Karatay Madrasa

The madrasa belongs to a group of 24 teaching colleges built in Konya, the Seljuk capital of Rum in the thirteenth century. Since 1955, it has housed a ceramic museum.

Djalal al-Din Rumi, the celebrated sufi, originally from Tus (Iran) who was permitted by the Sultan to settle in Konya with his family at the time of the Mongol conquest made the inaugural speech of the building in 1251 which was dedicated to the teaching of astronomy.

On the east façade, a rectangular portal frames the entrance, set within a truncated muqarnas niche supported by two cabled columns. Above, an interlace motif of bands and lobed motifs in grey and white marble form knots in the cornerpieces which are punctuated with three spherical studs in high relief and openwork. A flattened arch of grey and white marble is set above the door. Panels of motifs reminiscent of swastika, also realised in stone marquetry, decorate the base of the jambs. The decoration is completed by two epigraphic bands and a band with geometric motifs.

The influence of Syrian architecture is strong, in the sober and refined arrangement of coloured stone[1] and the muqarnas portal[2]. The similarity of the portal with that of the mosque of Ala al-din Keykubad I (Konya, 1237), realised by a Damascene architect, is striking.

The interior is organised around a central space formed by a dome with an oculus which is supported by four triangular pendentives above a rectangular basin, similar to the Ince Minare madrasa (1260-1265), the mosque-maristan of Divrigi (1228-1229) and contemporaneous khans. Climactic constraints and the adaptation of the space to its purpose of teaching probably dictated this choice. The triangular pendentives originated in Byzantine architecture and presage the transition to Ottoman architecture[3].  This Anatolian taste for centred spaces and domes is also reminiscent of the Christian tradition which was very present in the region.

To the west is the high iwan, the place of instruction. This single iwan resembles those of other madrasa in Konya, for example at Ince Minare. Particularly adapted to smaller structures, there is an example at the al-Firdaws madrasa in Aleppo (Syria, 1236-1240). Two domed halls, perhaps intended for study in winter, flank the iwan. The west hall along the axis of the portal contains the tomb of the founder, a tradition very common in Seljuk Anatolia (for example, the mosque-maristan in Divrigi and the Keykavus maristan in Sivas). The north and south sides contain the cells for the students.

The lower parts, reflecting contemporaneous civic architecture[4], were decorated with deep green hexagonal tiles accented in gold which have now mostly been lost. 

The ceramic mosaic (a technique of Iranian origin which underwent a spectacular development in Anatolia) fills the pendentives, the vault of the iwan, the dome, the tympana the door and window frames and probably a part of the walls of the central hall. Very delicate vegetal scrolls, epigraphic motifs and geometric patterns frequently in the form of stars are assembled from pieces of bevelled ceramic set in white mortar, in a typically Anatolian technique.

The dome is decorated like a heavenly vault with large suns in the blue and black palette characteristic of the period. Its base bears the inscription from the Koran in kufic script ornamented with flowers and interlace motifs. Each side of the triangles forming the pendentives is accentuated with two bands of vegetal foliage framing a design in geometric kufic script in glazed blue and black tiles evoking the names of Muhammad and the four first califs.

The dome of the funerary hall is decorated with unglazed bricks arranged in chevron design reminiscent of Seljuk Iran.

[2] The oldest example conserved in Syria of such a portal is the maristan of Nur al-Din Zangi (Damascus, 1156).

[3] Green mosque, Bursa, Turkey 1410-1421

[4] Qubadabad Palace, on shores of lake Beysehir, circa. 1220-1236.

[4] Palais de Kûbadabâd, rives du lac de Beysehir, env. 1220-1236.