While Ishak Pasha Palace, located in Doğubayazıt district, continues to host its visitors with its splendor, Art Historian and Archaeologist Murat Şen, speaking about the restoration and history of the building, described the use of some elements that should not be used in the building as a grave situation.
Ishak Pasha Palace, which was started to be built in 1685 in Doğubayazıt district of Ağrı and completed after 99 years, is on UNESCO’s World Heritage Tentative List and welcomes visitors from all over the world, especially Europe and Asia, as well as Turkey. The historical palace with 116 rooms, located on a hill with an altitude of 1900 altitude 7 kilometers southeast of the district, attracts attention with its mosque, walls, tomb, inner and outer courtyards, divan and harem halls.
Speaking about the Ishak Pasha Palace, which has managed to be one of the structures that have resisted time for centuries with its historical importance and architectural texture, Art Historian and Archaeologist Murat Şen explains that such a beautiful architecture has a background and this is a situation related to who Ishak Pasha is.
‘From the Tevaif-i Ekrad (Kurdish) Besyan Tribe’
Saying that the first one was Çıldırlı Ishak Pasha, Şen said, “This Ishak Pasha served as Çıldır Governor in the 19th century with the approval of the Erzurum Governor, and continued there and ended his life in Hasan Pasha Castle because he caused the dismissal of a manager.” says. However, saying that Ishak Pasha, who we think was the owner of the Ishak Pasha Palace, was a member of a very different family, and he emphasizes that the first clues of that family were expressed in a work written by Katip Çelebi in 1635.
Şen stated that there was a form of government similar to the state system in modern terms in the Ottoman Empire and that this was valid in the Beyazıt region. What is the significance of this; Here, after the administration was given to the person concerned, if that person dies, falls ill, and somehow becomes unable to continue his duty, the relevant task would be given to a member of his family. Ottoman means: we know you, we know you, you have the management of this place, but you are dependent on us”.
‘Ishak Pasha Palace is at a key point’
Şen describes the place where the Ishak Pasha Palace was built and the importance of its location as follows: “It is such a place that it is at the key point of a geography that allows passage from the valleys between the great heights, from the Ottoman lands of the period to the lands of the Safavid rule in Iran. At that time, the Ottoman and Iranian Safavids were in a great conflict and the Beyazıt region was right in the middle, and Ishak Pasha was managing such an area at that time.”
‘Such an architecture is actually a show of strength’
Emphasizing why Ishak Pasha Palace has such a magnificent architecture and why it was built in such an extreme place, Şen said, “We can see in the documents in the Ottoman archives that even the Bey of Erzurum wrote many letters of complaint to the center during the rule of Ishak Pasha. In the documents obtained from here, we know that the Beyler of Erzurum complained to the center many times and that Ishak Pasha had serious problems with the center. This shows that; Since this is my administration, since I am here, you have left this place to me and I am protecting this place against the Iranian Safavids, then I also have my palace here. Such an architecture is actually a show of strength. This is the reason why it contains many examples from both world and Islamic art in its own body.”
‘An architectural or historical work is related to the social structure it is in’
Saying that it is normal for such a magnificent and important building to come to the fore with its restoration, Şen says that it is not his area of expertise, but it would be right to express some practices that he deems wrong based on his own observations: “First of all, an architectural structure or a historical artifact, its geography. and is directly related to the social structure. We can call it texture. The fact that any element that is foreign to this texture or that would contradict this texture is used in that building is an inevitably glaring issue,” says Şen, and defines it as a grave situation that some elements that should not be used in the building are used in the building.
Video/Montage: Zelal Sahidenur Sari
Translator :Akif Coşkun
