{"id":751,"date":"2016-07-09T11:55:41","date_gmt":"2016-07-09T10:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courtauld.org.uk\/crossingfrontiers\/?page_id=751"},"modified":"2019-12-30T11:12:37","modified_gmt":"2019-12-30T11:12:37","slug":"cifte-minare-medrese","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/crossingfrontiers\/crossing-frontiers\/turkey\/sivas\/cifte-minare-medrese\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00c7ifte Minare Medrese"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maxime Durocher<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like the Buruciye Medrese and the G\u00f6k Medrese, the \u00c7ifte Minare (literally \u2018with two minarets\u2019) was founded in Sivas in 670\/1271-2. It stands in the inner citadel, in front of the hospital founded by \u2018Izz al-D\u012bn Kayk\u0101w\u016bs in 614\/1216-7, also known as the \u015eifaiye Medrese. The structure was destroyed, probably around 1880, and only the portal remains with its two minarets dominating the area. Archaeological surveys in the 1960s concluded that it would have had a classic madrasa plan organised around an open courtyard and four \u012bw\u0101ns<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The patron\u2019s name, identified by R\u0131dvan N\u00e2fiz (Edg\u00fcer) and \u0130smail Hakk\u0131 (Uzun\u00e7ar\u015f\u0131l\u0131), figures without the nisba <\/em>(an adjective referring to the place of birth or family origins), on the foundation inscription above the door (RCEA 4644): \u00a0Shams al-D\u012bn Mu\u1e25ammad al-Juwayn\u012b. He was an Ilkhanid official (\u1e63\u0101\u1e25ib d\u012bw\u0101n<\/em>) like various members of his Iranian family who ascended in the Ilkhanid administration of the 1260s. His brother, \u2018Al\u0101\u2019 al-D\u012bn \u2018A\u1e6d\u0101 Malik Juwayn\u012b, governor of Iraq, is also known to have composed a chronicle of the Mongol reign (T\u0101r\u012bkh-i Jah\u0101n-g\u016bsh\u0101<\/em>). The \u00c7ifte Minareli Medrese is one of the rare examples of a building commissioned by an Ilkhanid official before 1277 and a testimony to the establishment of direct Mongol-rule over Anatolia. The absence of the Seljuk sultan Ghiy\u0101th al-D\u012bn Kaykhusraw III in the inscription may be explained by the political rank of the founder, Juwayn\u012b being a minister of the Ilkh\u0101n, suzerain of the Seljuks. On the other hand, the fact that Ilkh\u0101ns did not convert to Islam before Gh\u0101z\u0101n Khan in 1295 justifies the omission of the name of Ab\u0101q\u0101 on a medrese\u2019s inscription.<\/p>\n

Because of the limited space, determined by the \u015eifaiye medrese in front, the portal of the \u00c7ifte Minare medrese is less salient than other contemporary examples (the Buruciye Medrese, for instance). The decoration of the portal, carved in the fine limestone, follows a classic scheme and echoes the decoration of the \u015eifaiye\u2019s portal. A central door surmounted by a muqarnas<\/em> vault is surrounded by a pointed archivolt. The spandrels between the latter and the muqarnas<\/em> vault are carved with intricate R\u016bm\u012b vegetal designs. Fleshy high relief vegetal motifs decorate the space between the archivolt and the rectangular frame, decorated itself with vegetal and geometric motifs. The opposition between low and high relief recalls the decoration of the portal of the Buruciye Medrese and should be placed in a local tradition that one can link to the hospital-mosque of Divri\u011fi, built under the Meng\u00fccekids in 1228-9.<\/p>\n

Two niches with muqarnas<\/em> conches and small spiral columns, surrounded by epigraphic panels with Arabic knotted script, are carved on the side of the portal. Two windows flank the main portal, with low relief carved arches around their muqarnas<\/em> niches and higher relief palmette motifs on their rectangular frames. Three other windows are visible on the fa\u00e7ade, two with muqarnas<\/em> designs and a third one with an inscription (TEI 33214) knotted at the centre and plant motifs in the intrados. The latter, located to the right of the portal, reproduces almost exactly the design of the portal of the \u0130nce Minare Medrese built in 1258-59 in Konya. Finally, two pseudo-buttresses, with richly carved decoration, flank the fa\u00e7ade of the \u00c7ifte Minare Medrese.<\/p>\n

The portal is surmounted by two minarets, constructed in brick, a common feature in portals of medreses during the second half of the thirteenth century (see the G\u00f6k Medrese of Sivas and the \u00c7ifte Minare Medrese of Erzurum). Traces of decoration in turquoise, blue and black tiles are visible on the minarets, especially on the lower parts where there are twelve blind arches on each minaret and prints of two inscriptions in square Kufic script (TEI 33216). Tiled decoration on brick minarets is well-known in Seljuk and Ilkhanid architecture in Anatolia (Ince Minare Medrese in Konya; \u00c7ifte Minare Medrese in Erzurum) as well as in Iran (see for instance Ulj\u0101yt\u016b\u2019s mausoleum in Sul\u1e6d\u0101n\u012bye).<\/p>\n

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Interactive Plan<\/h4>\n
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Image Gallery<\/h4>\n