Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/561

Rh BS.. I. Ch. IV. TURKEY. 540 It was erected in 1548, by order of Sultan Suleiman, by tlie same architect — Sinan — who designed the great mosque, and who seems to have been the great architect of the reign of that magnificent monarch. The smaller mosque was erected in memory of his son Mahomet, and as a place of burial for him; and another of his sons — Mustafa — was also laid by his side. In accordance with this destination, this mosque bore a more solemn and gloomier aspect than the great mosques of the city. Their principal defect is the glare introduced throusfh their numerous scattered windows, a defect which in this mosque is remedied with the most satisfactory results. There are tliree imperial mosques in the city erected by Sultanas, and all bearing the name of Valide, which has given rise to some confusion in describing them. The most important of them is that at the end of the bridge of boats near the harbor, known as the " Mosque at the Garden Gates." It is somewhat late in date (1665), and has been a good deal whitewashed and otherwise disfigured ; but on the whole it is of more artistic design than that of Ahmed, aiul, when fresh, must have been, for its size, as ])leasing as any of the mosques in the city. The Turks adhered so long to this form, and repeated it over and over again with so little variation that it is extremely difficult to draw a line between what may be said to belong to the Middle Ages, and what to modern times. As late, for instance, as 1755, the Sultan Osman III., erected a mosque in the Bazaar, which, externally, is as pleasing as any of those in the city, and it requires a very keen eye to detect anything which would indicate that it is more modern than those of the age of Suleiman. It has this pecxdiarity, howeer, that there are no semi-domes, and the light is introduced through screens under all the four great arches of the central dome. In another locality the effect might be ])leasing, but in the latitude of Con- stantinople the result is a glare of light which aggravates the usual defect of these designs. Even the Turks seem to feel this, as the mosque is generally known by the name of Nur Osmanlie, or Lantern of Osman, a designation which too correctly describes its leading characteristics. Civil and Domestic Architecture. As about one-tenth part of Constantinople is burnt down every year, and the flames visit each quarter in tolerably regular succession, it would be in vain to look for anything worthy of the name of archi- tecture among the temporary wooden structures dignified by the name of the "palaces" of the nobles. Partly from the jealousy of the Government, or partly, it may be, because the Turks have never felt quite secure in their European possessions, they never seem to have affected anything of a permanent character in their dwellings. VOL. II. — 3.5