İshaklı Kervansarayı

The İshaklı Caravanserai is an Anatolian Seljuk han standing in the centre of the Sultandağı district, beside the old road linking Afyon, Akşehir and Konya. Since the former name of Sultandağı was İshaklı, the building is known by that name; it is also called the Sahip Ata Han after its founder. According to the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam, the han lies about 25 kilometres from Akşehir. The inscriptions above its portals show that it was built in September 1249, in the early years of the reign of the Seljuk Sultan Izzeddin Kaykaus II. Its founder, the vizier Sahip Ata Fahreddin Ali, was a statesman who commissioned a great many buildings in the Seljuk period. The TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam notes that the İshaklı Caravanserai is the earliest of his buildings with a known date. Wikipedia gives the names of its architects as Kölük bin Abdullah and Kaluyan el-Konevi. The han was repaired around 1885 and then used as a granary until 1925. The General Directorate of Foundations restored the building in 1964; according to the Culture Portal the work continued until 1975, and it has been restored again in recent years. The building is an important example of the type known as sultan hans: a courtyard at the front used in summer and a covered hall at the back used in winter. The thick outer walls are reinforced with corner towers and half-cylindrical buttresses, so that from the outside the han looks almost like a fortress. Wikipedia gives the thickness of the outer walls as 1.60 metres and the total area as about 1800 square metres. The encyclopaedia gives the dimensions of the nearly square courtyard as 36 by 34 metres. The courtyard is entered through a monumental portal facing east. The portal is framed by mouldings of different widths and crowned by a hood with seven rows of muqarnas. On either side of the doorway there is a niche with muqarnas. The three-line inscription is set between the muqarnas and the door arch. Although the top of the portal has collapsed, the small shell-shaped squinches in the corners and the row of rosettes can still be made out. In the middle of the courtyard stands a small raised kiosk masjid on four arched piers. The Culture Portal notes that it is the last example of the freestanding kiosk masjids placed in the centre of Seljuk han courtyards. Architecturally it is notable for being aligned not with the main axis of the han but at a different angle. Reused stones from the Roman and Byzantine periods can be seen in its walls. Traces of an arcaded gallery survive along the northern side of the courtyard, and excavations in 2003 uncovered the foundations of rooms around it. The covered hall lies behind the courtyard and is entered through its own portal. Inside, it has a nearly square plan and is divided into five aisles by sixteen stone piers, roofed with pointed barrel vaults. The central aisle is wider and taller than the others. The pyramidal cone rising on an octagonal drum above its centre is the han's most familiar silhouette from the outside. The interior is dim; light filters in through this lantern dome and the narrow slit windows in the western wall. On your visit, first walk around the han and look at its fortress-like outer walls and buttresses, then take a closer look at the decoration of the portal. In the courtyard, study the piers of the kiosk masjid and the reused stones before moving into the covered hall and giving your eyes time to adjust to the dim light. Photographs taken from the west bring the stone facade and the conical roof of the dome together in one frame. As the han is in the town centre it is easy to find; check local sources or the provincial directorate of culture and tourism for entry conditions and current visiting hours. Sultandağı is reached from Afyonkarahisar on the main road towards Akşehir and Konya and by intercity buses using that route. The han is close enough to be visited on the same day as Lake Eber and the Kırkgöz Bridge in Bolvadin. The Sultan Mountains rising to the south form a backdrop that also recalls the geography of the region.