photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Dick Osseman | all galleries >> Kayseri >> Kayseri museums >> Giyasiye ve Şifahiye Medresesi > Kayseri 2425
previous | next
20-SEP-2003

Kayseri 2425

view map

This is a side entrance to one of the earliest Turkish schools of medicine, the Giyasiye Şifahiye (early 13th century). It can be visited and has its charm, but the display of what medical instruments and the like they have is pathetic. Compare the similar museum in the Beyazit II complex in Edirne: another world.

The Giyasiye Şifahiye has several other names: ‘Çifte Medrese’ (Double High School) or ‘Gevher Nesibe Külliyesi’ (Complex of Gevher Nesibe, the daughter of sultan Kılıç Arslan II and sister of Gıyaseddin Keyhüsrev I). The complex includes a mosque too.

As to the ‘Çifte Medrese’, these are a medical school and a hospital adjacent to it. ‘Şifahiye’ refers to the latter (Şifa = cure). The tomb within the medrese is said to belong to Gevher Nesibe, who took the initiative of building the Hospital.

Regarding the name ‘Giyasiye Şifahiye/Medrese’, this refers to sultan Gıyaseddin Keyhüsrev I who ruled in 1192-1196 and 1205-1211, and ordered the complex to be completed, in honour of his sister Gevher Nesibe, who died in 1206.

On the picture: The monumental entrance to the Şifahiye/Hospital. Above the decorative muqarnas (stalactite) vaulting one sees the white marble building inscription, mentioning both the princess and sultan Gıyaseddin Keyhüsrev I, and the date this Hospital was built (1205). The construction of the adjacent medrese started in 1206 and was finished in 1210.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen
Sources: ‘Kayseri Kültür Varlıkları Envanteri’ (Kayseri Belediyesi 2008) & Wikipedia .

Sony Cybershot
1/160s f/8.0 at 9.7mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
previous | next
comment | share
tefik tasdemir 25-Feb-2007 09:24
Hello there< i have been on your site and greatly enjoyed its content ,i am from kayseri and now reside in the UK , i can honestly say that you have taught me 1 or 2 things , but did you know that the great Sinan was from Kayseri??
Regards