Mardin Zinciriye Medresesi

The Sultan Isa Medrese or Sultan 'Isa Madrasa (Turkish: Sultan İsa Medresesi), also known as the Zinciriye Medrese or Isa Bey Medresesi, is a historic landmark and former madrasa in Mardin, Turkey. It was commissioned by Sultan Isa (r. 1376–1407), the penultimate Artuqid ruler of Mardin, and its construction was completed in 1385. The building was actually a külliye, or religious complex, consisting of a madrasa, a mosque, a mausoleum for the founder, and other elements arranged around two courtyards. The building previously housed the Mardin Museum.

History

The foundation of the complex is well-documented thanks to several surviving inscriptions on the building which record the founder, Isa the Artuqid, and the date, 2nd Muharram 787 AH (3 February 1385 AD). The complex contains what appears to be a mausoleum chamber intended for the founder, but Isa was never buried here. The building went through a major restoration sometime during the Ottoman period, when much of the masonry was redone. Between 1932 and 1950s, the southern portico of the main courtyard partially collapsed and some of the decoration at the top of the portal disappeared. These elements, along with the northern gallery of the upper terrace, were restored over the course of the 20th century. In the early 21st century, around 2006, the building was restored again, cleaned, and much of the old masonry replaced with new stone.

General layout

The structure was built on a slope overlooking the city and as a result it is laid out on two terraced levels, with the upper level extending further north. The rooms and sections are arranged around two courtyards: one on the ground floor and another on the upper level. The whole complex occupies a space about 45 metres long and 25 metres deep. While traditional madrasas were almost always arranged around one central courtyard, the Sultan Isa Medrese is the culmination of a trend in Artuqid designs where the building is configured around two courtyards, a more complex arrangement requiring careful planning.

Exterior

The long southern façade of the building is easily visible, arranged along a street on higher ground overlooking the city below. The other sides of the building are largely obscured by the sloping terrain around it. The two fluted domes of the complex, visible from the outside, correspond to the mosque and the mausoleum. Two buttresses on the southern façade, topped by small half-domes (also fluted like the main domes), reinforce each of the domed sections and are each located behind a mihrab (niche symbolizing the qibla or direction of prayer) of the chambers inside. A wall fountain is also located in the middle of the façade, below the portico of the courtyard (discussed below).

The building is entered through a monumental portal at the southeast corner, standing around 12 metres tall. The recessed portal is decorated with a muqarnas vault over the doorway. The wall right above the door is covered by zone of stone inlay, followed by a band of geometric decoration above it. In the area above this is a teardrop-shaped medallion carved with calligraphic motifs, while on the side walls to the right and left of this are circular medallions carved with intricate arabesques. The design of the teardrop medallion consists of a symmetrical calligraphic composition (known as muthannā or muṣanna) featuring the phrase tawakkulī 'alā Allāhi ta'ālā ("I place my trust in God, may He be exalted"), arranged around a vertical axis of symmetry and topped by a vegetal motif of palmettes. A band of text containing a Qur'anic verse (At-Tawbah, 9:18), in a form of thuluth script, wraps around this composition. Above these medallions is another horizontal inscription band running across the three inner walls of the portal, containing a long foundation text including a Qur'anic excerpt (part of 27:19 or 46:14), the name of the building's founder (Sultan Isa), some praise of the founder's piety, and the date (2nd Muharram 787 AH).

The front corners of portal's recess are carved into ornate engaged columns. Around the edges of the portal are several bands of ornamentation forming a decorative frame around the portal. A muqarnas cornice is accompanied by arabesque (vegetal) decoration bands. Inside this is another inscription band that consists of the same phrase found in the center of the teardrop medallion, except here it is repeated over and over in Kufic script. The top part of this decoration was restored in modern times.

Entrance corridor

Upon entering, a corridor runs north until it reaches a corner covered by a star vault ceiling. On the left, the corridor continues to the west, past the mosque and to the ground-floor courtyard. Straight ahead, a stairway climbs north to the second floor. In the middle of the western corridor, on the north wall, is a niche covered by muqarnas canopy, opposite which is the entrance to the mosque chamber.