This book is about konaks, the elaborate dwellings of the wealthiest families in the Ottoman Empire. The evolution of the traditional Turkish house reached its peak in the konak.

Konaks spread across the whole Empire, but we will focus on the urban konak which was a very frequent and established typology in Istanbul.

This architectural form has not received the proper attention it actually deserves until now. Most scholars have translated the qord konak as mansion in English, which is very misleading.

The word konak stands for a distinct typology and should not be translated. The mansion refers to another typology, the outcome of a different cultural context.