080067 UE Ottoman Architecture: An Introduction (2008W)

The architecture of the Ottoman Empire emerged as an own tradition drawing from models and craftsmen of Byzantium, Persia, and Europe. The Ottoman sultans reigned a multi-national empire, which they saw as the successor of Eastern Rome, the leading Muslim state and a European power. Ottoman architecture has been described in terms of formal development related to changes of context: local princely patronage in the 14th-century, the "classical" style formulated by the court architect Sinan for the 16th-century empire, the so-called "Turkish Baroque" in the 18th century, and the adaptation of European forms in the 19th century. The relation between works in the centre and the high quality of buildings in the provinces can be understood as artistic and aesthetic repercussion and, politically, as the spread of a an imperial style. Types and architectural motives show an amazing consistency; and some such as the domed mosque became a stereotype in other cultural regions and continue until today.