Seljuk Architecture and Building

Seljuk patrons enlarged congregational mosques, endowed colleges and built accommodation along major roads. In Iran, builders used baked brick to make large domed chambers and to cover their surfaces with intricate patterns. In thirteenth-century Anatolia, monumental stone portals often announced buildings whose inner walls and roofs combined rubble masonry, brick and timber. These regional choices affected the spans builders could cover, the decoration they could cut and the maintenance a foundation required.

The eastern building tradition developed under the Great Seljuks in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The sultans and officials of Rum supported another major period of construction in Anatolia, especially during the thirteenth century. Building continued there after the Mongol victory of 1243, when Seljuk rulers and their ministers operated under Mongol supremacy.

On this page6 sections

Brick walls, domes and structural transitions

Baked brick could be laid in repeated courses, turned into arches or arranged as ornament. In Iranian buildings, the same material therefore formed both the structure and much of its visible surface. Recessed joints, projecting courses and differently oriented bricks produced geometric patterns without requiring a separate stone facing. Plaster and glazed elements added further finishes.

A masonry dome places considerable weight on its supports. When the room beneath it is square, the corners must be bridged to receive the rounded structure above. A squinch spans a corner with an arch or a small vault, creating an intermediate polygon. Further transitions can carry this polygon upward toward the dome. The resulting tiers were opportunities for decoration as well as structural work.

The surviving Seljuk domed chambers at the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan show how builders coordinated brick piers, corner transitions and domes. The southern chamber was sponsored by Nizam al-Mulk; the smaller northern chamber by Taj al-Mulk. Their proportions and patterned masonry differ, although both belong to the late-eleventh-century transformation of an existing mosque. Much of the complex’s colourful tilework belongs to later rebuilding.

Muqarnas, an arrangement of small niche-like units in tiers, could articulate a transition or decorate a vault, portal or cornice. Its appearance does not identify a single structural method: stone, brick and plaster examples could play different roles within the surrounding construction.

Courtyards and the four-iwan mosque

An iwan is a vaulted hall open along one side. Placing iwans around a courtyard produced a strong visual and practical organisation: the open court distributed movement, while the halls offered sheltered spaces opening onto it. In a four-iwan plan, one hall faces each side of the court. The principal prayer side could be emphasised by a deeper iwan and a domed chamber beyond.

At Isfahan, this arrangement emerged through successive alterations to an earlier columned mosque. It provided an influential model for later Iranian congregational mosques. Worshippers could gather in roofed halls or in the courtyard, while surrounding bays accommodated additional prayer space. Minarets, entrance passages and nearby markets connected the mosque with the surrounding city.

Anatolian mosques used several plans. Some employed masonry vaults and domes; others covered a broad prayer hall with a timber roof on wooden columns. The wooden-column mosques of late-thirteenth-century Anatolia demonstrate that monumental religious construction did not require a large central masonry dome. Mihrabs marked the direction of Mecca, while minbars provided raised pulpits for the Friday sermon.

Stone portals and the spaces of a madrasa

Anatolian masons concentrated elaborate carving at entrances. A projecting portal could combine an inscription with interlaced geometry, vegetal carving and a muqarnas canopy. The rest of the exterior might be comparatively plain. This concentrated expensive skilled work at the point through which everyone entered and where the foundation’s patron and purpose could be announced.

Madrasas, Islamic colleges for religious study, accommodated advanced learning, prayer and, in many foundations, students’ residence. An open court with teaching iwans and smaller surrounding rooms was one solution. Other Anatolian colleges used a covered central space. Enclosed rooms offered protection during cold weather, while the circulation around a courtyard connected the activities of the institution.

At Sırçalı Madrasah in Konya, founded in 1242, stone frames the entrance while brick and surviving glazed decoration shape the interior. Its foundation inscription identifies it as an institution of the Hanafi school, one of the major schools of Islamic law. The building’s teaching halls and chambers belonged to an endowed college whose operation also required staff and continuing income.

Tombs, palaces and decorated interiors

The two Kharaqan Towers near Qazvin, built in 1067–68 and 1093, combine octagonal forms with domed burial spaces. Varied geometric brickwork and inscriptions articulate their exterior faces. Anatolian tombs likewise used compact polygonal forms, often capped by a conical outer roof. A visible upper chamber might stand above a burial chamber below.

Palaces required reception rooms and household accommodation, with access arranged around courts and halls. Their decoration could differ markedly from that of a mosque. At Kubadabad beside Lake Beyşehir, excavated palace tiles depict human figures, birds and other animals. Such tiles furnished court interiors, where hunting and enthronement imagery addressed a different audience from a mosque’s prayer hall. The tiles are excavated objects, rather than an intact decorative scheme still covering the palace walls.

Buildings that housed travel and care

Anatolian caravanserais commonly joined a courtyard to a large covered hall. A controlled gateway admitted travellers and loaded animals; thick walls and vaulted accommodation offered shelter. Open and roofed areas let a foundation serve different seasons and types of load. Kiosk mosques sometimes occupied a raised position in the courtyard.

Hospitals also used courtyards, iwans and surrounding rooms, but their functions depended on medical staff and endowed support. The Sivas hospital founded by Kaykavus I in 1217–18 included the ruler’s burial chamber. Divriği’s mosque and hospital of 1228–29 were commissioned by Mengujekid patrons, a neighbouring dynasty. Their place in the wider architectural history of Seljuk-period Anatolia does not make them direct commissions of the Rum sultans.

Construction and continued use

Building brought together masons, carpenters, brickmakers and specialists in tiles and carving. Surviving craftsmen’s signatures sometimes identify the makers, as at Sırçalı, whose decoration names a builder associated with Tus. These inscriptions document individual participation in networks that reached across regions.

Founders could assign income-producing property to pay for repairs and the institution’s work. Continued use nevertheless brought replacement roofs, rebuilt vaults and new decorative surfaces. The architecture visible today often combines original structural work with later repairs. Distinguishing those phases explains how Seljuk foundations remained usable under subsequent rulers.