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Mimar Armen Sinanian


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#21 bellthecat

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Posted 12 April 2004 - 01:36 PM

QUOTE (THOTH @ Apr 12 2004, 04:08 AM)
Last summer when I travelled to Turkey I stayed at a very nice B&B in Cappadocia - in the city of Mustfa***** - a place called the Old Greek House (highly recommended - wonderful place and about the best food I've ever had in Turkey). Anyway - when I informed the owner that i was Armenian - he spoke of knowing Armenians in Kayseri - now - currently - so I would surmise that there are and were Armenians in Kayseri.

As for Sinan - it seems that both the Greeks and Armenians claim him..could he have perhasp been both? Who really knows it would seem...

Sinan was born in a small town a little to the southeast of Kayseri, that is now called Mimarsinan in his honour. I've been there - it's built right on the top of a small hill. You can look down from it and see the entire Kayseri plain (with the sprawling suburbs of Kayseri now almost reaching to the base of the hill). To the left is Talas (which before 1915 had a mixed Greek, Turkish, and Armenian population) and to the right was the well known Armenian settlement of Efkere.

During Sinan's time the town is known to have been mostly Armenian - so there is a good probability that he also was Armenian. Also, I've read that there are petitions to the Sultan that have survived and that bear Sinan's name and the names of Armenians in Kayseri, which also suggests he was Armenian (since why else would he be acting on the behalf of those Armenians). These might be the petitions that Arpa mentioned. Why were the Armenians going to be exiled?

I don't believe that there are any Armenians still living in Kayseri. True, you can sometimes meet with Turks who say there are some (mostly along the lines of "yes, I once had neighbours who were Armenian"), but in reality they are as extinct as (and, to those Turks, are as exotic as) the dodo.

Edited - no threats please, Steve

Steve

Edited by vava, 12 April 2004 - 04:19 PM.


#22 DominO

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Posted 12 April 2004 - 03:07 PM

///

Edited by Fadix, 12 April 2004 - 04:32 PM.


#23 bellthecat

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Posted 12 April 2004 - 03:32 PM

Oh, there is a house in Mimarsinan that is described as "Mimar Sinan's House" in a booklet published by the Kayseri tourist bureau. But I couldn't locate the house when I was there. Couldn't have been his actual house anyway since it looked like a house from the 19th century!

#24 phantom22

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Posted 05 May 2006 - 01:22 AM

Sinan's real name was Hovsep (Joseph). He was born in Kayseri on April 15, 1489 and his close relatives all had Armenian names. This is documented, from Ottoman archival materials, in an article in the "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society" of Great Britain, dated 1937.

Edited by phantom22, 05 May 2006 - 01:24 AM.


#25 phantom22

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Posted 06 May 2006 - 02:21 PM

Yes, he was not from Kayseri itself, but from one of the small villages in the area.

QUOTE(bellthecat @ Apr 12 2004, 04:32 PM) View Post
Oh, there is a house in Mimarsinan that is described as "Mimar Sinan's House" in a booklet published by the Kayseri tourist bureau. But I couldn't locate the house when I was there. Couldn't have been his actual house anyway since it looked like a house from the 19th century!

Edited by phantom22, 06 May 2006 - 02:24 PM.


#26 phantom22

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Posted 21 June 2006 - 11:30 PM

The original records state that Sinan (Hovsep) was from the village of Aghernass, near Kayseri.


QUOTE(phantom22 @ May 5 2006, 02:22 AM) View Post
Sinan's real name was Hovsep (Joseph). He was born in Kayseri on April 15, 1489 and his close relatives all had Armenian names. This is documented, from Ottoman archival materials, in an article in the "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society" of Great Britain, dated 1937.


#27 Vartan Mamigonian

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Posted 26 June 2006 - 08:26 PM

QUOTE(phantom22 @ Jun 22 2006, 12:30 AM) View Post
The original records state that Sinan (Hovsep) was from the village of Aghernass, near Kayseri.


Since when do we accept Ottoman archival materials as original records?

#28 phantom22

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Posted 26 June 2006 - 09:58 PM

When they document the identity of Sinan as an Armenian. You would think they would want to bury thgat information.

QUOTE(Vartan Mamigonian @ Jun 26 2006, 09:26 PM) View Post
Since when do we accept Ottoman archival materials as original records?


#29 Vartan Mamigonian

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Posted 27 June 2006 - 10:32 AM

Very well-stated, very observant, and right on point.

#30 Yervant1

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Posted 11 April 2013 - 10:00 AM

TURKISH MEDIA FINDS ATTEMPTS TO CONCEAL NATIONALITY OF ARMENIAN ARCHITECT SINAN DISGRACEFUL

14:57, 10 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. Turkish website marksist.org touched
upon the issue of nationality of prominent Armenian medieval architect
of the Ottoman Empire Sinan and stated that nobody tells anything
about the Armenian identity of the famous architect, of whom both
the Ottomans and the Turks were proud about.

As reports "Armenpress" the website stated that the chief architect
of the medieval period of the Ottoman Empire Sinan was born in an
Armenian family in a small town called Agırnas near the city of
Kayseri in Anatolia. At the age of 22 Sinan was conscripted into
Ottoman service as a son of Christian. He is the first Armenian,
upon whom the title of Pasha was bestowed.

Among other things the Turkish website stated: "Nobody was worried
about Sinan's Armenian origin in the Ottoman Empire. But after the
establishment of the Republic of Turkey the Turkish "scientists",
who suffer the complex of inferiority, opened his tomb to discover
whether he was a Turk or not."

Sinân Ã~Bgâ was the chief Ottoman architect (Turkish: "Mimar")
and civil engineer for sultans Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II,
and Murad III. He was responsible for the construction of more than
three hundred major structures and other more modest projects, such
as his Islamic primary schools. His apprentices would later design
the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul, Stari Most in Mostar and help
design the Taj Mahal in the Mughal Empire.

The son of a stonemason, he received a technical education and
became a military engineer. He rose rapidly through the ranks to
become first an officer and finally a Janissary commander, with the
honorific title of aga. He refined his architectural and engineering
skills while on campaign with the Janissaries, becoming expert
at constructing fortifications of all kinds, as well as military
infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges and aqueducts. At
about the age of fifty, he was appointed as chief royal architect,
applying the technical skills he had acquired in the army to the
"creation of fine religious buildings" and civic structures of all
kinds. He remained in post for almost fifty years.

His masterpiece is the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, although his most
famous work is the Suleiman Mosque in Istanbul. He headed an extensive
governmental department and trained many assistants who, in turn,
distinguished themselves, including Sedefkar Mehmed Agha, architect of
the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. He is considered the greatest architect of
the classical period of Ottoman architecture, and has been compared
to Michelangelo, his contemporary in the West. Michelangelo and his
plans for St. Peter's Basilica in Rome were well known in Istanbul,
since Leonardo da Vinci and he had been invited, in 1502 and 1505
respectively, by the Sublime Porte to submit plans for a bridge
spanning the Golden Horn.




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