Mimar Sinan

The son of a stonemason, he was trained as a military engineer and rose through the ranks to become a Janissary commander, refining his skills building fortifications, roads, bridges and aqueducts on campaign. Around age fifty he was appointed chief royal architect under Suleiman the Magnificent, a post he held for almost half a century, serving Selim II and Murad III in turn. His output was staggering: the Suleiman Mosque in Istanbul, the Kanuni Sultan Suleiman Bridge in Büyükçekmece, the Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad, madrasas and külliyes by the dozen. He headed a vast governmental department and trained a generation of architects - among them Sedefkar Mehmed Agha, who designed the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, and Mimar Hayruddin, architect of the Stari Most. He died in 1588, his name already synonymous with the empire's architectural peak, his buildings among the most influential in history.