162 | A Princess Constructs Ottoman Dynastic Identity
Mihrimah’s mosque at Edirnekapı shows the genius of its architect, Mimar
Sinan. The walls of the mosque were almost entirely dominated by six tiers of
windows, giving the interior a luminous effect. Sinan designed it to have a sin-
gle large dome of just over twenty meters, smaller than that of her brother Se-
lim’s mosque, which is considered Mimar Sinan’s masterpiece, and smaller than
that of Süleyman’s mosque, built ten years earlier. But except for these mosques
commissioned by reigning sultans, Mihrimah’s mosque has the largest dome of
any mosque built by the renowned architect Sinan. Her brother Selim’s mosque
was built in Edirne, but her mosque recalls that of her father’s in Istanbul. Mih-
rimah’s mosque did not have lavish decorations but was remarkable for the light
that filled it. See figures 11.3 and 11.4, which show the interior of the mosque. The
endowment deed records that it was recognized at the time as innovative:
It is built in an unrepeatable strange manner and an unimaginable won-
derful style.... The exterior of its heavenly dome is a spherical bubble andFigure 11.3 Interior of Mihrimah Mosque at Edirnekapı. (Photograph by Christine Isom-
Ve r h a a r e n .)