The Suleymaniye Mosque (in Turkish: Süleymaniye Camii) is an Ottoman Sultani Mosque, located on the second hill of Istanbul; It is the second largest mosque in the city after Sultan Ahmed Mosque, and one of the best famous sights in Istanbul. History of the mosque The mosque was built by order of Sultan Suleiman I (Suleiman the Magnificent), and it was built by the great Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan. The construction process started in 1550 and was completed in 1558. It began work on it starting in the year 1550, and continued until 1557, meaning that it took seven years to build, after which the architecture was completed, and it is the most famous architecture in the history of the Ottomans. Rather, it is almost the most famous architecture in the history of Islamic mosques. Sinan, before starting work, prepared maps, designs, ideas, and models, and put them in the hands of the Sultan himself, so he admired them and gave his approval to them, and opened the door of his treasury to implement them without calculation, which had the greatest impact in unleashing the imagination and experience of the architect, artist Sinan, to complete a mosque as long as he was proud of him and said About him: This mosque is my greatest achievement. The best spots in terms of beauty and prominence were chosen to be the headquarters of the Sulaymaniyah Mosque. The mosque was built on a high hill overlooking the Bosphorus Strait and the Golden Horn, and next to an old building that is now built by Istanbul University in Beyazit. Before Sinan began the construction process, famous craftsmen, architects and technical workers were invited from the outskirts of the Ottoman Empire to participate in this great edifice, until they numbered several thousand, which required the establishment of a special headquarters for them for housing, planning and machinery, so this headquarters for those in charge of the work includes multiple halls Targets, dining rooms, and other accommodation for strangers, including those coming from outside Istanbul. Next to those rooms were bathrooms and other services. The foundations are said to have consumed a long time, and even delayed the work a little, in order to make arrangements to resist rain and snow and the harsh natural effects that Istanbul is famous for. For this purpose, he used egg white in mixtures of mortar instead of water, which led to the consumption of large quantities of it were prepared in boxes Especially from Anatolia, to countless numbers. Layout of the mosque Prayer house It is a rectangle close to the square, which is 69 meters long and 63 meters wide, and can accommodate about five thousand worshipers. Instead of exaggerated motifs and engravings in many Ottoman mosques, it is characterized by maturity and simplicity. The polished Turkish tiles were used, and the designs are shaded refinement consisting of seven colors including purple red with white and black stripes, and the superior blue color, which covers the interior walls of the prayer house with its decorations that came in the form of tulips, carnations, gory, violet, chrysanthemums, grape leaves and apple trees And cypress. Many domes and windows Interior view of domes The main dome of the mosque standing above the center of the prayer house is a huge dome mounted on four pillars shaped like elephant feet centered near the walls, the length of each diameter is 7.5 m, and the weight of each of them is 60 tons. The dome is 53 meters high and 27.25 meters in diameter. And surrounded by 32 cylindrical windows in rounded arches. It joins more than a hundred other windows distributed on the walls and sides of it to provide the mosque with good lighting and color reflections through the unparalleled stained glass windows. The windows were made by a professional craftsman named Sarhos Ibrahim. The covers of these windows with doors are made of walnut and ebony, and they are very cool. The eye does not mistake the beauty of the inscriptions on the dome from within, and these inscriptions are among the greatest traces of Turkish calligrapher Ahmed Shams al-Din, who lost his eyesight at the end of his days, so his servant Hasan Shalabi completed it. The eye also does not mistake the artistic methods used in the mosque's interior decoration, such as carving on wood, ivory inlays, mother-of-pearl and other exquisite works. And the large dome in the prayer house is not alone in it, but around it are six domes on its part of an average size, and there are four other domes of small size over the four corners, and perhaps these ten domes surrounding the great dome, and its technical accuracy and carefully calculated dimensions, are what helped The unique audio system in this mosque. The mihrab, the minbar and the cabin The mihrab and the pulpit are made of engraved alabaster. The minbar of the preacher - which is not the minbar of al-Khatib - is carved wood and in the corners of the mihrab you see inscriptions engraved with golden leaves. In the prayer house in the Sulaymaniyah Mosque, Sultan Suleiman built a chapel based on marble columns, and it contains very beautiful inscriptions on the alabaster bars surrounding it, and the muezzin has a alabaster seat as well. Just as the acoustic system was technically elaborate, the ventilation system was no less perfect. Rather, it is configured through special outlets, some open to the inside and some open to purify the air quickly and easily. The famous engineer Sinan has made small holes under the dome in various directions to ensure an upward stream that attracts smoke coming from the oil bulbs that are widely used to light the Great Mosque. By doing so, he went beyond a problem that the mosques suffered a lot from, which is the intensification of black smoke and its coverage of the domes drawings in them, especially if we know that the famous Turkish traveler Evelya Shalabi once wrote: It necessitated the use of approximately twenty thousand bulbs in the various chandeliers distributed throughout the mosque. The soot on the edges of the ventilation holes was collected and given to the ink makers for use in their manufacture. The nave of the mosque, its gates and fountain Behind the prayer house in the Sulaymaniyah Mosque is the nave of the mosque or inner courtyard, which is rectangular in shape. And the floor of that square is covered with large panels of alabaster, and it has two gates on its sides, and a gate in the middle, and this central gate has the form of an antique door with a crown, and is a unique and important architectural work and it is a wonderful example of Seljuk art and it was engraved with gold and prominently engraved above it a certificate (There is no god but God Muhammad the Messenger of Allah). The courtyard or courtyard of the mosque is surrounded by a corridor or corridor on its three sides, topped by (28) domes, which are based on (24) columns and linked to small arches. Two of these columns are marble around the central gate, ten white alabaster, and twelve granite. These columns are decorated with limestone deposits and heads of alabaster carved on top of one stone. And the walls of that square surrounding the corridor have two rows of windows. In the middle of this square there is a fountain of ablution, which has a rectangular shape, and it deserves attention. It is exquisitely carved by its inscriptions and decorated with beautiful bronze bars. The four noble minarets On the outskirts of this inner courtyard, four minarets rise in the midst of the sky, two of which - two that follow the prayer house - are higher than (74 m), and each of these minarets has three balconies, while the other two minarets each have only two. It has been said: Eng. Sinan wanted to indicate with the four minarets that Sultan Suleiman is the fourth Ottoman Sultan after the conquest of Constantinople, as he indicated with the ten balconies on the four minarets that Sultan Suleiman is the tenth of the Sultans of Bani Othman. The outdoor plaza and facilities Behind the inner courtyard lies the great outer courtyard, which has eleven gates, and is like the walls surrounding the town. The Sulaymaniyah Mosque includes the second largest urban complex after the Al-Fateh complex. This complex consists of four schools: a medical school, a school for the upright, a religious school for Sharia sciences, and a primary school. This is in addition to a hospital, a guesthouse, a restaurant for the poor, a Turkish bath and a market around the mosque. Hajj ink Soot is the main material in the ink industry. The ink created by the architect Sinan is from the soot emitted from the jellyfish to the space of the Sulaymaniyah Mosque in Istanbul. The striking thing about this ink is called Hajj ink, as the soot collected in Sulaimaniyah was placed in the barrels filled with Arabic gum and clear water, then sent to Hajj on the basis of the beauty of the caravan of the Prophet’s Prophet’s caravan to walk on a journey that takes - back and forth - approximately six months to the lands The sacred, as during the journey it is constantly falling and brewing and turns into ink if it takes place on paper and penetrates into its pores and remains on its surface forever and does not erase nor disappear even if it is touched by water or any liquid substance. This ink was used by the Ottomans in the line of the Noble Qur’an, the noble hadiths, or the royal political, religious, and administrative sermons by brilliant calligraphers. The architect "Sinan" has created small holes under the dome of the Sulaymaniyah Mosque, which made it in different directions so that it can obtain a rising stream that attracts the soaring soot from the jellyfish - the number of these 275 lamps - to collect it through these openings in a specific place to benefit from it in the ink industry. For this purpose, the architect "Sinan" made precise engineering calculations, so he established a room above the main entrance to the Sulaymaniyah Mosque, and then placed many refineries in it, through which he assured the absorption of soot from the jellyfish, and after that he took these refineries, so he dipped them in the water, and the soot dissolved and turned into ink. In this way, the architect "Sinan" succeeded in passing the problem of accumulation of soot on the upper inscriptions of the mosque and succeeded in protecting the walls from the soot produced by its lamps.