DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29899#0576
556
SARACENIC A RCIIITECTURE.
Paht III.
CHAPTEE IV.
T U R Iv E A r.
CONTENTS.
Mosques of Mahomet II.—Suleimauie and Ahmedjie Mosques—Mosques of Sultanas
Validé, and of OsmanJIH.—Civii ahd Domestic Arehitecture, Fountains, &c.
CHRONOLOGY.
DATKS.
Conquest of Constantinople by Maho-
met II.a.d. 1443
Bajazet II. 1481
Selim 1. 1512
Suleiman II., the Magniflcent .... 1520
Selim II. 1566
Amuratk III. 1574
DATKS.
Malmmet III.a.i>. 1595
Ahmed 1. 1603
Amurath IV. 1623
MahometlV. 1649
SuleimanHI. 1687
Ahmed III. 1703
Mahmood 1. 1739
The latter half of the 15th century witnessed some strange vicissitudes
in tlie fate of the Mahomedan faith in Europe. In 1492 Granada was
conquered, and the Moors expelled from the country which they had
so long adorned by their arts, and rendered illustrious by their culti-
vation of the sciences. Of all the races who, at various times, have
adopted the faith of Islam, the Spanish Moors seem to have been
among the most enlightened and industrious, and the most capable of
retaining permanently the civilisation they had acquired. They have
made way for a people less progressive and more bigoted than any
other population in Europe.
Before, however, this misfortune happened in the West, the fairest
city of the Christian world, and its most fertile provinces, had fallen a
prey to the most barbarous horde of all those who had adopted the
Mahomedan religion. For two centuries the Turks had gradually
been progressing westward from their original seats in Central Asia,
ancl at last, in 1453, Constantinople itself fell into their power, and
for more than a century after this, the fate of Europe trembled in the
balance. The failure of the siege of Vienna (1683) turned the tide.
Since that time the Christians have slowly and surely been recovering
their lost ground ; but the Crescent still surmounts the dome of Sta.
Sophia.
Had the Turks obtained possession of Constantinople at. an earlier
date, it is possible that their architecture might have taken a different
form from that in which we now find it. But before that event
SARACENIC A RCIIITECTURE.
Paht III.
CHAPTEE IV.
T U R Iv E A r.
CONTENTS.
Mosques of Mahomet II.—Suleimauie and Ahmedjie Mosques—Mosques of Sultanas
Validé, and of OsmanJIH.—Civii ahd Domestic Arehitecture, Fountains, &c.
CHRONOLOGY.
DATKS.
Conquest of Constantinople by Maho-
met II.a.d. 1443
Bajazet II. 1481
Selim 1. 1512
Suleiman II., the Magniflcent .... 1520
Selim II. 1566
Amuratk III. 1574
DATKS.
Malmmet III.a.i>. 1595
Ahmed 1. 1603
Amurath IV. 1623
MahometlV. 1649
SuleimanHI. 1687
Ahmed III. 1703
Mahmood 1. 1739
The latter half of the 15th century witnessed some strange vicissitudes
in tlie fate of the Mahomedan faith in Europe. In 1492 Granada was
conquered, and the Moors expelled from the country which they had
so long adorned by their arts, and rendered illustrious by their culti-
vation of the sciences. Of all the races who, at various times, have
adopted the faith of Islam, the Spanish Moors seem to have been
among the most enlightened and industrious, and the most capable of
retaining permanently the civilisation they had acquired. They have
made way for a people less progressive and more bigoted than any
other population in Europe.
Before, however, this misfortune happened in the West, the fairest
city of the Christian world, and its most fertile provinces, had fallen a
prey to the most barbarous horde of all those who had adopted the
Mahomedan religion. For two centuries the Turks had gradually
been progressing westward from their original seats in Central Asia,
ancl at last, in 1453, Constantinople itself fell into their power, and
for more than a century after this, the fate of Europe trembled in the
balance. The failure of the siege of Vienna (1683) turned the tide.
Since that time the Christians have slowly and surely been recovering
their lost ground ; but the Crescent still surmounts the dome of Sta.
Sophia.
Had the Turks obtained possession of Constantinople at. an earlier
date, it is possible that their architecture might have taken a different
form from that in which we now find it. But before that event