An Idiosyncratic Building in Amasya? Early Ottoman Architecture and the Waqfiyya of the Yakub Pasha Çilehane-Mosque

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the waqfiyya of the earliest surviving Halveti lodge, the Yakub Pasha Çilehane-Mosque in Amasya. Built in 1412 by the Ottoman vizier Yakub Pasha for his shaykh, Gümüşlüoğlu Abdurrahman, the foundation of this building stands at the intersection of historical processes such as the development of Ottoman architecture and Sufism, and urban colonization in Anatolia during Ottoman expansion in the fifteenth century. The particular layout of the Çilehane contributes to debates on the role of form vs. function in the categorization and naming of early Ottoman T-shaped buildings. Its waqfiyya, however, is the earliest record of the practices, organization, and rituals of the Halveti Sufi order and the networks involved in its transfer from Iran to the Ottoman world. In addition to providing the Arabic text, translation, and photographs of the waqfiyya, the article discusses the potential of this recently unearthed document to contribute to the abovementioned fifteenth-century debates.