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West Portal (Textile Portal – Market Portal – Exit Portal And Shadow Portal)

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This portal, known variously as the Market Portal, the Exit Portal and the Shadow Portal, is most commonly referred to as the Textile Portal. It was given this name because it resembles a carpet or a prayer rug and because the large number of lace-like ornaments. The most noticeable feature is the protruding keystone. The surface bears designs signifying metal-workers. The chief architect used a technique in which the stones overlap and are held in place by the keystone. The tulip design is repeated in many forms. In Islamic mysticism the tulip signifies Allah because a single flower emerges from a single bulb, thereby expressing unity. At the same time, the word ‘tulip’ has the same numerological value as the name of Allah. A three-line inscription above the Portal reads, “Ahmet Shah, son of Süleyman Shah, son of Shehinshah, pitiful slave in need of Allah’s mercy and just sovereign, decreed the construction of this mosque in the year 626H – 1228 M; may Allah preserve his property”.

The columns inside the portal are balance columns. The left column is inscribed with the name of Allah in Arabic script and the right column is inscribed with the name of Allah in italic script. Before the Erzincan earthquake of 1939, the columns could be rotated in the direction of the arrows inscribed on them. Between May and September, forty-five minutes before the noon call to prayer, the Textile Portal casts a shadow in the shape of a silhouette. This silhouette is in the shape of a person who, having read the Koran, stands with hands clasped as prayer-time approaches. The silhouettes that this and the other portals cast are not coincidental but the result of comprehensive astronomical knowledge and delicate calculations, and the secrets of the play of light and shadow have still not been fully understood.

On the exterior of the Portal, there is a double-headed eagle on the right and on the left both a double-headed eagle and a hawk with its head bowed. The double-headed eagle was an emblem of the Anatolian Seljuks. It signified their Power, nobility and independence. The hawk with its head bowed was the symbol of the Menujekids. The hawk was engraved on the stone with its head bowed to symbolize the Menujekid Beylik’s subservience to and respect for the Anatolian Seljuk state. At the same time, one of the hawk’s talons is raised. This signifies the power the Beylik could muster in the face of wrongs and injustice.

Düzey Ajans Reklam Organizasyon