Harmonious Relationships: Sounds and Stones in Ottoman Architecture in the Making

Abstract

Architectural narratives on building processes are admittedly rare in premodern histories. Accounts of visitors who observed and reacted to architecture in the making are even more exceptional. Moreover early modern audiences’ perceptions of music and architecture have been rarely explored in relation to building processes and synesthetic experiences. This article presents a critical reading of Caʿfer Efendi’ s “Book on Architecture” (1614) by focusing on its chapter on the Sultan Ahmed mosque (1609–17) in Istanbul. First, I demonstrate how Caʿfer associated sounds in the construction site with Sufi musical practices and the science of music. Second, I show how his conversation with a Sufi reveals the ways in which twelve types of marbles, four types of strikes, and seven types of foremen were linked to Ottoman music theory. Finally, the shared geometrical foundations of architectural tools and musical instruments that produced harmonious sounds and forms is revealed. I argue that the union of spatial, visual, and aural experiences of the building in the making produced various forms of knowledge for the visitors. Architecture’s mediating role for sensuous, spiritual, and scientific knowledge further illuminates the relation between theory and practice in Ottoman architecture.