E-Book Overview
It is widely accepted that documents on Ottoman architects are rare and that little is known about the architectural practice in the Ottoman world. A group of texts that have appeared between sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, however, form an exception to this general assumption. While these texts have been cited and referred to in diverse previous studies on Ottoman architecture, they have not been the topic of a major interpretative approach before. A Study of Ottoman Narratives on Architecture: Text, Context and Hermeneutics is the first interpretive and comparative research monograph to feature these texts as its main theme. This is the first translation of these works that contextualizes and interprets their importance in English.
The first text is a group of five documents that date back to the sixteenth century. They comprise memoirs and building lists written in prose and verse which belonged to prominent Ottoman architect Sinan. The second text was written under the influence of the first group of documents and is in a similar format. It comprises a memoir dedicated to Sedefkar Mehmed Aga, who worked as the chief imperial architect in the seventeenth century, and also provides information on architectural terms and makes comparisons between architecture and music. The third text is different from the first two: it is a monograph about the Selimiye Mosque written in prose in the eighteenth century by Dayezade Mustafa, who was a complete outsider to architecture. While the three texts have quite different historical and thematic contexts their point in common is their rendering of architecture through narratives. From a hermeneutical perspective, the book compares narratives of the texts with contemporary historiography on Ottoman architecture.
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A STUDY OF OTTOMAN NARRATIVES ON ARCHITECTURE: TEXT, CONTEXT AND HERMENEUTICS
SELEN B. MORKOg
ACADEMICA PRESS BETHESDA - DUBLIN - PALO ALTO
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Morkoc, Selen B. A study of Ottoman narratives on architecture: text, context, and hermeneutics / Selen Morkoc. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-l3:978-l-933l46-54-6 ISBN-IO: 1-933146-54-0 I. Architecture, Ottoman—Historiography. 2, Architectural writing—Turkey. I. Title. NA1364.M67 2010 720.956--dc22 2009035232 Copyright 2010 by Selen B. Morkoc All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
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A STUDY OF OTTOMAN NARRATIVES ON ARCHITECTURE: TEXT, CONTEXT AND HERMENEUTICS
SELEN B. MORKOg
ACADEMICA PRESS BETHESDA - DUBLIN - PALO ALTO
CONTENTS Acknowledgements Transliteration Foreword
xi xiii XV
INTRODUCTION Ottoman Narratives on Architecture Background Methodology Approach Outline
1 2 6 10 18 20
PART I OTTOMAN NARRATIVES ON ARCHITECTURE
25
Ottoman Context Tezkere Genre
25 32
Texts on Sinan Sinan's Life and Period Early Drafts (Adsiz Risale, Risaietii'l-Mi'mariyye TuhfenVl-Mi'marm) Tezkiretii' 3-Ebniye Tezkiretti' 1-Bunyan
33 36 45 49 51
A text on Sedefkar Mehmet Aga: Risale-i Mi'mariyye The Author and the Architect The Seventeenth-century The Risale-i Mi'mariyye
60 60 63 65
The Selimiye Risalesi The Selimiye Mosque The Text and the Author The Sources The Context of the Selimiye Risalesi The Author's Context
73 73 76 80 83 86
PART II APPROACHES
99
Historiography on Sinan Early Republican Historians Kuban and Sinan's Rationa