My Name is Red, an empire which built the title structure of Ivo Andric's The Bridge on the Drina using forced Christian labor.
An employee of this empire keeps a notepad in which he titles every page "Why I Am What I Am," in a novel in which he is appointed "Imperial Astrologer" after importing cats to end a plague. The title character leaves his monastery to avenge the execution without trial of his brother by authorities from this empire in a novel by Mesa Selimovic. On a seat called a kapia built by this empire, a consummate gambler is cured of his vice by being challenged to wager his life. After unsuccessfully besieging the title structure with his war machine, the scientist (*) Hoja escapes the eye of this empire, in the novel The White Castle. While employed in this empire, Butterfly, Stork, and Olive are suspected of murdering the acclaimed miniaturist Elegant Effendi. For 10 points, name this setting of Orhan Pamuk's novel My Name is Red, an empire which built the title structure of Ivo Andric's The Bridge on the Drina using forced Christian labor.
An employee of this empire keeps a notepad in which he titles every page "Why I Am What I Am," in a novel in which he is appointed "Imperial Astrologer" after importing cats to end a plague.
Ottoman Empire [prompt on Turkish empire]