The Medrese of Nefesi Sultan, also called the Hatuniye medrese. It was built in 1382 by the famous architect Hoca Ahmet, who built this on orders of the daughter of the Ottoman sultan Murat I, the wife of the Karamanoğlu Alaeddin Bey. The portal in front has been higher, inside there now is a restaurant, but I was allowed to take every picture I wanted. Friendly people there.

The medrese has the usual Seljuk ground plan, with an inner courtyard and galleries along its eastern and western side. It is relatively small, with only one iwan opening into the yard, and ten small rooms spread around the latter. Originally the inner courtyard was covered by a large barrel vaulting that has been replaced by a more attractive blue plexiglass vault. Adjacent to the large iwan there are two domed rooms: a classroom (to the right) and the (former) türbe/mausoleum of Nefise Hatun (to the left).

An iwan (Persian & Turkish: ‘eyvān’) is a rectangular hall or space, usually vaulted, walled on three sides, with one end entirely open. This architectural form can be used for entrances, but also (as it is the case here) to create half open rooms looking out at a central yard. The iwan as used in Anatolian Seljuk ‘medrese’ was imported from Islamic Persia, but was invented much earlier and fully developed in Mesopotamia.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen.
Source: ‘Karaman (Tarihi ve Kültürü)’ (Ilhan Temizsoy & M. Vehbi Uysal) – Konya 1981
& Personal visit (2001).