Seljuk Architecture - Anatolian Seljuk Architecture

Anatolian Seljuk Architecture

The greatest number of surviving Seljuk monuments are in Anatolia. The Seljuks of Rum built monumental stone buildings of elegantly simple design and harmonious proportion, for the most part severely plain, but with bursts of elaborate decoration around doorways.

Most Anatolian Seljuk works are of dressed stone, with brick reserved for minarets. The use of stone in Anatolia is the biggest difference with the Seljuk buildings in Iran, which are made of bricks. The buildings make frequent use of muqarnas (stalactite vaulting). In the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum the courts are often covered to protect against the colder and snowier winters of the Anatolian plateau. Thus some madrasas (theological seminaries) such as the Çifte Minareli Medrese in Erzurum have an open court, and others, such as the Karatay Medrese in Konya, have covered courts.

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Konya, the capital of the Seljuks and the other great Seljuk cities--Alanya, Erzurum, Kayseri, Sivas--have important Seljuk buildings, but Seljuk works are abundant in almost any Anatolian city or town, especially in Central and Eastern Anatolia. Seljuk power extended (briefly) as far as the Aegean coast, so there are Seljuk türbes (tombs) even in—appropriately—the town of Selçuk, next to Ephesus, south of Izmir. The great caravanserais, or hans, are among the finest and most characteristic of Seljuk buildings. Built during the 13th century to encourage trade throughout the empire, several dozen survive in good condition.

After the Mongol invasions of the mid-13th century, the wealth and power of the Seljuk empire declined. The few late 13th century-early 14th century buildings that survive include the bimarhane (madhouse) in Amasya, and the "Süngür Bey Mosque" in Nigde.