SIMPLICITY

Anatolian Seljuk period madrasas and mosques impress me with the simplicity of both their structures and their interior layouts. Although this simplicity stems from the construction techniques of the period, it seems to me a kind of modesty.

FUNCTIONALITY

As far as I can see, the Seljuk states managed to make their power felt in different ways.

For example, building and transferring crafts, health, humanity and knowledge to the social life of the period with the order of madrasahs, places of worship and healing houses and starting the interaction that lasted for ages is one of them. This fact is observed from the functions of the buildings. With their functions, they provide development opportunities that enrich the society.

HIDDEN DETAILS

When viewed from afar, the buildings are plain, straight or even rough. As you get closer, you see the details that are gradually separated from the others and realize that another realm is hidden in every detail. Beyond admiring the hand-carved stonework, hours and days can be spent reading the mystical stories they tell. They placed their period in a privileged place in history with their skills in stone carving, their dominance in the art of decoration, and their knowledge in tile making. They have transformed this form of expression into a tradition of their own. They have given the news that, especially at the door of these simple structures, they will almost enter a different world.

ART REACHING THE SKIES

Another building element in which artistic intensity is kept alive is the minarets. They started from the pedestal and headed upwards and accustomed eyes to the sky. These special areas of the building adorned with symbolic meanings. While trying to make sense of the figures in the decorations, I feel that they create an intricate world there. In this geometry, a lot of information is stored, from fractal order to chemistry, from cell structure to realms… The simplest curiosity of man is how could 700-year-old tiles remain as bright and solid as the first day without knowledge of chemistry? Only the answer to this question is even a sign. In fact, I realized that my curiosity was not in vain when I learned that the silicon dioxide (the raw material of tile), which today’s chemistry professors overlap with the patterns, is exactly the same as the image under the microscope.

At the extreme point of my imagination, I wanted to learn the thoughts of the artists who drew the patterns. What did they know – what did they tell?