The Architect's Apprentice

by Elif Shafak

Caïques glided along the waters of the Golden Horn like shooting stars.

‘If you wish to excel at your craft, you have to convince the universe why it should be you rather than someone else.’

‘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 do not foster these qualities in your heart, you cannot build.’

with our deeds and words we ascended; with our deeds and words we descended.

‘Strange that an animal so majestic has a tail this flimsy,’ said the Sultan. ‘Do you think Allah is reminding us even the strongest have their weaknesses?’

Sailors, peasants, pilgrims or travellers whose lives had been reversed so abruptly they could not tell whether this was a delusion or whether the past had been a dream.

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, and the only way to forge ahead was by toiling together as one.

With an egret plume attached to his headwear, he looked crazy and grand in equal degrees.

If you don’t know what to do with an answer, don’t ask the question,’

‘You have a way of clinging to life. That’s good. But curiosity could be a detriment if not guided.

Oddly, in her absence her significance had grown. Folding his heart like a handkerchief, he kept inside the memory of the afternoons they had spent together.

If there were no hope of reward and no fear of punishment, would I work less? I don’t believe so. I work to honour the divine gift. Every artisan and artist enters into a covenant with the divine.

‘Beneath every building we raise – it doesn’t matter whether it’s small or large – just imagine that below the foundations lies the centre of the universe. Then you will work with more care and love.’

Architecture is a conversation with God. And nowhere does He speak more loudly than at the centre.’

How he wished he could tell her that he had, in fact, carved every inch of her face into the infinite space within his mind, so that each time he closed his eyes he saw her, talking, frowning, laughing, her moonlike face in its many moods.

there were two blessings in life: books and friends. And that they should be possessed in inverse quantities: many books, but only a handful of friends.

the dome, were dotted with numerous windows, so that the light poured in as warmly as milk from the breast of a mother to her infant.

observing how a simple musical instrument could be made to capture sounds of such immensity.

Regardless of who they might have been in their previous lives, they were now subject to the whip, which descended at random, less to quicken their pace than to snatch them back from any daydream in which they might have momentarily taken shelter.

When a hole was pricked in each end of the egg and it was suspended from the ceiling, it would release a smell that would not bother humans but would surely keep all insects at bay.

The wonders od Ostrich eggs - I did not know this…

the smell of a freshly baked loaf wrapped round them like a blanket.

Nice!

The Book of the Knight Zifar,

The Guide for the Perplexed

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.’

Here I thought I was here for love

You want to become an architect, you have to speak to something bigger than you!’

‘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.’

‘When you master a language, you are given the key to a castle. What you’ll find inside depends on you.’

Trying to find a lady friend for Chota in Istanbul was like wishing for snow in August.

‘Go and find the beast a pretty wife and make him happy. Only God is alone.’

If you think you are better than the others, you’ll be poisoned by hubris. If you think another’s better, poisoned by envy. Either way, it is poison.’

If you aim to excel in your craft, you ought to study the works of others.’

‘Stones stay still. A learner, never.’

there were three fountains of wisdom from which every artisan should drink abundantly: books, work and roads. Reading, practising and travelling.

Decisions are sheep; habits, the shepherd.’

light, elusive and enticing like the remains of a dream slipping away.

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.

‘Greed puts gratitude to sleep.’

Gruff and throaty, like a man used to living inside his mind,

Hagia Sophia.

‘Does what we do in life matter so much? Or is it what we don’t do that carries weight?’

‘You build with wood, stone, iron. You also build with absence.

Don’t be one of those wretched souls who live without blame or without praise.

Jahan was delighted to see he had been right to assume that outside the palace walls the sovereign would be a different man – a kinder man.

Of such unbidden vanities are perhaps spun life’s gravest delusions.

an apprentice made his way up no faster than a snail would inch across a meadow,

Everything was as he had left it. At the same time nothing was the same. When one underwent a sudden change, one expected the world, too, to somehow have become different.

A married woman, she carried herself differently now. Behind her light veil she was beautiful – and sad. Never had anyone’s sorrow been so sweet. She was worried for him. Perhaps she even loved him. He felt as if his heart would break.

One needs to be a child to revel fully in a tale, don’t you think? Still, even as adults we can –’

An understanding passed between them, like a soft rustle of wind.

Hints delicate as tufts of dandelions in the wind. Everything suggested that she cared for him.