The Selimiye mosque complex, built at Edirne 1569-75. Sinan Pasha, the royal architect, was inspired by the 1000 year old cathedral church of St. Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. He felt that it was an affront to Islam that the emperor Justinian’s architects had been able to span with a dome a greater area than Ottoman architects had been able to achieve. With the Selimiye he succeeded in surpassing the Hagia Sophia.