Who was Sinan, once described as most prolific architect in the world?

QUESTION Who was Sinan, once described as the most prolific architect in the world?

Mimar Sinan (c. 1489-1588) is most famous for his monumental contributions to Ottoman architecture. Sinan served as the chief architect of the Ottoman Empire under the reigns of three sultans — Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II and Murad III — which gave him an unmatched opportunity to leave a lasting mark on the empire’s skyline. 

During his 50-year career, he is credited with designing or supervising the construction of more than 450 buildings, including mosques, ­palaces, bridges, baths and schools.

His use of domes, minarets and courtyards, as well as his mastery of symmetry and proportions, became hallmarks of the Ottoman mosque design, exemplified by his two greatest works — the Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, completed in 1557, and the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne (1574), the work Sinan ­himself regarded as his finest.

Sinan employed advanced engineering techniques to support large domes and withstand earthquakes and mastered the use of natural light, placing windows strategically to illuminate interiors and enhance the visual impact of domes and arches. Sinan also designed interiors with remarkable acoustics.

His work extended to the limits of the Ottoman Empire. He designed the Sulaymaniyya Takiyya mosque complex in Damascus, Syria, and the Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic Bridge across the Drina River in Visegrad, Bosnia and Herzegovina. His

concepts were incorporated into later works, notably the Taj Mahal in India.

Alan White, Norwich, Norfolk

QUESTION Do any of the countries in Africa or Asia still drive on the left? Have any changed?

Most countries that drive on the left (right-hand drive) were former British colonies. The British Empire spread its laws and regulations, including road traffic laws, to its ­colonies. After gaining independence, many countries continued with this system because switching to the right side would require ­significant infrastructural changes.

Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland), Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe are all countries where driving is on the left. Mozambique is an anomaly; although there has been driving on the right in ­Portugal since 1928, its colony of Mozambique remained on the left because it has land borders with­ ­former British colonies.

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The case differs for former British West Africa: present-day Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. These nations all drove on the left until independence, when they switched to the right. This was to bring them in line with their neighbours, mostly former French colonies that drive on the right. Sudan in the north-east converted to the right in 1973 for similar reasons.

Mr J. S. Moore, Malvern, Worcestershire

QUESTION Why do we say phrases such as ‘the water is stone cold’ or ‘stone cold sober’?

In 14th-century Middle ­English, someone partially sighted was said to be samblind (sam, from Old English, meaning half, like the modern semi-). This later became corrupted to sand-blind, perhaps because of the idea of having grit in your eyes.

In the late 1590s, Shakespeare’s Launcelot Gobbo makes a joke on the word in The Merchant Of Venice when he describes his elderly father who has failed to recognise him as ‘being more than sand-blind, high-gravel blind’.

This is taken one stage further in Thomas Dekker’s The Belman Of London (1608), when he writes ‘I have seene men stone-blind’. So the word stone-blind now means

completely blind.

In 1592, poet Nicholas Breton had similarly used the word stone-cold to mean completely cold, and in Henry V Act 2, the Hostess, recounting Falstaff’s death, says: ‘Then I felt to his knees... and all was as cold as any stone.’

Stones are cold, hard, unchangeable and emotionless. We have expressions such as heart of stone, set in stone, and trying to extract blood from a stone. We speak of stone cold facts, stone cold certainties, and being left feeling stone cold. At other times we may be stony (absolutely) broke or stone cold sober.

In 1972, Philadelphia soul group The Stylistics had a hit record with I’m Stone In Love With You, and in the 1990s wrestler Steven Anderson, after being told by his wife to drink a cup of tea before it went stone cold, decided to adopt the more ruthless-sounding name Stone Cold Steve Austin. He went on to become a world-famous WWE favourite.

Ian MacDonald, Billericay, Essex