Turkey and Sinan And the Concept of Building "In Elif Shafak's "The Architect's Apprentice
Bayan Al Momani
The Architect's Apprentice, by Elif Shafak offers to its readers' different horizons to think and explore. The writer of the book introduces the story of Jahan and then princess Mihramah whom seem to be the main characters of the story, but I believe that the story is mostly about the architect Sinan who had a well-known legacy found in all over Turkey and sometimes in other countries that were under the sovereign of the Ottoman Empire. My notes about the book is not going to be about Jahan and Mihrimah, my notes are going to be about what Jahan simply see, what is going around him but the most important notes are going to be about Sinan and his teachings to Jahan most of the time. There are different pictures of Turkey or the Ottoman Empire presented in the book, some give readers things to learn and through observation acknowledge is going on around you, to learn and digest what seemed to be unimaginative and likely for anyone to go through. Still, it is Sinan the main character,"hoca", a teacher to all those who knew him including Jahan. And Sinan's teachings of knowledge managed to make his apprentice see books differently, to personify them and feel their sorrow and pain for demolishing them. Right from the beginning Elif Shafak captures your sense of appreciating knowledge when she presents Sinan's view of it, "Those who yearned for completeness would be called the lovers, and those who aspired to knowledge the learners."1 To Jahan it was a puzzle, so when it came to knowledge he wished that he had learned to love as much as he loved to learn. The events go back to Istanbul, 22 December 1574, so many things are going at that time in the palace, and I leave them to the reader. First note that registers in the readers minds, is an observation made by Jahan when he made his unexpected trip to the Ottoman Empire with no expectation of a good life, Jahan just didn’t know what he might encounter. When he walked in the streets of Istanbul for the first time he saw, "The Muslims wore turbans; Jews had red hats; and Christians, black hats. The Architect's Apprentice, Elif Shafak. p.1 .11
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Arabs, Kurds, Nestorians, Circassians, Kazakhs, Tatars, Albanians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Abkhazs, Pomaks‌ they walked separate paths while their shadows met and mingled in knots." "There are seventy-two and half tribes, each has its place. As long as everyone knows their limits we live in peace."2 That is crucial point presented by the writer through ancient Ottoman Turkey to present today's Turkey and that is also a universal issue, a point that is like an aching thorn in many countries and ongoing Turkish dilemma. To narrow the observation angle, it is a human aspect that when each knows his own space then each will know their limits. Jahan is a new comer to Turkey, who doesn’t know his space but still he is cornered, "like a convict trudging to the gallows, surrendering to a fate he could neither avoid nor accept, he followed the official and entered Sultan Suleiman's palace."3 Second note, Jahan who suffered back home, examined his new life in the Ottoman capital as an elephant tamer, he decided, "The Sultan's menagerie was a world unto itself. And, while full of ferocious creatures, it was, all in all, really no wilder than the city outside."4 Sometimes one is surprised to find out that same words used by people are different from one person to another. The world today is full of ferocious creatures wilder than animals. Jahan gets his first lesson to survive in this menagerie or the real world, "your face is all wrong." "You're pleased, it shows. You're scared, there it is. Hide your face, seal your heart, otherwise it won't be long before they make a hash of both." 5 Jahan is an elephant tamer who knows nothing about animals, still he was able to state his opinion about the difference between animals and human beings," ever since I came here I have not heard of an animal attacking anyone unless we starved it to death. If we don’t disturb them, they won't disturb us. But humans are not like that. Whether hungry or not, man is prone to evil. Where would you sleep peacefully? Next to a stranger with a full belly or next to a well-fed lion?" 6 This sounds like limits, even you look like human but an animal deep inside you should learn from animals how to tame the evil inside you. How ironic, but it is a step for learning and "building."
Same source. p . 33 .22 .Same source, p. 35 .33 .Same source, p. 38 .44 Same source, p. 39-40 .55 .Same, p. 48 .66
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Third note, Jahan attended the trial of Majnun Shaykh, a Sufi who had his own way to express his love of God and of fellow human beings. "Prayer should be a declaration of love, and love should be stripped of all fear and expectation, he said. Hell and heaven, suffering and joy, were right here and right now. How long were you going to shrink from God, he asked, when you could, instead, start to love Him?" and when asked if he does repent "what for?" he said, "I love the Beloved as the Beloved loves me. Why feel remorse for love? Surely there are other things to rue. Avarice. Ruthlessness. Deception. But love‌ ought not to be regretted."7 The controversial issue for Jahan here, as Elif Shafak puts it, is that the belief of some like Majnun Shaykh that they have reached a higher awareness makes them pay no attention to right and wrong, and they believe that ulema are only for the masses, for those who did not want to think and expected others to think for them. Fourth note, bridges are vital in the story of Jahan who became attached to them because of Sinan. The ottoman army went for war, and became baffled when the army reached a river bank and failed to cross it. They built many bridges and all of them collapsed, the foundation crumbled faster wounding and killing soldiers. "If things went on like this, before the war had even started, the Ottoman Army would be defeated by its own impatience."8 A master is needed, Sinan, who gave a strange answer, "I shall build the bridge in my mind. Only after that will I have it set in stone." He promised to build it in ten days, first day he did nothing, second day he took measurements, scribbled numbers and drew shapes. A rumor spread Sinan is not the right man for the task; on the third day he announced that they would start construction. He said "a bridge could be short or long, that didn’t matter, but its foundations had to be as strong as granite." 9 Jahan noticed how strange the labourers. Strange man they were, Tough and taciturn, but caring towards one of their own. As if Sinan made two kinds of bridges, one to carry the army across the river, and one of strengthening the bond between the soldiers. He finished it in ten days. Lutfi Pasha wanted to build a watchtower to guard the bridge, Sinan said," If we build a tower, the enemy will capture both the tower and the bridge, we made with our hands; we can destroy with our hands, then we can build a new bridge on our return." Jahan doesn’t understand and Sinan answers," in order to gain mastery, you need to dismantle as much as you put together." "We are not destroying same, p. 73-5 .77 .same, p.88 .88 .same, p.94 .99
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the buildings; we are destroying our desire to possess them. Only God is the owner. Of the stone and of the skill."10 Fifth note, after crossing the river it was the night before the battle and Jahan was still complete, still unbroken and would have remained so had this not been a different world. The promise of victory and loot was sweet, yet life was sweeter. He shivered, suddenly cold. "When we made that bridge, I felt useful, effendi‌I wish we had stayed there." "When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy," Sinan replied, "tell me would you like to build more?"11 To Sinan bridges are a way of life, even when there is a crisis or war, eventually bridges are going to fit into their place because how humans are going to live if they did not recognize bridges as a way of living to communicate and connect scattered parts of their lives. Sixth note, Sinan as a master of his craft, "that sketch you've sent me, the drawing was good." "You'd better learn algebra and measurement. You ought to gain an understanding of numbers. I watched you while we were building that bridge. You are smart, curious, and you learn fast. You can become a builder. You have it in you. I want to help you. But there are many boys around, if you wish to excel at your craft, you have to convince the universe why it should be you rather than someone else."12 Sinan provides all elements that can make Jahan want to move forward, Jahan is illiterate yet a master in architecture sees in him a future and simply tells him so. Everything is on the table, just prove yourself and you will start crossing bridges to reach your destiny, knowledge is the only thing where there are no limits. "You are talented, but you ought to be tutored. You must learn languages. You must let go of the past, resentment is a cage, talent is a captured bird. Break the cage; let the bird take off and soar high. Architecture is a mirror that reflects the harmony and balance present in the universe. If you don’t foster these qualities in your heart, you cannot build."13 Seventh note, Lutfi Pasha said, "we reap what we sow." Lutfi Pasha is the Grand Vizier, and these words were his answer to Sultana Shah , his wife, when she expressed her disgust of his verdict against a woman. Jahan knew that Lutfi Pasha hated him as well as his master Sinan, each for a different reason. Jahan was afraid that the Grand Vizier would be vindictive, .same 96-7 .1010 .same 98-105 .1111 .same, p.124 .1212 .same, p.125 .1313
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and he will eventually punish him. The Sultana is the Sultan's sister, and she hoped that the Grand Vizier, her husband, would spare the prisoner at the eleventh hour. The Sultana was greatly dismayed when the sentence was announced and carried out. She was infuriated and called him a stone-hearted man, Lutfi Pasha slapped her. When the Sultan heard that he had attempted to mace his sister that was the end of Lutfi Pasha. "Jahan listened to all this, bewildered. How soon things changed and how low people fell and from heights. Even those whom he thought untouchable. Or, perhaps, especially those. It was as if there were two invisible arcs: with our deeds and words we ascended; with our deeds and words we descended."14 Eighth note, Jahan found himself in the construction site of a mosque for the Sultan's deceased son. Everywhere he turned, he saw a flurry of activity. "Jahan thought there was something about a construction site that resembled the deck of a ship. In both there was the innate knowledge that any individual failure would be the failure of all. When putting up a building or sailing in the deep, you learned to watch over one another; an enforced togetherness emerged, a brotherhood of sorts. A tacit understanding ruled across the ranks. You accepted that the task at hand was mightier than yourself, the only way to forge ahead was by toiling together as one." 15 Sinan had his way in guiding Jahan as well as his three apprentices, he decided at first to make Jahan an apprentice to his apprentices, "you have a way of clinging to life. That's good. But curiosity could be a detriment if not guided. We should expand your training."16 Ninth note, the construction of Sultan's mosque started and Sinan was behind schedule. The Sultan was annoyed along with the rumors that suggested that Sinan will not be able to carry such task, so the Sultan visited the construction site. "When the Sultan left, they took up work again. Even so, it wasn’t the same. There was something new in the air, the smell of despair. Although they neither shirked nor slowed their work, they felt daunted. If they would not be able to please the Sultan, what was the use of keeping their noses to the grindstone? Why work so hard when that work went unappreciated?"17 Sinan said, "Talent is a favor of the divine. To perfect it one must work hard. This is what we must do." "But aren’t you .same, p.130 .1414 .same, p.134 .1515 same, p. 141. 16 .16 .same, p. 145 .1717
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afraid-" "I dread the Sultan's wrath as much as you do. Yet that is not why I toil. If there were no hope of reward and no fear of punishment, would I work less? I don’t believe so. I work to honor the divine gift. Every artisan and artist enters into a covenant with the divine. Have you made yours?"18 "Beneath every building we raise just imagine that below the foundations lies the centre of the universe. Architecture is a conversation with God. And nowhere does He speak more loudly than at the centre."19 Tenth note, Busbecq is the Austrian ambassador to the Ottoman court. He believed there were two blessings in life: books and friends. He began to chat with Jahan, one foreigner to another, "The Turks have a great respect for paper, if they see a scrap of it on the ground, they pick it up and put it somewhere high so that it won't be trodden on. But isn’t it odd, while they revere paper, they don’t have an interest in books?" "The other thing is that the Turks have no sense of chronology. Today succeeds tomorrow, and tomorrow might precede yesterday."20 Eleventh note, Sinan said to his apprentices, "if I fail, I fail alone. But if I succeed, we all succeed." "People will come here after we are dead. They won't know our names. But they will see what we've achieved. They shall remember us." 21 But when Sinan finished the Suleimaniye mosque, the Sultan held the key and asked the crowd, "Who among you is the most worthy? I want that man to take this key and open the door." The Sultan praised Sinan's work at the spur of the moment, didn’t wait for the crowds to do so, or future generations to remember his works. He honored him in his life. "None among you deserves this more than the Chief Royal Architect," the Sultan said. He turned to Sinan. "You have not let me down. I'm pleased with you."22 But what is worth noting, "By the time Sinan and his apprentices had laid the last stone nothing was the same- neither the city nor the throne. Between the time of its inception and its completion the world had become a darker place and the Sultan a sadder man. That was the thing about colossal buildings. While they didn’t not change, the people who ordered, designed, built and eventually used them constantly did." 23 To Sinan, same, p. 146 .1818 .p. 146 .1919 p. 149-150 .2020 p. 154 .2121 .p. 157 .2222 .p. 156 .2323
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architecture is to make people see and know the buildings around them, and not to assume that they had been there timelessly. "While the master and the apprentices had been raising the mosque, the universe had been constructing their fate. For the eye that could see, architecture was everywhere."24 Twelfth note, Sinan asked Jahan to drop round a bookseller's to purchase a book. Jahan didn’t know which book, but obviously Sinan wanted to test him to decide if he made a wise choice by choosing Jahan as an apprentice. "He sends you his regards," Jahan said to Simeon the bookseller. "He wanted me to choose a book. But didn’t say which." "That's easy. First, tell me, honestly, are you a learner?" "I didn’t say are you a student. I asked, are you a learner? Not every pupil is a learner." Jahan decided this was his moment to stand up to this grumpy man. "Working on construction sites all day long, one learns whether one wants to or not." But instead he said slowly, "I do my best, effendi." Simeon said, "Masters are great but books are better. He who has a library has a thousand teachers. Ignorant men think we are here to fight and make wars and to couple and have children. Nay, our job is to expand our knowledge. That's why we're here." "You seem like a kind soul but your mind is confused. You are like a boat with two oarsmen rowing in separate directions. That means you have not found the centre of your heart yet. Now, tell me, what you like to build best?" "I like bridges." "If you are a man of bridges, you ought to be able to speak sundry languages." When Sinan heard what Simeon said, he agreed, "When you master a language, you are given the key to a castle. What you'll find depends on you."25 Thirteenth note, Sinan gave his four apprentices an assignment and instructed them to design a building. They were allowed to share points of technique; but under no circumstances were permitted to see one another's design. "Architecture is team work, apprenticeship is not." Sinan said that they ought to study the works of other architects, "Every good craftsman is your teacher, no matter where he may be from. Artists and artisans are people of the same faith. Stones stay still. A learner, never." He said there were three fountains of wisdom from which ever artisan should drink abundantly: books, work and roads.26
.p. 158 .2424 p. 159-165 .2525 p. 172-4 .2626
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Fourteenth note, Jahan and Davud went to Rome to meet Michelangelo as messengers from their master Sinan. Both took notes and sketched buildings. Jahan was impressed by the construction of San Pietro, he thought that "there were two main types of temple built by humankind: those that aspired to reach out to the skies and those that wished to bring the skies closer down to the ground. On occasion, there was a third: those that did both. Such was San Pietro."27 Ascanio, Michelangelo's apprentice told them that his master was a man of his word, he had not abandoned Rome. "Do they appreciate it? Not even a crumb of gratitude! The more you give them the more they ask. You know what my master says? Greed puts gratitude to sleep." 28 Fifteenth note, Captain Gareth provides an example of that kind of people whom their face reveals their personal features. "Captain Gareth arrived, Jahan suspected he might have contracted a disease either that or treason had finally started to poison his soul." 29 He wanted Jahan to steal for him from the Sultan's palace, Jahan managed for the first time to control his fear from Gareth. "Although the man gave him an icy stare, he didn't object. For the first time he took his leave without uttering threats. And thus Jahan discovered something about wretches like him- that, as scary as they were, they thrived upon people's weakness."30 Sixteenth note, Sinan the Chief Royal Architect had sketches that dealt with providing water for the city of Istanbul, "with the help of ducts, he would make the water flow to gardens, courtyards and vineyards. He said there was nothing as noble as relieving the thirst of the parched."31 The Grand Vizier was against it, claiming that it will bring more immigrants to an already crowded city, and Istanbul can't take it anymore. So Jahan in order to convince the Sultan went to see him away from the Grand Vizier, but he had other plans he wanted to show the Sultan his own project which was building a bridge in order to make a name for himself. When the Sultan saw Jahan's design, he didn’t pay much attention to it, "I like your courage, young man. But courage is a dangerous thing. Remember a ruler considers
p. 180-1 .2727 p. 182 .2828 p. 190 .2929 p. 191-2 .3030 p. 199 .3131
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many aspects before making a decision."32 Jahan mistakenly thought that he would make a success and make an exception to other apprentices. Seventeenth note, again it is the idea of bridges. Shayh al-Islam, Ebussuud Effendi decided that the bridges collapsed because "they were built without true faith, do you agree? Sinan took a breath. "God gave us a mind and told us to use it well. Many ancient bridges are in ruins because they are not built upon firm ground. When we raise a bridge we make sure the water is shallow, the earth is solid, the tides favourable. Bridges are built with faith, true. But also with knowledge."33 Eighteenth note, Sinan worked on his water project for Istanbul and faced many obstacles; one was the death of some of his workers. And upon such tragedy he said, "God has built the palace of our body and entrusted to us its key. Man is made in the image of God. As its centre there's order, balance. See the circles and the squares. See how proportionately they have arranged. There are four humours- blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm. We work with four elements- wood, marble, glass, metal. The face is the façade, the eyes are the windows, and the mouth is the door that opens into the universe. The legs and the arms are the staircases. That's why when you see a human being you ought to respect him. Cracks on the surface. But the building is flawless."34 Nineteenth note, the secret of a real master of his profession, is the way he handles every difficult situation taking into consideration all factors that might halt work progress. Sinan faced one dilemma that was about the workers fear from the working site, he didn’t minimize their feelings instead he managed to come up with a solution that helped to calm their fears. "it was after this incident that Jahan understood his master's secret resided not in his toughness, for he was not tough, nor in his indestructibility, for he was not indestructible, but in his ability to adapt to change and calamity, and to rebuild himself, again and again, out of ruins. Sinan was made of flowing water, when anything blocked his course, he would flow under, around, above it, he found his way through cracks, and kept flowing forward."35
p. 205 .3232 p. 226 .3333 p. 239-240 .3434 p. 244 .3535
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Twentieth note, "honeyed words, dripping with thick, sticky syrup"36 that was the new mahout who threw himself to the ground declaring that the Sultan is the Commander of the Faithful,‌, the most generous and many other words that pleased Sultan Selim. Like lightning, this new mahout and his elephant replaced Jahan and Chota. So the war between the two mahouts began. Jahan lost sleep; he feared that this new mahout might harm his elephant. Jahan remembered what Sinan once told him: "Balance is what keeps us upright. Same with buildings. Same with people."37 Twentieth-first note, new task for an architect is to protect the city from its inhabitants, and protect the past from the future. "Cities are like human beings, they are not made of stones and woods, solely. They are of flesh and bone. They bleed when they are hurt. Every unlawful construction is a nail hammered into the heart of Istanbul. Remember to pity a wounded city the way you pity a wounded person."38 Twentieth-second note, Marcantonio an architect from Venice lived in Istanbul for six years; he was a friend to Sinan. When he decided to go home he sent a farewell gift to Sinan, Ten books on Architecture. "Architecture was a science, the book said. It was based on three qualities: forza, strength; utilita, use; and bellezza, beauty. Sinan asked, "Which of these three would you sacrifice if you had to sacrifice one?" "Bellezza," Jahan replied assuredly. "We can't compromise on strength or purpose. We could do without beauty." Sinan said, "We can't give up beauty. If you give up one, you will end up losing all three."39 Twentieth-third note, fire in the palace and the menagerie violated the silence code dating back to the days of Sultan Suleiman, it had gone up in smoke. The animal tamers started evacuating the animals to a place of safety. Olev the lion tamer died while doing so. "Olev's funeral was attended only by animal-tamers and equerries; Jahan was seized by a presentment, as if, in one death, he had seen the deaths of them all. He raged deep inside at himself for leaving Olev on his own in that cage and acting too late; at the new Sultan for not giving a tinker's curse about his servants perishing while serving him; at Master Sinan, who kept making building after building. What difference did it make whether they were hurt or p. 273 .3636 p. 275 .3737 p. 291 .3838 p. 299 .3939
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happy, right or wrong, when the sun rose and the moon waned just the same, with or without them?40 Twentieth-fourth note, Yusuf the mute apprentice was a girl, so Jahan became curious not only about her but also about Sinan. He asked Sinan, "How you choose your apprentices?" "I pick them among the skillful." "Now I understand you do not choose the finest. You go for the ones who are good but are lost, abandoned, forsaken." Sinan spoke after a moment, "you're right. I choose my apprentices with care. Those with aptitude but also with nowhere to go."41 As Jahan listened to his master, he found the word he was looking for: broken. He was beginning to understand what Sinan was doing, the four of them utterly different yet similarly broken. Master Sinan was not only teaching them, he was also fixing them.42 Twentieth-fifth note, the four apprentices under the supervision of Sinan built an observatory and Takiyuddin the Chief Royal Astronomer was in charge of it. Takiyuddin failed to provide correct information about a comet, the comet had brought misery, so the Sultan decided to demolish the observatory. Jahan insisted loudly to Sinan, "Why don’t you defend our observatory? How can you let this happen? Sinan smiled sadly, "There are things that are in my hands and things that are not. I cannot prevent people from destroying. All I can do is keep building."43 Twentieth-sixth note, Sinan went to see Jahan the night before the demolishing of the observatory. He wanted him to steal or to save Takiyuddin's books and instruments because he didn’t have the time to save much. The doors are locked and no one can get in. That night Jahan along with his elephant went to unload books from shelves in the observatory, "something happened, something he wouldn’t reveal to anyone. The books and manuscripts and maps and charts started to call his name: first in muted, and then in increasingly shrill tones, begging him to take them with him. Jahan could see their mouths of ripped paper, their tears of ink. They threw themselves off the shelves, stepped on each other, blocked his way,
p. 309 .4040 p. 317 .4141 p. 318 .4242 p. 339-40 .4343
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their eyes wide with horror. Jahan felt like a man in a boat searching for a dozen to save in a storm while hundreds were drowning around him."44 Twentieth-seventh note, after the demolishing of the observatory Jahan was full of thoughts. What they raised in years, stone upon stone, could be destroyed in one afternoon. "Why they worked so hard at small details when no one minded how much effort they expended. Why did Sinan pay this much attention to the finest details when only a few noticed, and fewer appreciated them? Nothing ruins the human soul than a hidden resentment. Little did he know, back then, that the worth of one's faith depends not on how solid and strong it was, but on how many times one would lose it and still be able to get it back."45 The book consists of 452 pages; there are more events in the book, with pictures of life revealing the shocking pictures about life and humans, if they deserve to be called so. Reading a book and building perspectives varies from one person to another. To me, the book starts and ends with Sinan, he is the master that taught, fixed and paved the way for his apprentices. A man of knowledge who kept moving despite the obstacles he faced, and whenever he encountered destruction he lent a hand for building. Although he feared that one day people will take the buildings he worked hard on for granted, and forget the details of proficiency in drawing the scripts and carrying them from papers to reality. But are there more in the book, I guess that each book has its own secrets, and through observations readers can come up with speculations from the events. How can you build? Whether spiritually or by cementing buildings? The answer lies in limits, Jahan from the beginning noted that everyone walking in the streets of Istanbul knew their limits. They had their own culture and religion different from each other, maybe hated each other but walked peacefully side by side in the streets forming a kind of mosaic, or a pot that has different and weird ingredients. Building and destruction is parallel with broken and fixed, but such activities can only be carried through knowledge, you learn it, appreciate it then you perform bearing in mind that you have a task to build and preserve, and rebuild whatever the circumstances were.
p. 345-6 .4444 p. 347-8 .4545
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Does the book point to nowadays Turkey? When Sinan said that he wanted to protect the past from the future, and also protect the city from its people he definitely meant his own country, the Ottoman Empire now Turkey. He wanted the future to look at the past with respect and be proud of the knowledge that provided such dignified buildings. His keywords were knowledge and most importantly bridges, he wanted his apprentices to be men of bridges. That is to connect and to build despite the crisis they might face, even at war time he built a bridge and destroyed it, but built another one on the way back home. That has a symbolic feature to all countries; wars should be only when forced on you not for conquering lands and subjugating people, and when it is done look for a bridge to mend what have you done and try to fix the broken. Bridges can be made from cement but above all bridges are knowledge that can help anyone to move on, when forsaken, broken or lost nothing can fix like knowledge and that was the heritage that Sinan left. Building buildings was his mission through his entire life and died trying to do so, he never cared about gratitude or appreciation, he cared only about the prosperity of his country through architecture as a science, as knowledge. That is why he managed to stand up after destruction and build looking after the finest details, forcing his apprentices to learn the lesson. This is how countries are built and protected, by men like him. And although it is Turkey that Sinan preserved its buildings in the past to be praised in the future, focusing on three elements, strength, use and beauty, it is also for other countries that have such man recorded in their books of history. These are the notes I underlined, to others maybe there are more to notice, well there are more but I felt that Sinan is the one to note and consider even if the book has the title of "The Architect's Apprentice."
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