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Beyşehir Encyclopedia / Article

Eşrefoğlu Bathhouse

The Eşrefoğlu Bathhouse is a surviving part of the late thirteenth-century endowment that supported Beyşehir’s Eşrefoğlu Mosque.

Medieval BeyşehirBuilt heritage
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A bath in the beylik town

The bathhouse stands west of the Bedesten in Beyşehir’s historic centre, near Eşrefoğlu Mosque. Eşrefoğlu Hamamı, Büyük Hamam and Çifte Hamam are names used for it. The last name refers to a double bath with areas for women and men. Together with the mosque and market buildings, the bath formed part of the urban works associated with Seyfeddin Süleyman Bey.[1][2]

The mosque portal carries an endowment inscription dated 1297. Yılmaz Önge identified its “great bath” with this building. The inscription also lists a textile merchants’ inn, shops and mills dedicated to supporting the mosque. The bath was thus both a place of washing and a source of income for the foundation. The inscribed date anchors the endowment, although it cannot date every surviving wall to a specific year.[1][2]

Plan and surviving fabric

Önge surveyed the structure in 1962 and published a plan, section and photographs. His study describes a warm room and a hot section organized with four vaulted recesses and corner chambers, a layout relevant to the history of Anatolian baths. He also recorded traces of moulded plaster ornament. These observations make it possible to study the building’s space and workmanship as material evidence, alongside the wording of the endowment inscription.[3]

The name Çifte Hamam does not mean that two complete wings stand today. Önge found only a portion of the historic building and treated the identification of the surviving side cautiously. His twentieth-century survey described substantial damage; a brief municipal guide presents a more optimistic account of survival. A current condition report would be needed to establish what fabric is visible or accessible now. The older descriptions document history rather than present visiting arrangements.[4][5]

A funded town centre

The Eşrefoğlu complex joins a congregational mosque to a market, bath and other endowed services. The bath shows how income-producing property helped sustain a major religious building in a small beylik capital. Its position by the Bedesten connects architectural history with the streets of everyday trade. Reading the inscription beside Önge’s measured study clarifies the intended role of the building and the limits of what can be reconstructed from its remains.[6][2]

See also

Medieval BeyşehirEşrefoğlu complex and İçerişehirThe mosque, market, bath, religious buildings and fortifications formed a medieval urban core in Beyşehir’s İçerişehir.Medieval BeyşehirEşrefoğlu MosqueEşrefoğlu Mosque is Beyşehir’s late thirteenth-century timber-columned congregational mosque and a UNESCO World Heritage component.Medieval BeyşehirEşrefoğlu Mosque endowmentThe vakfiye of Eşrefoğlu Süleyman Bey records resources assigned to the mosque and offers a view of medieval institutions.Medieval BeyşehirBeyşehir BedestenThe bedesten is the covered market building of Beyşehir’s historic İçerişehir core.Medieval BeyşehirEşrefoğlu Süleyman BeySeyfeddin Süleyman Bey founded the Eşrefoğulları beylik and made Beyşehir its centre.

References

  1. 1Yılmaz Önge · Konya - Beyşehir’de Eşrefoğlu Süleyman Bey Hamamı · Vakıflar Dergisi 7, pp. 139–144 · 1968 · pp. 139–140
  2. 2Doğan Yavaş · Eşrefoğlu Camii · TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi · 1995
  3. 3Yılmaz Önge · Konya - Beyşehir’de Eşrefoğlu Süleyman Bey Hamamı · Vakıflar Dergisi 7, pp. 139–144 · 1968 · pp. 140–143
  4. 4Yılmaz Önge · Konya - Beyşehir’de Eşrefoğlu Süleyman Bey Hamamı · Vakıflar Dergisi 7, pp. 139–144 · 1968 · pp. 140–144
  5. 5Beyşehir Belediyesi · Eşrefoğlu Hamamı / Eşrefoğlu Bathhouse · Beyşehir Belediyesi Gezi Rehberi
  6. 6Yılmaz Önge · Konya - Beyşehir’de Eşrefoğlu Süleyman Bey Hamamı · Vakıflar Dergisi 7, pp. 139–144 · 1968 · pp. 139–144

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