In the world of Islam the sixteenth-century architecture of the Ottoman Empire has few peers. The supreme architect, and the most prolific, was Sinan. With the sixth-century church of Haghia Sophia as the inspiration for many of his buildings, the pupil constantly strove to surpass the master in engineering skill and aesthetic refinements.

Bursa, the first capital of the embryonic Ottoman Empire, is now a vibrant growing town, in an attractive setting at the base of the Dumanli mountain range. The tour appropriately begins here, in order to trace the development of Ottoman art and architecture by seeing its early manifestations first.

At nearby Iznik, in the 16th century, the era of Süleyman the Magnificent, ceramics achieved a peak of perfection, not only in tableware but also in tiles, using a process which has amazingly been lost to history.

Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, was the largest city in the world both in late antiquity and in the Middle Ages. Its fall to the Ottomans in 1453 put their empire on a level with the Persian and Roman empires of the past. It is a deeply fascinating place, with a bewildering history and a mix of opposing cultures, but mosques and minarets still dominate the skyline.

Edirne, formerly Adrianopolis, is an astonishing town, a once thriving capital, rich in architectural treasures, now beached on a byway and rarely reached by tourists. The greatest of all Sinan’s mosques is here.

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