Ottoman architects, Sinan foremost among them, had henceforth fully absorbed into their tradition the architectural concepts and ideals embodied in Hagia Sophia.

Ottoman builders, thanks to the experience that they acquired in building these mosques – of a new type for Islamic architecture – developed edifices whose structure was markedly more stable than that of Hagia Sophia. The former cathedral’s design flaw was mainly due to the use of only two semi-domes and to the monumentality of its dome. Thus, the Ottomans often opted for smaller constructions, built mainly of ashlar, whose dome was buttressed by four semi-domes.

It should also be noted that, while Hagia Sophia was a source of inspiration for Ottoman builders, so was Byzantine architecture in general. Moreover, other Byzantine churches were perhaps also used as models, such as, for example, the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople.