Köşk or tekke
On the way from the ancient city center towards Humeitepe, on the southern slope of the hill, there is a tall building which has been dated to the beginning of the fifteenth century CE. It stands on a socle and has strikingly large windows, framed by pointed arches, towards the southwest and southeast. The ceiling of the western room consists of a pendentive, a circular dome resting on multiple rounded triangles protruding from the corners. Inside, the alcoves formed by this structure were filled with ornamental cells (muqarnas). The eastern room had a similar roof. Both domes were surrounded by a parapet. A narrow staircase in the southern corner of the building led onto the roof.
The load-bearing parts of the building walls primarily consist of repurposed older building elements (spolia). An internal wall separates the building into two halves. The building could be entered through a door in the eastern part of the northern wall, a little over a meter wide, while an external staircase provided access to the western upper story. Regularly spaced putlog holes in the interior walls show that the building consisted of two stories. The room in the eastern upper story had a prayer niche (mihrab) facing southeast and a cooking niche to the north. Another niche in the eastern wall was probably used as a wall cabinet. Both walls have a little window. To the east, the building borders a small, enclosed cemetery.
There are two theories about the function of the building. It may have been the residence (köşk) of an emir or his governor, or it may have been a religious building, either a place of religious assembly (tekke or zawiya), or a dervish monastery (Mevlevihâne). The Ottoman register of 1583 mentions a “zawiya of Ahmed Gazi, known as mevlevihane,” which may well have referred to this building. Ahmed Gazi was one of the Menteşe beys and the son of Ibrahim Bey, who built a mosque complex in Balat. On the other hand, the structure also bears similarities to other loggias or royal residencies from the time of the Turkish emirate. Its proximity to the recently discovered mescid (a small mosque without a minaret) on Humeitepe immediately to its southwest supports this theory. It is possible that the building had multiple purposes and changed its function over time.
Text: Lisa Steinmann
References
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K. Wulzinger, Das islamische Milet, Milet 3,4 (Berlin 1935).
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A. Durukan, Menteşe Beyliği Zamanında Balat (Antik Miletus / Palatia), in: H.B. Konyar – N. Yavuzoğlu-Atasoy (Hrsg.), Beylikler Dönemi Kültür ve Sanat, Sanat Tarihi Derneği Yayınları 9 (Istanbul 2014) 83–134.
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Ph. Niewöhner – C. Berns – S. Giese – S. Huy – A. Izdebski – A. Vacek, Arbeiten in Milet in den Jahren 2012 bis 2016. Chronik, neue Befunde aus antiker, byzantinischer und türkischer Zeit sowie Denkmalpflege, AA 2020, 1, 2020, 225–267.