25.ULUSLARARASI ORTAÇAĞ VE TÜRK DÖNEMİ KAZILARI VE SANAT TARİHİ ARAŞTIRMALARI
A STUDY OF DRAGON MOTIFS IN SEYİD CEMALEDDİN MOSQUE DECORATIONS
Yayıncı:
Necmettin Erbakan Üniversitesi Yayınları
Seyid Cemalledin Mosque, the unique and magnificent architecture, is very rich in point of decorations, and even if it is one of the most flashy constructions in Turkmenistan as well one of the most damaged buildings due to earthquake in 1948. In XVth century within the scope of Timurid traditional decoration program, this mosque differs from others in adornment as white flowers on a dark blue background that fills both sides of the crown door pointed arch pediment and a dragon depicted in the form of two gigantic snakes placed symmetrically between folded branches. These figurative ornaments, where engraved special meaning on each, are one of the rare applications of religious architecture, especially in mosques, that has not been seen before in buildings in Central Asia. In this study, the matter of exceptional example in TurkishIslamic architecture will be discussed and first of all, examining the physical structure and architecture of the mosque step by step, in regard to archaeological data, will be given information about all issues. After we try to summarize information about unique crown doors, epitaphs, symmetrically applied floral motifs and figurative decorations seen on the facade wall compositions. In conclusion, we will briefly touch on legends about when and by whom dragon motifs were applied first in mosque and evaluate their place in the culture of Turkish decoration.
