A research seminar built around four main, interrelated axes of inquiry : (a) Compiling all relevant information about Ottoman architects of, first, the 14th-17th centuries, and then the 18th-19th centuries (including their origins, training and education, biographies and works) in order to advance towards a comprehensive prosopography of the subject both before and after the breakup of the Lodge of Royal Architects; (b) probing relations or networks of patronage (including commissions from the royal house, the sub-royal elite of the ümera and ulema, and commercial-professional strata), as well as the influence exercised by all such patrons on design and execution; (c) reviewing various technical aspects including materials and building site organisation; and (d) exploring the connections between technical data or constraints and symbolic elements in monumental religious architecture in particular. Counts towards the fulfillment of the research seminar requirement in History.
