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KAYSERİ

 
 

Çifte Medrese, Kayseri
(Gevher Nesibe History of Medicine Museum)

The building which is known in Kayseri as the Çifte Medrese (The Double Medresse) consists of two adjecent buildings with open courtyards. Both buildings have the typical medresse lay-outs. The only difference is in the fact that one of the buildings is wider than the other. However, the similarity observed in form does not extend to a similarity in function as the western

building is a hospital while the eastern one is a medical school of the old order. In other words one is a health and the other is an educational institution.
Both the hospital and the medresse are arranged according to the scheme which has four vaulted antechambers around an open court yard. The hospital is a rectangular shaped building whose outer dimensions are 41 m. x 32.30 m. One side of its rectangular courtyard is 12.50 m. and its three sides are defined by triple arched porticoes. The fourth portico which is at the front of the main antichamber (eyvan) is built with a single span. The vaulted antechambers are located behind the central arches with large spans. Rooms are placed on both sides of the main antechamber and these are arranged as a small room in the west and two inter-connecting rectangular rooms in the east. The portal does not coincide with the lengthwise axis of the building but is located on the axis of the portico at the west side of the courtyard. The medresse which is connected to the hospital with a barrel vaulted narrow passage is pushed back about a meter from the hospital, accentuating the existence of two buildings. If this small diffrence is ignored, it is possible to say that the depth of the hospital is equal to the depth of the medresse. However, it is narrower with its 27.50 m. width. Hence the courtyard is not a square, but a rectangle of 14.00 m. x 8.00 m. dimensions. Like the hospital, here also a portico defines the four sides of the court yard. At the long side of the rectangular court the portico is triple arched and the side antechambers (eyvans) are behind the middle span. The narrow side of the courtyard has a single arch at the north side, in front of the main antechamber and has two arches in the south. This has made it necessary to move the building at south from its axis and to place it behind the western arch. The main antechamber (eyvan) of the medresse is narrower than the main antechamber of the hospital and less deep (9.70 m. x 7.50 m.) and this antechamber also has two rooms on both sides, one larger and the other smaller.
The mousoleum (Türbe) which is located between the room at the north-west corner of the building and the eastern antechamber and whose upper and lower grave cellar and mesjid doors face the courtyard, is a typical Seljuk tomb with its octegonal exterior and its octagonal prismatic hat. The interior of the mesjid is cylindrical.

Eight niches are opened on its walls. One is rectangular shaped and the other are a semi-circlilar. The semi-circle niche at south east is the "mihrab" - the niche which indicates the direction of Mecca. The roof or "hat", which looks octagonal from the outside also rises octagonally on the inside. Thus, this mousoleum is an exception as the interiors of the hats are always domes in Anatolian Seljuk architecture. The portal of the mousoleum is on the axis of the western portico, like

the hospital, that is, it is on the left. Only the inscription on the portal of the hospital at the double building complex has managed to survive so far. From this inscription it is understood that the hospital was built according to the will of Gevher Nesibe Hatun, the sister of Giyaseddin Kerhüsrev the First and the daughter of Kılıç Aslan the IInd in 602 (Islamic calendar) (1205) The medical school adjacent to the hospital is known as the Gıyasiye Medresse and is assumed to be built by Gıyaseddin Keyhüsreev (1192 - 1196, 1204 - 1210) However, there is no definite documentation that shows that the medical school was built by him. It is not uncommon to have two adjacent buildings with different functions to be built by different people during the Seljuk era. Divriği Grand Mosque and the Orphange is such an example. However the opposite is also true, such as the Hadjı Kılıç Mosque and Medresse in Kayseri or Mahperi Huand Hatun Complex. Hence, it is possible that both buildings of the Çifte Medrese were built by the same person.
As a general rule, it is true that the patrons of the institutions occupy the mousoleums (türbe) which are located at Medresses and hospitals. For example son of I. Keyhüsrev, İ. İzzedddin Keykavus (1210 - 1219) is buried at the mousoleum of the Hospital he built in Sivas. There is indeed a mousoleum at this building known as Gıyasiye Medresse but we know that it does not belong to Gıyaseddin Keyhüsrev as this Sultan is buried at the tomb located in the Konya Alaaddin Mosque. This being the case, we can surmise that the tomb here belongs to Gevher Nesibe Hatun. This assumption brings forth a new question. Why is the tomb not located at the Hospital section which was built by Gevher Nesibe Hatun as its inscription states but in the medresse section? Here, we might find two answers. Either the hospital was originally the building where the tomb is located and the inscription was later taken from the portal of that building and moved to the portal of the building currently known as the Hospital or both buildings were built by the same person and the tomb of its patron was placed at a suitable point of the complex. We tend to belive that the later of these assumption is correct and Çifte Medresse as a whole was built according to the will of Gevher Nesibe Hatun and the mousoleum is occupied by the sultan.
Today Çifte Medresse is in the Sinan park and used as a Medical Museum under the Erciyes University
TELEFONLAR:
(0 352) 437 52 72
(0 352) 231 35 65

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