In Amasya, the tomb is one of the longest-lived building types in the city's architectural history. Examples from the Danishmendid and Seljuk eras through to the last century of the Ottoman Empire are scattered along the Yeşilırmak valley; some stand in the old quarters below the citadel, some on the slope of Pirler Park, some beside a mosque or a madrasa. Each covers the grave of a statesman, a scholar, a dervish leader or an exiled lodge head, and each also documents the stonework of its period. What follows describes the principal tombs of the city, who lies in them and when the buildings were made, as far as the sources allow, and it notes the points on which they disagree.

The Tradition of Tombs in Amasya

Amasya has been an important city since the first centuries in which Anatolia became a Turkish homeland. The Danishmendids, then the Anatolian Seljuks, the Ilkhanids, the Eretnids and the era of Şadgeldi Pasha, and finally the Ottomans ruled it in turn, and each buried its dead in the city's cemeteries. In the early sixteenth century the city is recorded as having nine mosques, ten madrasas, four lodges, six soup kitchens and fifteen baths; most of the surviving Seljuk works lie on the southern bank of the river. Among the tombs standing today, those of Halifet Gazi, Torumtay, Şadgeldi Pasha, the Kadılar and Sultan Mesud represent the Seljuk and beylik periods, while the tombs of Pirler, Hamdullah Efendi and Şirvanlı İsmail represent the Ottoman centuries.

In Anatolia a tomb is not thought of merely as a burial structure. It kept the memory of the deceased alive, was often supported by an endowment and drew visitors; when built next to a madrasa, a mosque or a lodge it became part of a complex. In Amasya this association is easy to see: the tomb of Halifet Gazi stands with its madrasa, the Cumudar Tomb with the Burmalı Minare Mosque, and the Torumtay Tomb with the Gökmedrese, each in the same quarter and facing one another.

The Halifet Gazi Madrasa and Tomb

The name that people commonly pronounce Hilfet Gazi is in fact Halîfet Gazi. The complex stands today in the Şamice quarter, on Torumtay Street. Halifet Gazi was a Danishmendid emir; when the principality came to an end he entered Seljuk service. When Izzeddin Keykavus I took Sinop in 1215 he appointed him commander of the Black Sea coastal defence, and under Alaeddin Keykubad I he became governor of Amasya in 1222. He took part in Keykubad's campaign against the Mengujekids, was made governor of Erzurum after the victory, and in 1232 fell as a martyr in a campaign against the Georgians and was buried in his tomb at Amasya. A medical book was translated from Persian into Turkish in his name (Hekim Bereket, Lübâbü'n-nühab), and a work on the sports practised in Anatolia is also said to have been written in the early thirteenth century.

The inscription of the madrasa shows that it was built in 606 (1209-10), and the foundation deed that its founder Halifet Gazi drew up for it in 622 (1225) has also survived. The building, whose south wall and eastern section are partly standing, was damaged by the earthquake of 1647, and the müderris Hasan Efendi rebuilt the fallen parts in timber. In 1888 the müfti of Amasya, Hacı Osman Hilmi Efendi, had the structure thoroughly repaired. In the south section of the madrasa, built of stone and brick, the springing of an arch can be seen resting on a pier of stone below and brick above; old photographs show a round double arch resting on three piers. The rubble fill of the wall adjoining the tomb on the east largely survives and shows that reused material was employed in the construction. The Danişmendname describes the building as a church converted into a madrasa; Albert-Louis Gabriel shares this view, while Metin Sözen suggests that the arched section may have been the facade of an earlier Byzantine building. Tanju Cantay draws attention to a second storey above the vaulted space extending toward the tomb, which made the madrasa a two-storey building.

The tomb adjoining the madrasa on the east has a square base, an octagonal body and a pyramidal cap; it has two storeys. According to Oluş Arık the lower floor, which is very ruinous and cannot be entered today, gives the impression of an oval space covered by a shallow vault carried on a large rectangular pier in the middle. Cantay argues that a mummified body lies in the sarcophagus, which is in fact a Roman one, so that a separate burial chamber in the tomb would be unnecessary, and that this is explained by a vaulted memorium or burial chapel belonging to a church. The upper floor, whose stairs have collapsed, is entered through a shallow-arched door on the south axis. Above the stepped pointed portal niche with three rows of muqarnas in the hood there is a pair of arched windows. The octagonal body is covered inside by a shallow dome resting directly on the walls.

In the middle of the interior stands a marble sarcophagus laid east to west. Decorated with erotes resting on garlands joined at the corners by rams' heads and with winged Medusas, bearing the figure of a sleeping woman in a heavily folded dress, and with an acroterion at each corner of the lid, it is a Roman sarcophagus of a woman. This marble, which lies over the grave of Halifet Gazi, is a concrete example of the Seljuk reuse of ancient material in the city. The frames of the east and south windows are decorated with dentil rows, stars, rumi and palmettes, and also with inscriptions and rosettes; the portal shows interlace, zigzags, hexagonal interlocking, six- and eight-pointed stars and half stars, curling branches, rumi and palmette motifs.

The prevailing view dates the tomb to the first quarter of the thirteenth century. The entry in the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam, however, notes that this view may be questioned: given the relation of the tomb to the madrasa, the fact that the door is buried under the rubble fill of the madrasa, and the material and technique of both buildings, the tomb may be contemporary with the madrasa or older. Doğan Kuban considers that the building dates from the mid-twelfth century, and Gabriel and Oktay Aslanapa that it may have been built in 540 (1145-46). So the original construction date of a tomb associated by name with a thirteenth-century governor is disputed, and since it has no inscription no exact year can be given.

The Torumtay Tomb and the Gökmedrese

A few steps from the Halifet Gazi Tomb, directly opposite the Gökmedrese, rises the Torumtay Tomb. Bearing the name of the governor of Amasya Seyfeddin Torumtay, it was built in 1278 after Torumtay's death. Not only the governor but also his children and grandchildren lie in it. The Gökmedrese Mosque, which Torumtay had built earlier, in 1266-1267, is a closed complex with a madrasa and a burial chamber; it is believed to have taken its name from the blue-glazed bricks on the octagonal drum of the tomb. With its cut stone alone, the maturity of its proportions and its ornament, it is counted among the few Anatolian mosques with an iwan-shaped portal.

The Torumtay Tomb differs from other Seljuk tombs in both plan and decoration. The rectangular, vaulted building has two storeys. The outer surface is mostly of cut stone; the inner wall of rubble stone and the brick vault lie hidden under plaster. Stairs and the buttresses supporting the walls form projections on the body. Whereas in Seljuk tombs ornament is usually gathered around doors and windows, here it is in the upper parts of the building. In the upper right and left corners of the south facade, the front, there are high reliefs, and it is thought that the decorative programme was never completed. On the same facade a decorated window sits in a marble niche; contrary to custom, the pediment of the niche is left plain and bears a four-line construction inscription, while the inscription on the arch of the niche has Qur'anic verses. The verse repair inscription above the south window shows that the building was repaired in 1891-1892. Among the sarcophagi in the burial chamber on the lower floor, the one belonging to Torumtay bears Qur'anic verses written in celi script. The restoration of the tomb and the Gökmedrese Mosque is being carried out by the General Directorate of Foundations.

The Kadılar and Şadgeldi Pasha Tombs

The area around the Halifet Gazi Tomb is something like a quarter of tombs. The Kadılar Tomb stands in the Gökmedrese quarter, across Torumtay Street, facing the Halifet Gazi Tomb; to its west is the Halifet Gazi Cemetery and to its south the Şadgeldi Pasha Tomb. The Kadılar Fountain, adjoining it on the northeast, belongs to the same group. The founder and date of the rectangular, iwan-fronted and vaulted tomb are not known with certainty because it has no inscription. Taking the earliest dates on the sarcophagi as a basis, it is said to have been built between 1369 and 1375; that a family of Amasya qadis lies in it can be inferred from the name İmad found on one of the sarcophagi and from the fact that the founder of the neighbouring fountain was Mehmed bin İmad. The historian of Amasya, Hüseyin Hüsameddin, reports that the graves belong to the qadi Pir Nizameddin Mahmud, the qadi Pir Şemseddin Mehmed, Şemseddin Mehmed, qadi of Kedağra (Vezirköprü), and İzzeddin Mehmed Çelebi, qadi of Konya; İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı writes that the tomb contains seven marble sarcophagi belonging to the qadi family. The Kadılar Tomb is one of two iwan tombs in Amasya and reflects the plain, non-monumental approach to tombs of the last quarter of the fourteenth century. It was restored by the General Directorate of Foundations in 2007.

The Şadgeldi Pasha Tomb stands opposite the Halifet Gazi Tomb, southwest of the Kadılar Tomb, and closely resembles it. It is a fourteenth-century iwan tomb with cut-stone walls, a rectangular plan and a vault. Hacı Şadgeldi Pasha, whose name it bears, became emir of Amasya in 1362 under the Eretnid principality and later founded an independent principality. Thus, in a small area, the tombs of a Seljuk governor, an emir of the beylik period and a family of qadis stand side by side.

The Burmalı Minare Mosque, the Cumudar Tomb and the Mummies

The arch-shaped inscription over the door of the Burmalı Minare Mosque, which stands behind the Coppersmiths' Bazaar, states that the mosque was built by two brothers. Of these, Said Ferruh is accepted to be Necmeddin Ferruh Bey, one of the viziers of Gıyaseddin Keyhüsrev II; his brother was Haznedar Yusuf. The Directorate of Culture and Tourism gives the date of construction as 1242 according to the inscription, while the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam cites a range of 1237-1247 for the mosque and adds that the date of construction is not known with certainty. The minaret was originally of wood; it was damaged in the earthquake of 1590 and the fire of 1602, and was destroyed completely in the fire of 1730. In its place a stone minaret was built to suit the sturdy stone structure of the mosque, and because of the grooves winding round it the mosque has been known since then as Burmalı Minare, the Twisted Minaret. Evliya Çelebi mentions the mosque in his Seyahatname under the name Mahkeme Camii, the Court Mosque.

At the left corner of the entrance facade, built against the mosque, is a cut-stone tomb on a square base with an octagonal plan. A pyramidal roof rises above two rows of hedgehog eaves. The tomb is said to hold the building overseer Ferruh Bey and his son Yusuf Bey. Until recently its upper floor was used as a library, and the mummies now in the Amasya Museum were kept on its lower floor. Because the mummy of Şehzade Cumudar, who served as Anatolian administrator at Amasya during Ilkhanid rule in Anatolia, was kept here, the people called the tomb the Cumudar Tomb. The list of the Amasya Governorate makes the tomb appear to have been built in 1242 for Cumudar; the account of the Directorate of Culture and Tourism, however, states plainly that the tomb in fact belongs to Ferruh Bey and his son, and that the name Cumudar comes from the keeping of the mummy here. Since Ilkhanid rule began after the Battle of Kösedağ (1243), no tomb can have been built in 1242 for an Ilkhanid administrator; this date should be read as belonging to the mosque and to the first owners of the building.

The Mummies and the Sultan Mesud Tomb

The Sultan Mesud Tomb in the garden of the Amasya Museum is a rectangular, iwan-type Seljuk tomb known to date from the twelfth century. Its north-facing front facade is of cut stone, the other parts of rubble stone; it is closed by a barrel vault. The lower-floor mummy chamber is entered from the west side. The tomb was formerly used as the Mummies Museum and now houses mummies of the Ilkhanid period, of the fourteenth century. The mummies belong to the Anatolian administrator Şehzade Cumudar, the emir of Amasya İşbuğa Noyan, İzzeddin Mehmed Pervane Bey, his wife and his children; they were brought from the tombs of the Burmalı Minare Mosque and the Fethiye Mosque. Museum officials give the number as eight persons (four of them children), while another account drawn from the museum's records speaks of six mummies; the reason for this difference in number is not explained in the sources. The mummies are also noted as the first Muslim Turkish mummies preserved without removal of the internal organs.

The Tomb of Pirler

The district of Pirler has a place of its own in the spiritual life of Amasya. The Pir Sücaeddin İlyas Tomb, in Pirler Park south of the Çilehane Mosque, is also known among the people as the Upper Pirler Tomb. Beside Pir İlyas, the tomb holds the graves of his son-in-law Pir Celaleddin Abdurrahman, his grandson Pir Hayreddin Hızır Çelebi and their families; the place is called Pirler, the Pirs, because three pirs lie here. Pir İlyas, who played a part in the spread of the Halveti order in Anatolia, was the müfti of Amasya; the account of the examination he held with Timur's delegation to Amasya, his being sent to Shirvan and his becoming there a disciple of Sadreddin Hayyâvî form the unchanging core of the local narrative. Details of his life and of his date of death (given in the sources as 1410, 1429 and 1433-34) are treated in the separate biography on this site.

There are two accounts of when the tomb was built. The Amasya Governorate and the Directorate of Culture and Tourism write that it was built in 1486 by Gümüşlüzâde Ahmed Bey. A local text compiled in Amasya, on the other hand, says that the inscription above the door gives the year 887 (1482-83), that the building was built by Bayezid II, and that the revenue of the village of Kara Mağara in Merzifon was endowed to the tomb. The text of the inscription as reported says that the deceased is "Sheikh Şücaeddin Pir İlyas, known as Gümüşlüoğlu". The difference between the two accounts has not been resolved. The building was renewed in 1688 by Gümüşlüzâde İbrahim Pasha, collapsed in the earthquake of 1895, and was later rebuilt to reach its present form. Above the entrance door there are the original construction inscription of the tomb and a repair inscription of the reign of Abdülhamid II.

The interior of the tomb, which has a transverse rectangular plan, is divided into three bays by two pointed arches resting on the buttresses of the north and south walls, and each bay is covered with a dome. The western bay has a mihrab set in the qibla wall and is used as a prayer room. The building is of well-cut stone and its facades are lit by round-arched windows. When Evliya Çelebi came to Amasya he visited the sheikh's grave, wrote that he had hundreds of bareheaded and barefoot lovers, that is, dervishes, and that because his endowments were many there was plenty for those who came and went, and he also recorded the couplets written on a sheet of paper on the wall of the grave. At the site of the tomb there was once a cemetery with the graves of many important figures; according to local researchers the graves were removed in 1938 by the governor of the time, Talat İncel, and the area turned into a park.

The Hamdullah Efendi Tomb

The Hamdullah Efendi Tomb at the southwest end of Pirler Park was built in 1847. In the square, single-domed building the transition to the dome is by squinches, and the dome is covered with grooved tiles. The walls are of rubble stone, the facade is plastered, and the door and window jambs are of regular cut stone. The construction inscription of the tomb, built along a north-south axis, is above the entrance door; the five-line inscription is written in ta'liq script and bears the date 1263 (1847). Inside, the walls and the dome are decorated so that no empty space remains.

A misunderstanding about the owner of the tomb is common. One official publicity text identifies the name with the calligrapher regarded as the founder of the Ottoman school of calligraphy. That calligrapher, however, is Sheikh Hamdullah, who was trained at the princely court of Amasya and died in 1520. The tomb at Pirler belongs instead to Hamdullah Çelebi, the twenty-third postnişin of the Hacı Bektaş Veli Lodge. Hamdullah Çelebi had become postnişin in 1824 on the death of Feyzullah Çelebi. After Mahmud II abolished the Janissary Corps, Bektashism was banned in 1826; many lodges were demolished or closed, and some babas were executed or sent into exile. Hamdullah Çelebi was first tried at Kırşehir and, when the death sentence was dropped, was exiled to Amasya (the exile decree is cited as of 1827); his link with the central lodge was cut and the revenues of its endowments were seized. The Naqshbandi sheikh Mehmed Said Efendi was appointed in his place.

During the years of exile he is said to have held religious conversations among the people of Amasya and to have written poems. The poet, who until then had used the pen name "Hamdullah", adopted after the exile the name "Hasretî", expressing his longing for his homeland and his lodge. About seven years later he wrote in a petition that he had been exiled because of slander, and stated that he had fallen into poverty because he could not draw on the revenues of the endowments. He was pardoned in 1840 and allowed to go to Hacıbektaş, but did not return to Kırşehir and stayed in Amasya. In Alevi-Bektashi tradition his death is given as 1836; but since an archival document of 1840 shows that this year cannot be right, researchers accept 1846. He was buried at the Pirler locality, and in 1847 the Alevis of Amasya had a tomb built over his grave. According to popular tradition Hamdullah Çelebi had said, "When I die, build my tomb; if you do not, a flood will take Amasya"; when the governor and the people took no notice, a great flood came and the tomb was built afterward. Today the tomb is visited by both Alevis and Sunnis.

The Şirvanlı İsmail Tomb

The Şirvanlı İsmail Tomb, which stands on a wide terrace on sloping ground in the Şamlar quarter, was built in 1870 by the Ottoman grand vizier Şirvanizade Mehmed Rüştü Pasha for his father (one source gives the date 1869). The tomb also holds Rüştü Pasha's brother, the qadi of Istanbul Seyyid Ahmed Hulusi Siraceddin. Built of brick and stone, the tomb consists of two square domed spaces; the western one is larger than the eastern. Cut stone is used at the corners and there are birdhouses on the octagonal drum of the dome. Rubble stone and brick are used together in the walls, and round stone-arched windows light the interior. From the wooden viewing porches on the east side of the wall surrounding the garden the city can be seen; the two-storey mansion north of the tomb and the octagonal timber structure adjoining it are today used as a Qur'an course.

İsmail Siraceddin, who lies there, was born in the village of Kürdemir in the Shirvan Khanate and was a scholar and sheikh who was influential in spreading the Naqshbandi-Khalidi order in the Caucasus; his son is therefore known by the name Şirvanizade. After the cession of Akhaltsikhe to Russia following the war of 1828-1829 he migrated to Amasya, lived for a time in Sivas, returned to Amasya in 1841, and died in the plague in 1848 and was buried in the cemetery at Şamlar. His son Mehmed Rüştü Pasha began his education in Amasya, moved to Istanbul in 1850 and served as minister of Evkaf, Finance and the Interior. The grand vizier Mahmud Nedim Pasha dismissed him and exiled him to Amasya; he was pardoned when Midhat Pasha became grand vizier. Rüştü Pasha was grand vizier from 15 April 1873 to 15 February 1874, about ten months; he then went as governor of the Hejaz and died of malignant fever at Taif on 23 September 1874 and was buried there. This structure, which he built over his father's grave, is the mark left in the city by a family that rose from Amasya to the highest level in Istanbul.

Princely Graves in the City of Princes

Given the role Amasya played as a princely sanjak, it is natural to look for a Şehzadeler Tomb in the city. Yet the list of tombs of the Amasya Governorate contains no building with this name; the memory of the princes is kept in the city less through tombs than through the museum, the palace and the complexes. Most of the princes who were raised in Amasya and served as governors were buried elsewhere. Şehzade Ahmed, for example, a son of Bayezid II, was governor of Amasya, died at Bursa in 1513 and lies in the tomb in the Muradiye Complex; his mother Bülbül Hatun is buried there too. On the other hand, Şehzade Osman, whom Selim I had killed at Amasya (1513), is recorded as buried in the Sultan Bayezid Mosque in the city. That the memory of the princes lives on in Amasya in forms other than tombs is a separate subject about the city and is told in the article on this site about the City of Princes.

The Social Meaning of the Tomb

In Ottoman culture a tomb was not regarded merely as a grave; besides being a monument that kept the memory of the dead alive, it was a place of visit and prayer for the living. People visited tombs, made wishes and expected peace from the spiritual presence of the person buried there. For this reason tombs were bound up with the daily life of the city: around the tombs of Pirler there were lodges and soup kitchens, the madrasa of Halifet Gazi was kept alive by an endowment, and the tomb of Hamdullah Efendi is still visited today by Alevis and Sunnis together. The architecture of the buildings also reflects this social role: the Seljuk iwan tombs become plainer at Kadılar and Şadgeldi, in the Ottoman period domed buildings joined to a prayer room such as Pirler come to the fore, and in the nineteenth century a square, domed layout continues in the Hamdullah Efendi and Şirvanlı İsmail tombs.

Chronology

1145-46: Possible date of construction of the Halifet Gazi Tomb according to Gabriel and Aslanapa (disputed).

1209-10 (606): Date of construction of the Halifet Gazi Madrasa according to its inscription.

1222: Halifet Gazi appointed governor of Amasya.

1225 (622): Foundation deed of the Halifet Gazi Madrasa.

1232: Halifet Gazi falls as a martyr in the campaign against the Georgians.

1237-1247 (1242 according to the inscription): Construction of the Burmalı Minare Mosque and the adjoining tomb.

1266-1267: Construction of the Gökmedrese Mosque.

1278: Construction of the Torumtay Tomb.

1369-1375: Estimated date of construction of the Kadılar Tomb.

1482 or 1486: Construction of the Pir Sücaeddin İlyas Tomb (two different dates in the sources).

1647: Repair of the Halifet Gazi Madrasa after the earthquake.

1688: Renewal of the Pirler Tomb by Gümüşlüzâde İbrahim Pasha.

1730: The Burmalı Minare is destroyed by fire and rebuilt in stone.

1826-1827: Bektashism is banned and Hamdullah Çelebi is exiled to Amasya.

1847: Construction of the Hamdullah Efendi Tomb.

1870: Construction of the Şirvanlı İsmail Tomb.

1888: Repair of the Halifet Gazi Madrasa by the müfti Hacı Osman Hilmi Efendi.

1891-1892: Repair of the Torumtay Tomb.

1895: The Pirler Tomb collapses in the earthquake.

Bibliography

Official sources

  • T.C. Amasya Valiliği, "Türbeler" (tombs of Halifet Gazi, Cumudar, Torumtay, Hamdullah Efendi, Pir Sücaeddin İlyas and Şirvanlı İsmail). amasya.gov.tr
  • Kültür Portalı, Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism: Torumtay Türbesi, Burmalı Minare Camii ve Cumudar Türbesi, Pir Sücaeddin İlyas Türbesi, Hamdullah Efendi Türbesi, Şirvanlı İsmail Türbesi, Şadgeldi Türbesi, Sultan Mesut Türbesi. kulturportali.gov.tr

Books

  • Fahri Maden, Bektaşî Tekkelerinin Kapatılması (1826) ve Bektaşîliğin Yasaklı Yılları, Ankara: TTK, 2013 (via the Yolpedia article "Bektaşi Tekkelerinin Kapatılması ve Hamdullah Efendi"). yolpedia.eu

Other sources

  • Aynur Durukan, "Hilfet Gazi Medresesi ve Türbesi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 18, Istanbul 1998, pp. 30-31. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Selim Özcan, "Kadılar Türbesi", Online Türkiye Turizm Ansiklopedisi, 2019. turkiyeturizmansiklopedisi.com
  • "Amasya", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Entries on the Amasya Archaeology and Mummy Museum, Burmalı Minare Camii, Şirvanizade Mehmed Rüşdi Paşa and İsmail Siraceddin Şirvani (Wikipedia).