A Newfound Seljuk Inscription: Inner Karaaslan Masjid Inscription

The most original interpretations of Turkish art belong to the Seljuk period. Especially the Anatolian Seljuks attract attention with their aesthetic and simple appearance as well as their inscription styles of the architectural works they built. Nearly all of the works have an inscription. Some of them have reached the present day. But some have not reached our time. Also, some of them were found in a damaged condition, sometimes in places which do not have a location connection with the structure they belong. The inscriptions of the madrasah, mosque, caravanserai, tomb, etc. provide information about the construction and repair of these places, their owners and masters. They also contain the necessary details to make inferences about the political, social, economic and cultural situation of the period in the form of epigraphic archival material. Therefore, inscriptions are important historical documents for social sciences such as history and art history.Masjids are one of the building types of the Anatolian Seljuk period. Masjids where time prayers are performed are small-scale humble structures built between the neighbourhoods within texture of the city. The masjids show three different plan schemes; the first one that has a cubic prayer hall covered with a dome, the second one which has a front space in front of the domed prayer hall, the last one that has a tomb or lodge in front of or near the domed prayer hall. With having a square plan, cubic body, and a prayer hall covered with a dome sitting on the squinch, Inner Karaaslan Masjid belongs to the first one in this grouping.While stone was used in the construction of the masjid, the brick was used on the upper part of the body walls, squinches, and dome. The most important part of the masjid is a mihrab decorated with plaster and tiles. Since there is no inscription, the masjid was dated to the first half of the 12th century, the first quarter, middle and end of the 13th century, and the beginning of the 14th century.During the restoration carried out by the General Directorate of Foundations in 1990, the fragments of tile inscriptions stacked as broken under the plaster in the mihrab of the masjid. These pieces were later transferred to the Sahib Ata Foundation Museum and kept under protection there. A text was created as a result of our work on two-part tile inscription which was stacked in two lines and some parts were lost. In this article, the inscription of Inner Karaaslan Masjid is read for the first time and its transcription and meaning is tried to be evaluated.