Thursday, 13 February 2025

Sahip Ata Foundation Museum


One of the most important architectural examples in Konya that revives the memories of the Anatolian Seljuk Period is the Sahip Ata complex. The complex consists of a mosque, hankah, tomb, bath, and shops. All of these are not built on a single plan, but rather on different plans at different times. The first of these structures, the mosque, has also taken the name Larende Mosque due to its location. It is located at the intersection of Karaman road and Meram road, opposite the Larende Gate of the old city wall in Larende neighborhood of Konya.

The architect of the complex, which was built in 1277 by Sahib Ata Fahreddin Ali, one of the viziers of the Anatolian Seljuk State, is Keluk B. Abdullah. The layout plan of the complex features a mosque in the north, a tomb built next to the mihrab wall of the mosque, the tomb containing the graves of Fahreddin Ali, his wife and children, a khanqah next to the south wall of the tomb, and a double bath just across the road. The mosque has a portal entrance from the north. The cells on the right and left sides of the entryway are stacked one on top of the other, while the ones below serve as sebils (public fountain). Basmale and Fatiha Surah are engraved on the borders surrounding the portal. The Regional Directorate of Foundations designed and established the Sâhib Ata Foundation Museum in the khanqah (dergah) of the complex.

The first building, the tile mosaic mihrab, the monumental portal, the wooden door wings exhibited in the museum today and the wooden window leaf of the window opening to the tomb as a result of the fires that broke out, except for the completely destroyed structure was built in the place of the mosque today. The mosque built after the fire was built with five sahins extending perpendicular to the mihrab wall and covered with a hipped roof, and the distance in the north-south direction was kept shorter than the previous structure. In the building where there are three wooden poles on each side, the wooden legs are connected to each other and to the walls by bursa arches thrown vertically to the mihrab. The original mihrab of the building, which was made in tile mosaic technique, is among the rarest examples of Seljuk tile workmanship.

Sahip Ata Tomb

It is located between the qibla wall of Sahip Ata Mosque and hankah on Larende Street in Sahip Ata Neighborhood, Meram district of Konya. Sahibi Ata lost his two sons in 675 H/ 1276 M. while he was alive. His two sons, one of the Seljuk emirs, died in the miserly incident. Their father built them a mausoleum in front of the mihrab of the mosque. Three years later, he built his hankah (M.1279) on the Qibla side of the tomb. But then he himself wants to be buried next to his beloved sons. The corpses of fathers and sons who cannot stay together in the world will thus lie under one roof. For this reason, he demolished the old tomb and built a larger and more magnificent family tomb in its place, where he opened a door to both the temple and the hankaha.

 Between 09:00-17:00 

You can visit for FREE.