The Karatay Medrese, opposite Alaaddin Hill in the centre of Konya, was built in 1251 — Hijri 649 — by the emir Celaleddin Karatay in the reign of the Seljuk sultan İzzeddin Keykavus II, and since 1955 it has been the Museum of Tile Works. The choice was fitting: its interior was faced with mosaic and plaque tilework in turquoise, dark blue and black, and the building is one of the important pieces of Anatolian Seljuk tilework in its own right. It stayed in use through the Ottoman period and was abandoned at the end of the 19th century.
It was founded for the teaching of hadith and Qur'anic commentary and follows the closed-courtyard medrese plan: a single storey with one iwan, walls of Sille stone, domes and vaults of brick. The entrance on the east is a doorway of bluish and white marble, an outstanding piece of Seljuk stone carving, with the building inscription above it and selected verses and hadith in relief on its other faces. Through the door is a courtyard, once domed and now open to the sky, and from there a second door leads into the medrese itself.
The main courtyard is roofed by a dome faced in mosaic tile with a lantern at its centre. Verses are written around the drum of the dome, in the borders at the top of the walls, and on the panels above the cell doors; the arch of the barrel-vaulted main iwan on the west carries the basmala and the Throne Verse. On the triangles that carry the dome are the names of the prophets Muhammad, Jesus, Moses and David and of the four caliphs. The domed cell south of the iwan is Celaleddin Karatay's own tomb; the domed cell to its north had collapsed and was rebuilt after rescue excavation and restoration in 2006.
Much of the mosaic tile on the walls has fallen away, so expect gaps. The 2006 excavation also uncovered a channel running east-west inside the main iwan, covered with wooden beams, and a pipe drain in the north cell built to carry water off the central courtyard; part of it has been glazed over and left on show.
Restoration and redisplay ran from 2006 to 2008. The centrepiece of the collection is the wall tiles from the excavations at the Kubad-Abad Palace on Lake Beyşehir; around them are tiles and ceramics of the Seljuk, Beylik and Ottoman periods from Konya and its region — tile and glass dishes, tiled and ceramic dishes, lamps, plaster ornament and cupboards.
Together with the other major Seljuk medreses in Konya, Kayseri, Erzurum, Sivas and Kırşehir, the Karatay Medrese was added to the UNESCO Tentative List in 2014 under the heading of the Anatolian Seljuk Medreses.
Visiting hours
- Visiting hours
- Summer (1 April – 30 September) 09:00–18:40 · Winter (1 October – 31 March) 09:00–16:40
Getting there
- Access
- The museum is in the city centre, opposite Alaaddin hill.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Konya as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -0.1 °C in January to 23.6 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in May (43 mm) and lightest in August (6 mm). Long-term means for 1927-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
