![]() Among the most outstanding achievements of this period were the mosques and religious complexes built by Sinan (ca. 1520–66) witnessed the zenith of Ottoman art and culture. The reign of Süleyman (popularly known as “the Magnificent” or “the Lawmaker”), often regarded as a “Golden Age,” was defined by geographic expansion, trade, and economic growth, as well as cultural and artistic activity. 1512–20), led to the increased presence of Iranian and Arab artists and intellectuals at the Ottoman court. Most significantly, the victory against the Safavids at a battle in eastern Anatolia (1514) and the addition of Mamluk Syria, Egypt, and the Holy Cities of Islam (Mecca and Medina) to the Ottoman realm under Selim I (“the Grim,” r. Further geographic expansion brought additions to this vocabulary. Under Mehmet’s successors, his eclectic style, reflective of the mixed heritage of the Ottomans, was gradually integrated into a uniquely Ottoman artistic vocabulary. Ottoman, Iranian, and European artists and scholars flocked to Mehmet’s court, making him one of the greatest Renaissance patrons of his time. He was also interested in developments in western Europe. In his commissions, Mehmet drew from Turkic, Perso-Islamic, and Byzantine artistic repertoires. He commissioned two palaces (the Old and the New, later Topkapi, palaces) as well as a mosque complex (the Mehmetiye, later Fatih complex), which combined religious, educational, social, and commercial functions. 1444–46, 1451–81) envisaged the city as the center of his growing world empire and began an ambitious rebuilding program. After the conquest, Hagia Sophia, the great Byzantine church, was transformed into an imperial mosque and became a source of inspiration for Ottoman architects. Significant changes came about with the establishment of the new capital in former Byzantine Constantinople. In the arts, there is a paucity of extant objects from the early Ottoman period, but it is apparent from surviving buildings that Byzantine, Mamluk, and Persian traditions were integrated to form a distinctly Ottoman artistic vocabulary. By the middle of the sixteenth century, continued military success in an area extending from Central Europe to the Indian Ocean gave the Ottomans the status of a world power. With the conquest of the Mamluk empire in 1517, the Ottomans ruled over the most powerful state in the Islamic world. ![]() In 1453, this expansion culminated in the Ottoman capture of Constantinople, the great capital of Eastern Christendom. This embryonic Ottoman state, located on the frontiers of the Islamic world, gradually absorbed former Byzantine territories in Anatolia and the Balkans. At the time of its foundation in the early fourteenth century, the Osmanli or Ottoman state was one among many small principalities that emerged as a result of the disintegration of the Seljuq sultanate in Anatolia and subsequent instability caused by Mongol rule.
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