Ishak Pasa Palace

Mount Ararat is a place of legend and a symbol of power and divinity. Mountaineers long to ascend to its summit, despite the myth that those who reach it are turned to stone. By night its magnificence grows, its anger is terrible, it breathes as if alive. It gives refuge to lovers, and passion is born here.

Ishak Pasa Palace by Chiels

language OF STONE

The palace in whose dungeon Ahmet and Sofi were imprisoned, where Gülbahar lay awake in despair, and where Mahmut Han stormed in anger: Ishak Pasa Palace in Dogubeyazit.

Visitors to the palace today find only ruins. The roof has disappeared entirely, and in the course of restoration work begun in 1962, the façade's original character has been lost. Despite this, the elaborate stone carving of the gateways and around the windows tells you immediately that this is a special place, its stone decoration without equal in Turkish Islamic art.

As you wander through the rooms of the palace you are beset by a sense of dizziness, because the north, west and south façades are perched on sheer cliffs that plunge away to the valley below. To the north is a castle built by the Urartians, to the south and west the ruins of the old town, cemeteries and an earlier palace. That is the town of Old Beyazit, abandoned in 1938 because of its steep site, and rebuilt in a new location at Sariova, next to the highway leading eastwards into Iran.

So who was it who built the second-largest palace in the Ottoman Empire after Topkapi?

ENVY OF THE SULTAN

Beyazit was a frontier city on the branch of the ancient Silk Road leading from Tabriz to Trabzon on the Black Sea coast. Situated on the border between Ottoman Turkey and Iran, Beyazit had enjoyed all the wealth deriving from its position until the balance of power shifted to the disadvantage of the Ottomans.

The palace was constructed by Ishak Pasa, son of the local ruling family, the Çildirogullari, who controlled the region in the 18th century. He was appointed governor, but dismissed from this post by Sultan Selim III (1789-1807) after an Iranian envoy sent to Istanbul described his reception in ishak Pasa's palace. The glittering splendour was enough to arouse the envy of any ruler. Upon the death of Ishak Pasa, he was succeeded by his son Mahmut Han, the cruel ruler of the Mount Ararat legend.

ABOVE THE CLOUDS

The palace is built on a high rock overlooking the old and new town and Dogubeyazit plateau. It is surrounded by precipices on three sides, and can only be approached from the east, where the steep road leads up to the great portal. The palace consists of three sections, the first group of buildings around the outer court being those that have suffered the greatest damage. On the north Side are the guard rooms and beneath them the dungeons; to the west the second portal;

and to the south the stables and carriage house, of which only the high outer wall now remains. Passing through the second portal and a tunnel 12 metres long brings you to the inner courtyard, on the north side of which is the mosque, medrese (college), council chamber and private rooms; on the south side a three storey block containing servants' quarters, granaries and stables; on the east side guard rooms and the council gallery; and on the west side the third portal leading into the Harem. In the 19th century Charles Texier was received in the council chamber here, and marvelled at the paintings of landscapes with birds of a thousand colours on the ceilings, and the patterned tiles on the walls.

THE PALACE HAREM

These private apartments are a labyrinth of many rooms. Here there is a reception hall, kitchen, baths, and private chambers, all linked by halls and passageways.

Mirrors that once stood in the rows of niches along the walls have disappeared, but the poems and other decoration on the walls, whose lower part is built of black limestone, and above of yellow stone, suffice to give an idea of its original luxurious splendour. While traditional Seljuk and Ottoman features dominate, the columns and plinths are reminiscent of 18th century European architecture, and the carving wanders unrestrained from the Seljuks to Caucasia, and on to India; in a riot of trees of life, hung with exotic flowers and heavenly fruits. These symbols of life and abundance can be seen on the portals, on the paintings inside the mosque dome, and on the tomb.

As the sun sets over the snow-capped summit of Ararat, crimson light strikes the trees of life, and the legend seems to come to life.

I see Mahmut Han’s grey horse, a long green tree of life on the felt saddle pad, reined to the palace gate. Ahmet plays his flute as he approaches the gate, and the story begins.

Text: NEZAHAT TURKAN