The autobiography of the chief architect of the Ottoman Empire, dictated in old age to his friend the poet and painter Sai Mustafa Çelebi, with lists of the hundreds of buildings he designed. The only extended account of his work by a pre-modern Islamic architect.
Sinan (c. 1490–1588) was recruited as a youth through the devşirme, the levy of Christian boys for the sultan’s service, trained as a carpenter and military engineer in the Janissary corps, built bridges and boats on campaign, and in 1538–39 was appointed chief of the imperial architects. He held the post for about half a century, under Süleyman the Magnificent, Selim II and Murad III, and his office was responsible for mosques, schools, hospitals, baths, caravanserais, bridges and aqueducts across the empire.
Near the end of his life he told his story to Sai Mustafa Çelebi, who set it down in ornate prose and verse. Several versions survive, of which the Tezkiretü’l-Bünyan is the fullest. The text is partly a pious autobiography and partly a catalogue: lists of Friday mosques, smaller mosques, madrasas, tombs, kitchens, hospitals, aqueducts, bridges, palaces and baths, adding up to several hundred works (the exact number varies between the manuscripts, and not every attribution is secure).
Two passages are quoted in every book on Sinan. In one he calls the Şehzade Mosque the work of his apprenticeship, the Süleymaniye that of his journeyman years, and the Selimiye at Edirne his masterpiece. In another he explains that he built the Selimiye to answer the claim, made by Christian architects, that no Muslim could raise a dome as great as that of Hagia Sophia, and that with it he had matched and surpassed it. The memoirs also tell of the technical problems he faced: the water supply of Istanbul, the foundations of the Süleymaniye, the delay while the great piers settled.
A modern English translation of the five texts, by Howard Crane and Esra Akın, with a critical edition by Gülru Necipoğlu, appeared in 2006.
The book, part by part
I The life
Recruitment, training in the Janissary corps, campaigns as an engineer, appointment as chief architect.
II Apprentice, journeyman, master
The Şehzade, the Süleymaniye and the Selimiye as the three stages of a career; the rivalry with Hagia Sophia.
Rules: One dome, extended by semidomes · The dome on eight piers
III The catalogue of works
Mosques, madrasas, tombs, hospitals, kitchens, caravanserais, baths, bridges and aqueducts, listed by type.
Rules: The cascade of domes · Minarets mark rank