Sinan [key], Muslim architect, 1490?–1588?. He is regarded as the greatest of Islamic builders, and his finest achievements lie in his solutions to spatial problems posed by dome-topped structures. Sinan, who was named Ottoman court architect in 1530, was active during the reigns of Selim I, Sulayman I, and Selim II; his career spanned five decades. His masterpieces are the mosques of Şehzâde (1548) and Sulayman I (1558), both İstanbul, and the great mosque of Selim II (1574) at Edirne, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. His autobiography lists more than 300 buildings of his design in Eastern Europe and the Middle East; many of them are still in use.
See E. Akin and G. Necipoglu, Sinan's Autobiographies (2006); biography by A. Stratton (1972); G. Necipoglu, The Age of Sinan (2010); studies by J. M. Rogers (2007), A. Pierpont (2007), and A. R. Burelli and P. Genarro (2009).
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