Architecture and material politics in the fifteenth-century Ottoman empire /

The classical architecture of the Ottoman empire in the 16th century is relatively familiar from the great domed mosque complexes of Istanbul and Edirne designed by court architect Sinan, but the antecedents of this architecture are known mainly to specialists. In this extremely learned and scholarly book, Blessing (Pomona College) investigates the origins of this style in the buildings of 14th- and 15th-century Anatolia. She closely examines such decorative techniques as inscriptions, glazed tile and carved stone; motifs such as arabesque and geometry; contemporary stylistic "influences" from Timurid Central Asia, Turkmen Iran, Mamluk Egypt, and Syria; and the remains of local Byzantine, Seljuk, and Beylik buildings. An exhaustive examination of the literature--historical texts, biographies of notables, and masses of previous scholarship in multiple languages--about architecture and contemporary art history supports the author's speculative interpretation about how the new Ottoman style of building might have evolved. Blessing is particularly interested in how the roles migrating craftsmen and use of designs on paper might have affected building practices. The amount of detail and the complicated level of argument make this book accessible to only the most knowledgeable readers. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. --Jonathan M. Bloom, emeritus, Boston College