The Master Ottoman Architect Sinan, known as Mimar Sinan, produced numerous works of different character, among these, mosques, madrasahs, masjids (prayer rooms), khans (inns), caravanserais, covered bazaars, hammams (bath-houses), darüşşifa (hospitals), imarets (hospices), darülkurra (Koranic schools), sibyan mektebi (primary schools), tekke (lodges), waterways, aqueducts, fountains and palaces. Sinan is an architect that imprinted his mark upon his era by not repeating himself in any of the structures he created. Appointed the head of the Sultan's Society of Architects in 1538, Sinan created a great number of architectural works. Throughout the years of his long career in Ottoman architecture, in which time he produced an expansive typology of works, Architect Sinan also made a major contribution to urban planning. As Chief Architect, Sinan was responsible for many urban activities having to do with wastewater, fire prevention and the repair of many public buildings in Istanbul. Although documentation pertaining to Sinan's concept of the urban environment is scant, an analysis of all his structures suggests the existence of a delicate notion of city planning. Looking into the placement of the structures, their functional distribution within the city, the special roles they play in the general urban landscape, as well as their relationships to each other, it is not difficult to witness the rational conceptualization of a city. This article will attempt to examine the works of Architect Sinan in terms of his perspective on kulliye architecture, analyzing the contributions he made to these structures within the urban fabric, and to review his major kulliyes as intrinsic parts of the entirety of the city.

The Ubaid culture, which takes its name from Tell-al Ubaid, plays a crucial role in the process of urbanization in the Near East. Surviving for more than 1500 years (5500-3800 BC), it was characterised by important social, economic and political developments which influenced the development of urban polities both the Near East and the East and Southeastern Anatolia Regions. With this culture, certain radical structural changes peculiar to complex societies, urban societies, such as political and economic centralisation based on control over product, production and labor organisation with sealing practices, socio-economic differences, a high degree of economic specialisation and technological development, indicate that a complex economy, and organised trade had begun to take place in the social, political and economical organisations of the societies of the Near East. This paper is concerned with enlightening the role of the Ubaid Culture in the development of urban societies in the Near East. With this aim, this culture will be analyzed from the viewpoint of those characteristics peculiar to urban societies mentioned above.