Sunday Feature: Sinan the Magnificent

Architectural journalist Jonathan Glancey tells the astonishing story of Koca Mimar Sinan, who was court architect to one of the most powerful dynasties the world has known - the Ottoman Empire - in the 16th century. Responsible for some four hundred sublime and inventive buildings throughout Turkey, the Balkans and the Middle East, he is virtually unknown in the West. Sinan's best known work is perhaps the Suleiman Mosque in Istanbul. But he also created madrassas, bathhouses and viaducts. Influenced by the Byzantine buildings that surrounded him in Constantinople, he is likely to have had contact with the designs of Renaissance figures including Michelangelo, who was his contemporary. But did the artistic dialogue go both ways? Did Sinan's reputation reach into Western Europe through the strong links between the Ottoman Empire and Italy in particular?