Mengücek

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Divriği Great Mosque (Ulu Cami) portal
Divriği Great Mosque (Ulu Cami) portal

Mengücek (also spelled as Mengüçlü or Mengujek) was an Anatolian Turkish Beylik of the first period, founded after the Battle of Manzikert. The Mengücek Beylik ruled the regions of Erzincan, Kemah and Divriği in Eastern Anatolia in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Little is known about the founder Mengücek Gazi. He was probably one of the commanders sent by the Great Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan to occupy parts of Anatolia after the victory at Manzikert over the Byzantine Empire, and his principality seems to have been founded in the years following the battle.

The Mengücek dynasty is remembered primarily for its monuments in Divriği. The Divriği Great Mosque was built in 1228 by Mengücekoğlu Ahmed Shah. The adjoining medical center, or Darüşşifa, was built in the same year by Turan Melek Sultan, daughter of the Mengücek ruler of Erzincan, Fahreddin Behram Shah. Both buildings are on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

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  • (Book cover) Oktay Aslanapa (1991). Anadolu'da ilk Türk mimarisi: Başlangıcı ve gelişmesi (Early Turkish architecture in Anatolia: Beginnings and development) ISBN 975-16-0264-5 (in Turkish). AKM Publications, Ankara. 
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