Guide
The Ahi Emir Ahmed tomb tower stands on Arap Şeyh Caddesi in Sivas, east of the Behram Pasha han and the Kurşunlu bath. On the evidence of its material and its plan it is dated to the first half of the fourteenth century. It is built of cut stone, octagonal on a square base, with the transition from base to body made by chamfered inverted triangles. The door into the cross-vaulted burial chamber below is on the east side, and the tomb is lit by narrow slit windows on the east and west.
It was repaired at various times between 1985 and 2005; during the work of 1985-1991 its cenotaph, which had broken apart, was renewed, and the bones were gathered and carefully replaced in it. The building takes its name from Ahi Emir Ahmed bin Zen-el-Hac, one of the significant Turkish ahi emirs of his day. He lived in the second half of the thirteenth and the first half of the fourteenth century and belonged to the Uighur tribes who came in the migration from Khorasan; he lived first at Bayburt, then settled in Sivas, where he founded his lodge and his rich endowment. He is remembered for his part in the spread of Turkish settlement in Anatolia, in the use of the Turkish language, and in the ordering of social life.
