Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
Yemen
Further reading:
J.F.Breton, L.Badre, R.Audouin and J.Seigne, ‘Le Wadi
Hadramout’, 
Prospections,
1978–9.
R.Lewcock, 
Wadi Hadramawt and the Walled City of Shibam,
UNESCO , Paris 1986.
M.Raemakers, ‘Towns and architecture in the
Hadramaut’, 
Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society
(London) 40 : 246 ff., 1953.
Hagia Sophia (Aya Sophia; Church of
Holy Wisdom)
Central church of Constantinople turned into a mosque
after the Ottoman conquest and now a museum.
The first Hagia Sophia built in 360 by Constantine
II had a timber roof and was burnt down in 404.
This was replaced by a second building which was
also burnt down a hundred years later. The present
structure was founded in 537 although the huge
central dome fell down and was replaced by the
present construction in 558. The plan of the building
consists of a large central dome (32 m diameter)
flanked by two huge semi-domes supported by
smaller subsidiary domes; the two aisles are
separated from the main area by a marble
colonnade.
In 1453 the building was converted into a mosque
by the addition of a wooden minaret; by the end of
the sixteenth century the building was adorned with
four tall pointed stone minarets. During the sixteenth
century Selim II had his tomb built next to the
building and in the seventeenth century Sultan
Ahmet added a madrassa. The cathedral is important
to Islamic architecture because its grandeur inspired
Ottoman architects. The huge dome in particular
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impressed the Ottomans who, during the sixteenth
century, built a number of mosques to rival the
church of St Sophia, the most notable of which were
the Süleymaniye and the Selimiye.