Anatolian Seljuks Madrasahs

I visited both Madrasahs in Erzurum and it was a worthwhile experience. Double Minaret Madrasah has a free museum inside, whereas the Yakutiye Madrasah museum is paid. Both involve going in and out of small rooms in the original buildings to look at various displays, artwork, and artifacts. There is little English signage, though, so expect to use google translate if you don't speak Turkish.

I visited 8 out of the 11 components that make up this tWHS in Spring 2021 (except the 3 components in Sivas) and most were really enjoyable places and stopovers. Together with the Seljuk Caravanserais tWHS, we really felt we covered a great deal of smaller places en route between East and West Turkey which we would have passed by unaware otherwise. So even if they never make it on the list, I'm still very glad we made the extra effort to visit almost all sites, and whenever I revisit Turkey to cover more tWHS, I'll surely try to visit Sivas too.

The two components in Konya (also a separate tWHS), Ince Minareli Madrasah and Karatay Madrasah, are quite a walk away from the old city centre proper, yet are worthwhile visiting. There are quite a lot of madrasahs (or medersas, meaning Islamic schools) on the list already but these Seljuk ones in Turkey are still a worthy addition and have architectural elements from Persian and Central Asian ones. The Ince Minareli Madrasah now houses the Museum of Stone and Wood Art. Some of its architectural highlights that emerge in Seljuk Anatolia are the calligraphic portal that serves as the entrance to the complex (reminiscent of one of the portals of the Divrigi WHS), its covered dome at the center of the courtyard, and the highly ornate brick minaret attached to the complex. A visit inside is worthwhile if only for the individual architectural fragments and reliefs of elephants, …

Out of all proposed properties we visited only one – Yakutiye Madrasah in Erzurum. I did not read a description on UNESCO site so I did not realize there was another one in Eurzurum - Çifte Minareli Madrasah, very close to Yakutiye.

Yakutiye Madrasah is located in the very center of Erzurum, one of the biggest cities in the East of Turkey. The whole building has been preserved in original shape and it looks very nice - epecially its minaret with vivid blue ornaments. The entrance to the building is beautifully carved with ingenious iwan. There is a museum inside and normally the entrance is paid but we were there during a holiday, so no fee was required and there were many people inside. The museum shows a bit of everything – arms and armors, costumes, daily life ages ago and how the teaching in madrasah was conducted.

Madrasahs, originating from Iran but then spread along all Islamic world, do not have their own representation on World Heritage List. Of course many of them are inscribed under “historic center of…”. Maybe Turkey wants to fill out this gap. For us at least visiting the one in Erzurum was worthwhile so if you are nearby, consider a detour.