The Selimiye Mosque () is an Ottoman imperial mosque, which is located in the city of Edirne (formerly Adrianople), Turkey. The mosque was commissioned by Sultan Selim II, and was built by the imperial architect Mimar Sinan between 1568 and 1575. It was considered by Sinan to be his masterpiece and is one of the highest achievements of Islamic architecture as a whole and Ottoman architecture in particular. The mosque, together with its külliye, was included on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2011. History Construction The Selimiye Mosque was built at the peak of Ottoman military and cultural power. Sultan Selim II, the son and successor of Suleiman the Magnificent, chose Edirne instead of Istanbul (the Ottoman capital) as the location to build his own sultanic mosque. The reasons for this decision are a matter of debate among historians. Selim II appeared to have a passion for the city, having served as its governor between 1548 and 1550, and he visited it frequently after becoming sultan. Edirne, a former Ottoman capital, was also one of the most important cities in the empire and a major stop on the imperial highway between Istanbul and the Balkan provinces. Other motivations may have included the fact that there were no more prominent hilltop sites in Istanbul available for the construction of an imperial mosque complex – at least not without resorting to mass expropriations. At the time of the mosque's commission, Selim II had also not commanded a victorious military campaign, which Islamic scholars of the time considered to be a requirement for building a sultanic mosque in Istanbul. In March 1568 Selim II had asked Sinan to renovate the city's Old Mosque. Plans for a new imperial mosque, located on the hilltop above the Old Mosque, were probably begun around the same time. Construction on the mosque was begun in 1568 or 1569 (976 AH) and completed in 1574 or 1575 (982 AH). The mosque's construction and its waqf (charitable endowment) were ultimately funded with the help of the sultan's share of the spoils from the successful conquest of Cyprus, which was completed in 1571 with the surrender of Famagusta. Selim II died in December 1574, before he was able to see the mosque fully completed. Later history In 1865 Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Baha'i Faith, arrived with his family to Edirne as a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire and resided