Özet:

This article is divided into four parts. Firstly, it notes the precedent provided by the conversion of the Roman theatre at Bosra in Syria into an Ayyubid Palace, for the conversion of the Roman theater into the Rum Seljuk palace at Belkis-Aspendos and the known extensive use made of Syrian trained architects for important architectural projects by Rum Seljuk Sultans in the first half of the 13th c. Secondly, the two bands of Seljuk low relief depictions of felines and a deer on a series of re-carved Roman limestone blocks on the exterior wall by the door leading to the southern köşk-pavilion erected above the parados and upon the lintel over this door, discovered by the author in 2007, extending over a length of nearly 10 m. are described and the deliberate pecking of the surface of these low relief depictions it is suggested, was to provide bonding for applied painted stucco carved relief-work that completed this relief work on the exterior palace facade. The third section describes the painted Seljuk tympanum relief sculpture made of stucco plaster that concealed the Roman relief carving of Dionysus in the pediment of the sceanae frons in the 13th c. A sculptural relief depiction of a nude female figure which was fortunately recorded by Charles Texier early in the 19th c. in both his text and in the careful detailed drawings he made of it; and the surviving remains of the six carved stone frontal Seljuk busts on the re-carved cornice of the pediment of the sceanae frons are described, and both the recorded and the in situ indications as to the former appearance and the meaning of this 13th century interior palace relief work is noted, and why therefore the name of the settlement by Aspendos was it seems in the 13th c., and is today called Belkis. This painted plaster relief work seems to have decorated the inner wall of the Belkis Palace's harem and it seems to be the earliest recorded depiction in any material of the scene made famous in later miniature paintings of Shirin bathing in a pool, made to accompany the text of the second of Hakim Jamal al-Din Abu Muhammad Ilyas b.Yusuf b. Zaki b. Mu'ayyad Nizam ud-Din of Ganja's (1140-1 - c. 1208-9) five great works comprising the Khamsa, Nizami's famous Keyhüsrev and Shirin, completed in c.1186. It is suggested that the former appearance of this sculptural relief-work was based upon a copy of a court miniature painting made to illustrate Nizami's text probably originating from the court of the last Great Seljuk Sultan Toghril III r.1176-94, who commissioned this work from Nizami and to whom Nizami dedicated Khüsrev and Shirin. As such it provides important information concerning a type of court miniature illustration otherwise unknown to us, as examples of 12th c. Seljuk court illustrated works have not survived the passage of the centuries. The in situ remains of this Rum Seljuk painted stucco high relief sculpture in the pediment recorded by Texier were largely destroyed in the mid-19th century by gunfire, although stucco traces remain in the pediment today and traces of paintwork of undetermined date remain on the Seljuk busts on the re-carved cornice, although the stucco plasterwork that completed these six busts as life sized attendant figures to the naked Shirin in the pediment, because of their more exposed location following the loss of the roof over this section of the palace, were lost long before the 19th c. Fourthly, reasons are given for the suggested date of the execution of this palace relief work to the period between 1236 to 1240, 1240 being the date of the arrival of Sultan Keyhüsrev's long awaited bride in the Rum Seljuk Sultanate, his Shirin, and for the conversion of this building into a Seljuk Palace to serve as a wedding gift given by Sultan Giyathsed-Din Keyhüsrev II to his bride from the Caucasus, his Gurcu hatun, Keyhüsrev's Shirin, his Belkis, as Sultan Giyathsed-Din Keyhüsrev II is recorded by contemporaries as a second Suleyman and his wife, his Shirin, was known as Belkis.

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