Turkey Guide
Northeastern Anatolia
Yakutiye Medresesi
Address: Centre of town
Opening time: Museum of Islamic and Turkish Arts Tues, Thurs, Fri & Sat 8am– noon & 1.30–5.15pm
Price: Museum of Islamic and Turkish Arts 2YTL
The Yakutiye Medresesi was begun in 1310 by Cemaleddin Hoca Yakut, a local governor of the İlhanid Mongols, and with its intricately worked portal, and truncated minaret featuring a knotted lattice of tile-work, it's easily the most fanciful building in town. The minaret in particular seems displaced from somewhere in Central Asia or Persia – not such a far-fetched notion when you learn that the İlhanids had their seat in Tabriz. The beautiful interior of the medrese – note especially the stone stalactite carvings of the central dome – now holds an excellent Museum of Islamic and TurkishArts (Türk-İslam Eserleri ve Etnografya Müzesi), nicely arranged around the students' cells. Exhibits include displays of local oltu taşı jewellery, various dervish accessories, ehram (woven waistcoats for pilgrims to Mecca) and a selection of interesting old prints of Erzurum, among them a fine photograph taken from the roof of the old British consulate (Britain had a commercial agent in Erzurum as early as 1690). A türbe at the east end of the medrese was intended for Yakut but never used.