Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex: Seljuk and Ottoman Shrine at Seyitgazi

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1. What is the Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex?
2. How do you get to the Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex?
3. When is the best time to visit the Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex?
4. What is the history of the Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex?
5. What is the Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex famous for?
6. What can you see at the Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex?
7. Frequently asked questions about the Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex
8. What do the official records say about the Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex?

What is the Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex?

The Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex (Seyyid Battal Gazi Külliyesi) is a group of Seljuk and Ottoman buildings stepping up the east-facing slope of Üçler Tepesi above the town of Seyitgazi. At its heart is the tomb of Seyyid Battal Gazi, a semi-legendary Muslim warrior of the 8th century whose exploits against Byzantium were retold in Anatolian epics for centuries.

Around the tomb grew a mosque, a madrasa, kitchens, a bakery, dervish rooms and further tombs. The complex was first a centre for Kalenderi dervishes and later for the Bektashi order, and it remains one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in central Anatolia.

How do you get to the Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex?

Seyitgazi is about 43 km south of Eskişehir on the road towards Afyonkarahisar. Local buses run from Eskişehir, and by car the drive takes under an hour. The complex is on the hillside above the town centre and is signposted. Seyitgazi is also the gateway to the Phrygian rock monuments of the Kümbet and Yazılıkaya area, so it combines well with a day in Phrygia.

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When is the best time to visit the Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex?

Spring and early autumn are the most comfortable seasons. The commemoration of Seyyid Battal Gazi and the town’s liberation day, which the 2002 inventory lists on 1 September, brings crowds. Visit outside prayer times, dress modestly, and remember that the tombs are places of pilgrimage. The buildings are lit at night, and the view of the complex from the town after dark is worth a short stop.

What is the history of the Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex?

The 2002 provincial inventory explains the background. Around AD 700, while Anatolia was under Byzantine rule, the Umayyads made frequent raids from the east into the interior. In one of these raids, which grew more frequent between 720 and 740, the folk hero remembered as Seyyid Battal Gazi was killed in 740 near the place known as Mesih Kalesi, the site of present-day Seyitgazi (ancient Nakoleia).

According to legend, his grave was found through a dream and through a shepherd, Çoban Baba (also called Kutluca Baba), who saw a miraculous light where his sheep gathered. Ümmühan Hatun, wife of the Seljuk sultan Gıyaseddin Keyhüsrev I and mother of Alaeddin Keykubad I, first had a tomb and then a mosque built over it, the mosque in 1207–1208. She later asked to be buried here, and her son brought her body from Konya to the madrasa she had founded.

The Ottomans enlarged and repaired the complex repeatedly. The tomb inscription gives a repair date of 1464 under Mehmed the Conqueror; a dhikr room was built and the mosque renewed in 1511 under Bayezid II; the imaret (public kitchen) dates from the reign of Selim I; Süleyman the Magnificent visited during his Persian campaigns and built the Bektashi lodge; and Murad IV added a caravanserai during the Yerevan campaign. Archival records show a madrasa operating in 1556–1559 (Eskişehir Culture and Tourism Directorate).

The complex was used for religious teaching and ceremonies until the Republic. It belongs to the General Directorate of Foundations and, according to the inventory, was in ruins until a major restoration in 1954. During restoration work in 1958, seven headless bodies were found in what is now called the Kesikbaşlar Türbesi (Tomb of the Beheaded).

What is the Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex famous for?

• The tomb of Seyyid Battal Gazi, with a sarcophagus 5.5 m long.
• Bektashi heritage: the Halife Meydanı where cem ceremonies were held, the Kırklar Odası and the Bektashi lodge.
• The imaret kitchen, with eight hearths and chimneys rising above its dome, described by Evliya Çelebi.

What can you see at the Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex?

The main tomb. Battal Gazi’s 5.5 m sarcophagus, a size the directorate attributes to the reputation of the man buried in it. Also buried here is Elenora, described as a king’s daughter; whether she was Battal Gazi’s wife or beloved is disputed.

The mosque. The original mosque of 1207–1208, renewed in 1511.

Tombs of the founders. The tomb of Ümmühan Hatun, a two-storey iwan-shaped structure without a dated inscription, and that of her attendant Ayni Ana (Kadıncık Ana); the tombs of the Mihaloğlu commanders Ahmed and Mehmed Bey; and the tomb of Çoban Baba.

The dervish spaces. The Halife Meydanı with the seat of the halife, the Kırklar Odası, the windowless çilehane for spiritual retreat, the dhikr room of 1511 and the semahane.

The service buildings. The bakery (Ekmek Evi) with two ovens on basements cut into the slope, and the domed kitchen with eight hearths.

The madrasa. Founded as a zaviye, later a dervish lodge, then a madrasa again after the 16th century, and an army depot in the early 20th century.

Frequently asked questions about the Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex

What do the official records say about the Seyyid Battal Gazi Complex?

For Seyyid Battal Gazi, the legendary folk hero who performed great deeds in the wars against Byzantium, contributed greatly to the spread of Islam in Anatolia, and whose heroism has been told from generation to generation for years, a tomb and a mosque were built in 1207–1208 by Ümmühan Hatun, mother of the Anatolian Seljuk sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I. Later a two-storey, iwan-shaped tomb was added here for Ümmühan Hatun herself. Through repairs, rebuilding and additions during the founding and rise of the Ottoman state, the group of buildings became a complex.

Owned today by the General Directorate of Foundations, the complex was in a ruined state until 1954, when an extensive restoration and landscaping brought it to its present condition. It is lit at night by an illumination system, and its striking appearance and its visitors, both tourists and pilgrims, bring life to the district of Seyitgazi. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Eskişehir Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)

Main photo: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.