Divriği

Divriği
Town
Divriği, portal of the Darüşşifa hospital adjoining the Great Mosque
Location of Divriği within Turkey.
Country	Turkey
Region	Central Anatolia
Province	Sivas
Government
• Mayor	Hakan Gök (CHP)
Area
• District	2,723.77 km2 (1,051.65 sq mi)
Population  (2012)
• Urban	10,824
• District	16,272
• District density	6.0/km2 (15/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
Website	www.divrigi.bel.tr

Divriği (Greek: Τεφρική Tephrike, Armenian: Տեւրիկ Tewrik) is a town and a district of Sivas Province of Turkey. The town lies on gentle slope on the south bank of the Çaltısuyu river, a tributary of the Karasu river.

History

During the Byzantine period the town, then called Tephrike, was an important stronghold for the dualist heretic Armenian Paulicians. Their leader, Karbeas, founded it ca. 850, and the Paulicians fortified it and used it as refuge and the capital of their state during the ninth century. It was captured by the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Emperor Basil I and was temporarily named Leontokome (after Emperor Leo VI) and made into a thema. In the early eleventh century, the town was part of the territory given to the Armenian king Senekerim-Hovhannes in exchange for his lands in Vaspurakan. Around 1071, after the battle of Manzikert, the area was conquered by the Seljuk Bey Mengujek Gazi. A medieval castle, with remains mostly from the thirteenth century, exists on top of a steep hill overlooking the town.

In 1228-29, while Divriği was under the rule of the Mengujekids, Emir Ahmed Shah commissioned a mosque (Divriği Great Mosque - Divriği Ulu Camii in Turkish) which stands mostly intact. The mosque, along with the adjoining hospital (Darüşşifa), built at the same time as the mosque by Turan Melek Sultan, daughter of the Mengujek ruler of Erzincan, Fahreddin Behram Shah, are on UNESCO's World Heritage List by virtue of the exquisite carvings and architecture of both buildings. The complex is considered to be one of the most important works of architecture in Anatolia. The geometrical and floral patterned reliefs found on the main door in particular attract great interest.

See also

• Divriği Great Mosque
• Mengujekids

External links

• Media related to Divriği at Wikimedia Commons
• Divriği Great Mosque And Hospital
• UNESCO file: "Divriği Great Mosque and Hospital". UNESCO. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
• (fact sheet) "Great Mosque and Hospital of Divriği". Archnet. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
• İbrahim Shaikh. (full text and photos) "The Miracle of Divriği". The International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); External link in |publisher= (help)
• Mustafa Güler, İlknur Aktuğ Kolay. (full text) "12. yüzyıl Anadolu Türk Camileri (12th century Turkish mosques in Anatolia" (in Turkish). Istanbul Technical University Magazine (İtüdergi). {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
• Picture gallery from Turkey specialist

Sources

• (Book cover) Oktay Aslanapa (1991). Anadolu'da ilk Türk mimarisi: Başlangıcı ve gelişmesi (Early Turkish architecture in Anatolia: Beginnings and development) ISBN 975-16-0264-5 (in Turkish). AKM Publications, Ankara.

Double headed eagle, Great Mosque

Great Mosque and Hospital of Divriği