Seljuk
The Karatay Madrasa
A Seljuk college of the starry dome at Konya, c. 1252 CE
c. 650 AH / 1252 CE
Educational historical reconstructionWhere
Konya, in central Anatolia
37.8746, 32.4932 · View on OpenStreetMap
Background
The Karatay madrasa at Konya, the capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in central Anatolia, was built about 1251-1252 by Jalal al-Din Karatay, a powerful and pious statesman who served the Seljuk sultans as vizier. It is a college of religious learning, a madrasa, of the closed and domed type, with cells and chambers for its students around a central hall; but it is famous above all for the dazzling tilework of that hall. The great dome and its drum are sheathed entirely in glazed tiles of turquoise, deep blue and black, worked in intricate geometric and star patterns, with bands of angular kufic script bearing the names of God, of the Prophet and the rightly-guided caliphs, and verses of the Qur'an; at the crown of the dome an interlocking pattern of stars seems to wheel like the heavens, and a small pool set in the floor beneath catches and doubles its image, as though the sky were mirrored in still water. It is reckoned among the supreme achievements of Anatolian Seljuk art, an architecture in which the building itself becomes a meditation on the order and beauty of creation. The madrasa trained students of the religious sciences, and its founder was buried within it. It survives today as a museum of Seljuk tile art. This scene depicts the domed hall of the Karatay madrasa. In keeping with the project's ethics any figure is anonymous and at a distance.
What you see
A college of cut stone with a tall, deeply-carved doorway of interlaced bands opens into a single domed hall; within, the great dome and its drum are sheathed entirely in glazed tile, turquoise and dark blue and black, in patterns of dazzling geometry.
Below the dome a band of tile carries the names of God and of the Prophet and his companions and lines of the Qur'an in angular kufic script, and at the dome's crown a pattern of interlocking stars seems to turn like the night sky; a pool of water in the floor doubles the dome in its surface.
This is the Karatay madrasa, a college of religious learning built at Konya by a great minister of the Seljuk sultans of Rum, famed above all for the tilework of its starry dome, among the masterpieces of Anatolian Seljuk art.
The city stands on the high central plain of Anatolia, the capital of the Seljuk sultanate of Rum, a place of madrasas, mosques and the tombs of saints and sultans.
Around the domed hall lie the cells and chambers of the college, where students of the law and the religious sciences lodged and studied; the building is a place of learning as well as a marvel of art.
The Karatay madrasa at Konya is an extant Seljuk monument, now a museum of tilework. The scene depicts its domed hall; no individual is shown by likeness.
Further reading & cross-references
The Karatay madrasa at Konya (extant building and inscriptions): The primary monument. Used for the architecture, the tiled dome, the inscriptions and the pool. Confidence high.
Histories of Anatolian Seljuk architecture and tilework: Used for the building's place among the masterpieces of Seljuk art and the technique of its tilework. Confidence high.
Accounts of Jalal al-Din Karatay and the Seljuk court of Rum: Used for the founder, his service as vizier and his endowment of the madrasa. Confidence high.
Studies of the madrasa as an institution of learning: Used for the college's function and the students of the religious sciences as context. Confidence high.
Guess places like this in GeoSiyer
Drop into a 360° scene from Islamic history and pin where — and when — it happened.
Play GeoSiyer