In the middle of the thirteenth century the Anatolian Seljuk state, after the Battle of Köse Dağ, had fallen under Mongol tutelage and was caught between rivalry among its sultans and Ilkhanid pressure. In these years Amasya was both an important provincial centre inherited from the Danishmendid tradition and a city that Mongol noyans visited often and where the tax burden weighed heavily. Seyfeddin Torumtay, who held the city's administration for a long time, is one of the most remarkable Seljuk emirs of this turbulent period. Besides his military and political career, he is remembered for the endowments and buildings he left in Amasya: the endowment deed he had drawn up is the legal basis of a charitable order that embraces the mosque-madrasa known as Gökmedrese and the tomb adjoining it.

Torumtay's Identity and Name

The origin of Seyfeddin Torumtay is not known with certainty. The inscription on his tomb gives his father's name as Abdullah. Because this name was usually given in Anatolian Seljuk sources to people who had later become Muslims or had been raised in palace service, İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı argues that he was a gulam taken in and brought up under Alâeddin Keykubad I, a recruit of the devshirme type. İsmet Kayaoğlu, who wrote an article on Torumtay's endowment deed, likewise holds that he was raised in the Turkish-Islamic tradition after being taken captive. The Amasya historian Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin, by contrast, writes without citing any source that he came from the native population of Amasya. The first two views are considered weightier because they rest on the name in the inscription, but the matter has not been settled.

The spelling of the name is also disputed. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin notes that the name is written "Toruntay" on the gravestone and maintains that both forms can be considered correct. According to him the word "torun" means a youth, a sturdy lad, while "torum" is used for a spirited, unruly animal. The established form today is Torumtay. That the building is called "Torumtay Mosque" or "Seyfeddin Torumtay Mosque" after the founder of Gökmedrese also shows how widespread this spelling is.

State Service and the Governorship of Amasya

Torumtay entered the Seljuk court in the time of Alâeddin Keykubad and rose rapidly through the ranks of the state. Toward the end of the reign of Gıyâseddin Keyhüsrev II he was the commander of the fortress of Amasya, that is, its dizdar. Some sources place the post of dizdar in the last period of Gıyâseddin Keyhüsrev III; this is one of the date inconsistencies among the sources. It is also recorded that he served for a time as emir of Malatya. After these posts he was appointed governor of Amasya in the time of Gıyâseddin Keyhüsrev II, as the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi also states. For the beginning of the governorship some sources give 1243, after the Battle of Köse Dağ, and others 1249; as the end, 1277, when Abaka Khan occupied the Seljuk cities, and 1280, the year of his death, are given. Whichever date is taken, Torumtay is among the emirs who held Amasya in practice for a span approaching thirty years.

In the confused years after the death of Gıyâseddin Keyhüsrev II, Torumtay was taken prisoner in the contest for power between İzzeddin Keykâvus II and Rükneddin Kılıç Arslan IV, but he was pardoned in 1249. It is stated that besides the governorship of Amasya he also held the office of beylerbey. In 1254 he was a member of the Seljuk delegation sent to the Mongol ruler Möngke Khan. In 1258, the year Torumtay returned from Mongolia, Hülegü Khan divided the Seljuk land in two and gave the part east of the Kızılırmak, that is, the region that includes Amasya, to Rükneddin Kılıç Arslan IV. The sources record that after this date Torumtay preferred not to stand much in the public eye. At this time Amasya, though nominally belonging to İzzeddin Keykâvus II, was in practice under Torumtay's authority. While Keykâvus was in the city with the dignitaries of the state, he gave the nearby village of İl-Arslan for three hundred gold pieces to the interpreter Emir Esededdin Ali b. Yağıbasan.

When Torumtay took up his post, order in the city had largely broken down. The Mongols seized the highland pastures, drove out the holders of land grants and harmed the villages on various pretexts. His predecessor Seyfeddin Haydar, because he had sided with the grant holders, had been forced after a Mongol complaint to Baycu Noyan to leave Amasya and go to Elbistan. Torumtay, by contrast, established first of all an administration attentive to the people; the sources describe him as the greatest guarantee of the state's existence and stability against growing Mongol pressure. The general picture of the period was grim. Besides taxes, even the salaries paid to Mongol noyans and soldiers had become a serious burden on the Seljuk treasury. Zukay, the steward of Alıncak Noyan, tried to levy tax even on newborn children in Amasya, treated the children of families unable to pay as captives and sold them cheaply to Egyptian slave traders. In the same years Şâh Melik Bey, appointed by Muînüddin Süleyman Pervâne, withdrew to the fortress of Gedegra near Amasya and rebelled; he was besieged and handed over to the Mongols. Torumtay's founding of an endowment, and his securing it with a written document, took place in such an environment.

The Hatîroğlu Revolt and the Final Years

The most dangerous moment of Torumtay's political life came in the Hatîroğlu revolt of 1276. The leader of the revolt, Hatîroğlu Şerefeddin, had counted Torumtay among the anti-Mongol emirs and had sent Torumtay's son Sinâneddin Musa, together with his brother and other emirs, to Damascus to seek help from the Mamluk Sultan Baybars. The attempt ended in failure. The Mongol commander Kongurtay came to Anatolia and brought the situation under control, and Hatîroğlu was executed on the order of the Ilkhan Abaka. At the trial before Abaka, Torumtay said that he had joined the revolt under Hatîroğlu's compulsion and under threat of death, and he escaped the death sentence. In return he undertook to give 400,000 dirhams, 200 horses and gifts to the Mongol lords, and to maintain 1,000 Mongol soldiers through the winter. Sinâneddin Musa, together with Hatîroğlu's brother Ziyâeddin, had met Baybars and persuaded him to come to Anatolia. When events did not turn out as expected, Baybars arrested Sinâneddin Musa together with a few others.

The following year, in 1277, while Torumtay was in Kayseri, Kunduz Begzâde Celâleddin Mâh Âlem, chief of the Türkmen Güdürlü tribe around Havza, attacked Amasya, killed Torumtay's deputy İzzeddin Gül Bey and entered the city. Torumtay acted as soon as he heard the news and, defeating Mâh Âlem in a battle at Bozok, regained control of Amasya.

The date of his death is not the same in the sources. According to one view Torumtay died in 1280 and was buried in the tomb he had built for himself in 1278. Osman Turan and Oktay Aslanapa, however, record 1278, the year the tomb was built, as the date of death. After Torumtay's death the governorship of Amasya was given to his grandson Nâsıreddin Mehmed Bey, that is, the son of Sinâneddin Musa. Sinâneddin Musa, held prisoner in Egypt, returned to Amasya after his release, but he was ill and died soon afterward. Around 1280, when Orbay Hatun, the wife of İzzeddin Keykâvus II, came to Amasya by way of Samsun, Torumtay's wife Gürcü Hatun hosted her for about a month in her palace beside Gökmedrese. The name of the lady differs in the sources: Osman Turan gives the name Gürcü Hatun and regards her as a daughter of Gıyâseddin Keyhüsrev II, while Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin records her as Güray Hatun, daughter of Samuk Noyan.

The Endowment Deed and the History of Gökmedrese

The document that sustains Torumtay's pious works is the endowment deed he himself had drawn up. The deed bears the date 665 (1266-67), and a copy of it is held in the General Directorate of Foundations Archive. The document also provides the only reliable dating criterion for Gökmedrese. The mosque has no construction inscription; the inscription, removed from its place, has not been found. The building shows only a repair inscription dated 1316 (1898-99) and, on the door frame, a phrase resembling a craftsman's name. For this reason the date of the mosque is deduced from the deed, and the construction is accepted as completed within the year 665 at the latest. Some publications simply date the building to 1267.

In the deed the building is called "Gökmedrese" and in its time was used as both madrasa and mosque. This double function is a typical example of the Seljuk complex concept: worship and learning were gathered under one roof, and the tomb adjoining it on the northeast completed the building with a place of commemoration. The text of the deed was studied in İsmet Kayaoğlu's article "Turumtay Vakfiyesi", published in issue 12 of Vakıflar Dergisi (1978); the copy and this article are the basic sources for those wishing to investigate the revenues and personnel endowed to the foundation. A list of the properties endowed is not given here, because the sources report only the date of the deed, the name of the building and its function.

Gökmedrese stands today in the centre of Amasya. It takes its name from the use of its entrance section as a madrasa and from the glazed bricks and tiles that decorate the octagonal drum of the neighbouring tomb. The colours are described differently in the sources: the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi speaks of purple and turquoise tiles and glazed brick, while later compilations stress the blue glazed brick of the drum and a zigzag motif made of single-colour dark green tiles. It is also a frequently repeated interpretation that the people named the building after this decoration, which recalls the colour of the sky, and that the name "Gökmedrese" (Sky Madrasa) is therefore tied to the blue glazed drum.

The building is built entirely of cut stone. Its closed, thick and massive walls, and a facade framed on either side by a cylindrical corner tower, carry all the characteristic features of Seljuk architecture. Rising on bevelled cubic bases, the corner towers give the building a monumental look. The main door, reached by a flight of seven steps, is set inside a pointed-vaulted iwan; the borders surrounding the iwan arch and the windows carry low-relief geometric ornament, the colonnettes carry goose-foot motifs, and the broad border around the windows shows the typical Seljuk interlace of eight-pointed stars. Few mosques in Anatolia have an iwan-shaped portal, and Gökmedrese is regarded as one of these rare examples; its architecture, ornament and mature proportions are the basis of that assessment. The interior is divided into three aisles by two rows of four piers each, and has no notable decoration. The door leaves of Gökmedrese in kündekâri technique, kept today in the Amasya Museum, are counted among the fine examples of Seljuk woodwork. The palace where Torumtay's wife hosted Orbay Hatun also stood beside Gökmedrese; this palace has not survived.

What is noteworthy from the standpoint of the endowment is that mosque, madrasa and tomb are joined in a single closed complex. This union turns the building from a mere place of worship into an arrangement that gathers learning, prayer and commemoration under one roof.

The lower floor of the tomb was planned as a mummy chamber. Six mummies belonging to Pervâne İzzeddin Mehmed and to Mongol emirs and their relatives, brought from the tomb beside the Fethiye Mosque and the Burmalı Minare Mosque, were first placed here and later transferred to the Amasya Museum.

The Tomb of Torumtay

The Tomb of Torumtay, which according to the sources stands right opposite Gökmedrese, was built, according to its inscription, in the year 677 of the Hijra (1278-79). The inscription above the window on the south facade, worked in thuluth script and perfectly legible, mentions the name of Sultan Gıyâseddin Keyhüsrev III and states that the building was made by Torumtay son of Abdullah, "the weak servant in need of God's mercy". The inscription thus carries to the present the date of construction as well as the name of its founder and his father's name. Uzunçarşılı describes the tomb as a "solid and magnificent" structure.

The plan and ornament of the tomb differ from other Seljuk tombs. The rectangular, vaulted building has two storeys; it is built mainly of cut stone, and the rubble-stone interior walls and brick vault are hidden beneath a layer of plaster. Whereas in Seljuk tombs decoration is mostly gathered around doors and windows, here it is concentrated in the upper parts of the building. Some descriptions also record that the tomb is of brick and carries a zigzag decoration in dark green tile. In the two upper corners of the south facade there are high-relief lotus and palmette leaf motifs. In the pediment of the marble niche on the facade is a four-line construction inscription, and above the arch of the niche there are verses from the Qur'an. In the lower part of the corner piers and in the east and west windows the decoration appears unfinished; researchers interpret this as meaning that Torumtay may have fallen into financial difficulty as the tomb neared completion. The corner towers on the front facade, cubic at the bottom, multifaceted as they rise and half-round at the top, are notable for being found in Anatolia only in this tomb.

The burial chamber on the lower floor, largely buried in the ground, is reached through the doors on the east or west facade by a stepped entrance. Here are Torumtay's sarcophagus, made of black marble with the Ayat al-Kursi written around it and bearing Qur'anic verses in celi script, and sarcophagi thought to belong to his children and grandchildren. According to the Kültür Portalı and the tourism encyclopedia entry, to Torumtay's left are the sarcophagi of his son Yakup Çelebi, his grandson Alâeddin Çelebi and his grandson's son Ebû Bekir Çelebi; to his right that of Kılıç Arslan-i Selçuki, remembered as emir of Sivas; and at his feet those of Tâceddin and Gıyâseddin Çelebi. According to another description there are in the tomb, besides the large sarcophagus, six large, one medium-sized and two small graves. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi states that it is not known who lies in the tomb and counts seven sarcophagi in the visiting chamber, two of them small. The differences between these descriptions may arise from the fact that the identities of the sarcophagi rest largely on local tradition and later research.

Repairs and Present Condition

Above the window on the south facade of the tomb there is a repair inscription in verse showing that the building was repaired in 1891-1892, in the time of Abdülhamid II. The repair inscription of 1316 (1898-99) at Gökmedrese documents that the complex was also renewed at the end of the nineteenth century. The present asymmetry of the domes and vaults, and the fact that some domes have lost their roundness and taken on an elliptical look, result from later repairs. The conical roof of the tomb is in ruins today, and the building has been in a restoration process since 2019.

Chronology

1243: Reported as the year Torumtay began to administer Amasya after the Battle of Köse Dağ; some sources give 1249 as the start of the governorship.

1249: Torumtay, taken prisoner in the power struggle between İzzeddin Keykâvus II and Rükneddin Kılıç Arslan IV, is pardoned.

1254: He takes part in the Seljuk delegation sent to Möngke Khan.

1258: Hülegü Khan divides the Seljuk land in two; the eastern part, including Amasya, is given to Rükneddin Kılıç Arslan IV.

665 (1266-67): Torumtay's endowment deed is drawn up; Gökmedrese was completed by this year at the latest.

1276: The Hatîroğlu revolt; Torumtay escapes punishment by paying the Mongols a heavy indemnity.

1277: Mâh Âlem's raid on Amasya; Torumtay defeats him at Bozok.

677 (1278-79): Date of construction of the Tomb of Torumtay; this year or 1280 is also given as the date of death.

1891-1892: Repair of the tomb in the time of Abdülhamid II.

1316 (1898-99): Date of the repair inscription at Gökmedrese.

2019: Start of the tomb's restoration process.

Sources

Primary sources

  • İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı, Kitâbeler, Istanbul 1927; Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar, Amasya Tarihi. amasya.edu.tr

Academic studies

Official sources

Other sources

Online sources