<P> Prior to the 19th century, Ottoman prose was exclusively non-fictional, and was much less highly developed than Ottoman poetry, in part because much of it followed the rules of the originally Arabic tradition of rhymed prose (Saj'). Nevertheless, a number of genres - the travelogue, the political treatise and biography - were current . </P> <P> From the 19th century, the increasing influence of the European novel, and particularly that of the French novel, began to be felt . Şemsettin Sami's Taaşuk - u Tal'at ve Fitnat, widely considered the first Turkish novel, was published in 1872; other notable Ottoman writers of prose were Ahmet Mithat and Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil . </P> <P> Ottoman architecture was a synthesis of Iranian - influenced Seljuk architectural traditions, as seen in the buildings of Konya, Mamluk architecture, and Byzantine architecture; it reached its greatest development in the large public buildings, such as mosques and caravanserais, of the 16th century . </P> <P> The most significant figure in the field, the 16th - century architect and engineer Mimar Sinan, was a Muslim convert of Armenian descent, having a background in the Janissaries . His most famous works were the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne and the Suleiman Mosque in Constantinople . One of his pupils, Sedefkar Mehmed Agha, designed the early 17th century Blue Mosque, considered the last great building of classical Ottoman architecture . </P>

What best describes byzantine art during the ottoman empire