Dictionary of islamic architecture

Further reading:
E.Beazley and M.Howerson, 
Living with the Desert:
Working Buildings of the Iranian Plateau,
Warminster
1982.
S.Helms (with contributions by A.V.G. Betts, W. and F.
Lancaster and C.J.Lenzen), 
Early Islamic Architecture of
the Desert: A Bedouin Station in Eastern Jordan,
Edinburgh
1990.
dershane
Turkish term for lecture hall or studying room,
literally ‘room for lessons’. Usually these are larger
domed rooms or vaulted iwans on one side of an
Ottoman madrassa.
diwan
Term of Iranian origin describing a reception hall,
either in a house or a palace. Later on the word is
also used to describe a government ministry.
diwan-i amm
Public reception hall.
diwan-i khass
Private reception hall.
Diyarbakir (Amida)
Prominent city on the banks of the Tigris in south-east
Turkey famous for its massive black basalt walls which
are still largely intact.
Diyarbakir was captured from the Byzantines by
Arab armies in 693 and became one of the great
Islamic frontier fortresses. On capturing the city the
Byzantine cathedral was shared between Muslims
and Christians, although by 770 it was again used as
a church. Later a Great Mosque was built on the site
of the present Ulu Cami which according to a
contemporary description (Nasiri Khusraw, 1045)
had arcades two tiers high. The Ulu Cami in its
present form dates to between 1090 and 1155
according to two inscriptions in the name of the
Seljuk leader Malik Shah. The prayer room or
sanctuary of the mosque is three aisles wide and
covered with a transept in the middle on the axis of
the mihrab. This arrangement and the similarity with
the Great Mosque in Damascus (once thought to
have been a church) has given rise to the assertion
that the building was once a church in spite of
contradictory evidence. The similarity with the Great
Mosque in Damascus is explained by the fact that
Malik Shah also carried out work there and may have
used this as a model for that of Diyarbakir.
During the fifteenth century Diyarbakir became
capital of the Aq-qoyunulu Turkman dynasty which
was given control of the city in return for its support
of Timur at the battle of Ankara in 1492. Buildings of
the Aq-qoyunulu period provided a model for those
of the Ottoman period. Several mosques of this
period survive, the most famous of which is that of
Kasim Padisah with its large central dome. The
minaret is detached and consists of a tall square
structure raised on four columns.
Ulu Cami, Diyarbakir, Turkey
dershane

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After its capture from the Aq-qoyunulu the
Ottomans developed Diyarbakir as a regional
administrative centre with its own mint. There are
several notable sixteenth-century Ottoman mosques
in Diyarbakir all built in the ablaq style (striped black
and white masonry) with tall minarets with square
shafts. Several of the mosques have fine tile decoration
similar but inferior to that of Iznik which was probably
produced within the city. The first of these is the Fatih
Cami built between 1518 and 1520 which consists of a
large dome supported by four semi-domes in a
quatrefoil pattern. This plan, which is also used in
the Peygamber Cami built in 1524, was probably the
inspiration for Sinan’s use of the plan in the Sehzade
Cami in Istanbul. One of the more interesting mosques
is the Melek Ahmet Pasha Cami which is built on first-
floor level and is entered by a passage under the
mosque which leads into a courtyard from which a
set of stairs leads up into the prayer room.
Several nineteenth-century konaks (palatial
houses) survive in Diyarbakir. One of the best
examples is the Gevraniler Konak completed in 1819.
The house is built around a courtyard on a vaulted
sub-structure which contains cisterns, stables and a
bath house. The apartments face north and are
arranged as separate pavilions with their own terraces.