After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Hagia Sophia became the classic model for other great mosques of the Ottoman golden age, including the Süleymaniye. The greatest Turkish architect and mosque builder was the brilliant Sinan (1489–1588), who was born a Greek Christian and who learned his engineering skills while a janissary. A former Christian used a former Byzantine church as the model for the glorious mosques that awed visitors to Turkey and are today seen as the apex of Islamic civilization.
