Tomb in Anatolian Seljuk Medresses and Hospitals

Abstract

Medresses and darüşşifas/hospitals were the most monumental edifi ces within the historical texture of cities during the Anatolian Seljuk period. There were diff erent units with diff erent functions inside or attached to these buildings. In this context, single or double storied founder mausoleums at these medresses or hospitals were being consistent a special group. In this study, the subject is examined through the examples chosen among the medresses and hospitals built on diff erent dates during the Anatolian Seljuk period. The relations between the medresse/darüşşifa and the tombs will be examined considering the location of the buildings, their history, founders and architectural features. These education and health facilities were mostly built by the Seljuk rulers or statesmen of the period. During the second half of the thirteenth century in Anatolia, most of the monumental medresses in cities such as Sivas and Erzurum in Ilkhanid period were built by the emirs and viziers of the period. Medresses and darüşşifa buildings which had been planned around an open or closed yard within the medieval Turkish architectural context, mostly consist of an arcaded yard, iwans ranging from one to four opening to this yard, student rooms, winter classrooms, masjid, tomb, library and imarets. Most of the tombs at these buildings had been built adjacent to one of these iwans. In very few examples, there are externally adjacent tombs at the medresses. These tombs, which we widely see in the Anatolia Seljuk medresses but in a limited number of Darüşşifas/hospitals, are the prominent buildings with their structures and special designs.