This is a list of the

Friday mosque A congregational mosque or Friday mosque (, ''masjid jāmi‘'', or simply: , ''jāmi‘''; ), or sometimes great mosque or grand mosque (, ''jāmi‘ kabir''; ), is a mosque for hosting the Friday noon prayers known as ''jumu'ah''.* * * * * * * ...

s for which the Ottoman architect

Mimar Sinan Mimar Sinan ( ota, معمار سينان, translit=Mi'mâr Sinân, , ) ( 1488–1490 – 17 July 1588) also known as Koca Mi'mâr Sinân Âğâ, ("Sinan Agha (title), Agha the Grand Architect" or "Grand Sinan") was the chief Ottoman Empir ...

claimed responsibility in his autobiographies. Of the 77 mosques in the list, 39 are in Istanbul.

Background

was appointed to the post of chief Ottoman architect by the

grand vizier Grand vizier ( fa, وزيرِ اعظم, vazîr-i aʾzam; ota, صدر اعظم, sadr-ı aʾzam; tr, sadrazam) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. The office of Grand Vizier was first ...

Ayas Mehmed Pasha Ayas Mehmed Pasha (1483–1539) was an Ottoman statesman and grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1536 to 1539.İsmail Hâmi Danişmend, Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı, Türkiye Yayınevi, İstanbul, 1971, p. 15. (Turkish) He was an Albanian born ...

in 1539. Sinan occupied the position until his death in 1588 and served under three sultans: Süleyman I (ruled 1520–66),

Selim II Selim II ( Ottoman Turkish: سليم ثانى ''Selīm-i sānī'', tr, II. Selim; 28 May 1524 – 15 December 1574), also known as Selim the Blond ( tr, Sarı Selim) or Selim the Drunk ( tr, Sarhoş Selim), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire ...

(ruled 1566–74) and

Murad III Murad III ( ota, مراد ثالث, Murād-i sālis; tr, III. Murad; 4 July 1546 – 16 January 1595) was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death in 1595. His rule saw battles with the Habsburgs and exhausting wars with the Saf ...

(ruled 1574–95). In his autobiography ''Biographical Memoir of Construction'' (''Teẕkiretü’l-bünyān''), Sinan claimed to have designed 698 building including 80 Friday mosques and more than 400 smaller community mosques (''

masjid A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, i ...

s''). In reality he led a team of royal architects and the buildings would have been collective works. Sinan himself would have been occupied with the large building projects undertaken for the sultan. These were the

Şehzade Mosque The Şehzade Mosque ( tr, Şehzade Camii, from the original Persian شاهزاده ''Šāhzādeh'', meaning "prince") is a 16th-century Ottoman imperial mosque located in the district of Fatih, on the third hill of Istanbul, Turkey. It was comm ...

(1543–48), the

Süleymaniye Mosque The Süleymaniye Mosque ( tr, Süleymaniye Camii, ) is an Ottoman imperial mosque located on the Third Hill of Istanbul, Turkey. The mosque was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent and designed by the imperial architect Mimar Sinan. An insc ...

(1548–59), the Kirkçeşme waterworks (1561–65), the Büyükçekmece bridge (1565–67) and the Selimiye Mosque in

Edirne Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis (Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, ...

(1568–74). After this date, during the rule of Murad III, there were no major construction projects and as an old man he would have entrusted the work to other architects. The following list of 77 Friday mosques was compiled by the historian

Gülru Necipoğlu Gülru Necipoğlu (born 3 April 1956 in Istanbul) is a Turkish American professor of Islamic Art/Architecture. She has been the Aga Khan Professor and Director of thAga Khan Program for Islamic Architectureat Harvard University since 1993, where s ...

. It is based on the lists appended to two of Sinan's autobiographies: ''Gift of the Architects'' (''Tuḥfetü’l-miʿmārīn'') and ''Biographical Memoir of Buildings'' (''Teẕkiretü’l-ebniye''). The list excludes older mosques that Sinan renovated and those converted into Friday mosques from older community mosques.

Chronological list of Friday mosques

Background

Chronological list of Friday mosques

See also

References

Sources

Further reading