Abstract:

Ahi Şerafeddin (Arslanhane) Mosque is one of the Anatolian Seljuk period mosques with wooden pillars and wooden ceilings. The mosque consists of a rectangular-planned sanctuary (harim) floor and a loge (mahfil) floor built with spolia stones provided from Roman and Byzantine period buildings around Ankara. Although exterior façade is plainer, interiors ornamentations are subtle and eye-catching. It is a symbol of architectural elegance with its pulpit (minber), one of the most beautiful examples of woodworking, the ceiling made with the “çantı” technique, and its mihrab consists of the enormous combination of gypsum and tile. The mihrab in the mosque is one of the unique examples of its kind. The wooden “minber” of the mosque is as valuable and extraordinarily beautiful as its mihrab. In this study, the mihrab ornaments on the mihrab of Arslanhane (Ahi Şerafeddin) Mosque, which have similar characteristics with the Islamic motifs used in the mosques of the Anatolian Seljuk period, were analysed by the method of shape grammar. This method is an algorithmic design method first introduced by Stiny and Gips in the 1970s, in order to analyse design languages and create different designs in the same style. Shape-grammar studies are generally carried out under three headings. The first and most widely used one is analysis studies. The shape language of Arslanhane (Ahi Şerafeddin) Mosque’s mihrab which have been examined by the analysis method in four sections after mentioning the geometrical orders of the period. As a result of the analysis, rules and rule sets have been revealed for the ornamentations in the mihrab of the mosque. Thus, a foresight about the mathematical infrastructure of the geometric pattern examples of the Arslanhane (Ahi Şerafeddin) Mosque in particular and the Anatolian Seljuk wooden-pillared mosques in general was presented, and a base on which an infinite number of different patterns could be created that were identical in form with these patterns was provided. Also, a contribution has been made to the parametric elements used in the Anatolian Seljuk ornament tradition. It is aimed to form a basis for future restoration works with the determined patterns.

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