Beyliks & Seljuks
1071 - 1425 · At Birgi, the Aydınoğlu chapter gathers around one named commission: the Ulu Cami, completed in 1312 on Mehmed Bey’s order. UNESCO’s Tentative List entry describes Birgi as the beylik’s capital in the 13th and 14th centuries. The town is a tentative-list candidate, not a World Heritage inscription. Above the Milas Plain, Beçin occupies a plateau. Near the end of the 13th century, it passed to the Menteşe beylik and for a time served as its capital. The settlement holds traces from several periods; a madrasa, bath, mosque, inn and tomb are among its remains. At Birgi, a mosque anchors one date and patron; at Beçin, the plateau holds a longer sequence of settlement layers. Together, the sites show different local forms of authority: a dated religious building in one town, a changing urban landscape in the other.
How to read this period
Covering 1071 - 1425, the Beyliks & Seljuks dossier is a reading point within the long transformation of settlement, movement, production and belief networks across the Aegean. At Birgi, the Aydınoğlu chapter gathers around one named commission: the Ulu Cami, completed in 1312 on Mehmed Bey’s order. UNESCO’s Tentative List entry describes Birgi as the beylik’s capital in the 13th and 14th centuries. The town is a tentative-list candidate, not a World Heritage inscription. Above the Milas Plain, Beçin occupies a plateau. Near the end of the 13th century, it passed to the Menteşe beylik and for a time served as its capital. The settlement holds traces from several periods; a madrasa, bath, mosque, inn and tomb are among its remains. At Birgi, a mosque anchors one date and patron; at Beçin, the plateau holds a longer sequence of settlement layers. Together, the sites show different local forms of authority: a dated religious building in one town, a changing urban landscape in the other.. Period boundaries are used to compare layers that changed at different speeds in different places, rather than to imply a clean historical break.
Records from the coast, valleys and inland areas are not reduced to one line of development. Region, place and narrative links are used to compare shared patterns with local differences.
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Research timeline archive
- From Çakırağa Mansion at Birgi to Yalınayak Bathhouse at Tire and Lake Gölcük
- From Kayalıoğlu Agricultural School to Körez Stone Mansions and İnebey Mosque: 1860 Or Yehuda Academy, Volcanic Basalt Mansions, and 14th-Century Germiyanid Mosque
- Emergence of Kütahya Tile Kilns and Construction of Çakırsaz Seljuk Han (1230 CE)
- Construction of the Seljuk Sahip Ata İshaklı Caravanserai (1249 CE)
- From Tokalı Canyon to Yunus Emre Shrine and Bayat Kilims: 500m Cliffs, 13th-Century Mysticism, and Turkmen Dyes
- Initiation of Forged Steel Yatağan Sword Craft by Yatağan Baba (1250 AD)
- From Yatağan Swords to Hırka Timber Mosque and Yeşildere Waterfall: 800-Year Forged Steel Workshops, 18th-Century Floral Paintings, and 55m Cascade
- From Yunus Emre Shrine to Kurşunlu Thermal Springs and Kuladokya Fairy Chimneys: Honest Timber Heritage, 54°C Springs, and UNESCO Towers
- Entrance of Yunus Emre into Kula Taptuk Emre Shrine and Birth of Turkish Sufi Poetry (1280 CE)
- Yunus Emre's Initiation into Taptuk Emre Sufi Lodge and Sandıklı Sanctuary (1280 CE)