Chapter 15
‘Two weeks and two days,’ the Grand Vizier said in his gloomiest voice, ‘and the birthday of the Seal of the Prophets will be upon us.’ He looked up at the sky, the only untroubled surface in the silent turmoil of the new court. ‘ “God is my Sufficiency, and the best of protectors.” ’
Sinan could see little difference in the court since their first visit, four days before. The four porticoes were still filled with scaffolding and plaster dust and the ceaseless, almost soundless activity of dozens of tilers, plasterers, calligraphers, painters and carvers, all slowly encrusting the shadowed recesses with geometry and arabesque and poetry and the word of God.
‘But I still don’t get it,’ Abu Abdallah said. ‘Why the hurry? Our old Sultan in Fez, God have mercy on him, postponed t
