Yakutiye Madrasa

Overview

In the heart of Erzurum, a stone madrasa with a single tiled minaret stands in its own small square. It was built in 1310, when the city belonged to the Mongol Ilkhanids, and its minaret is still covered in blue tiles and geometric patterns. Today the Yakutiye Madrasa is a museum of Turkish-Islamic arts and ethnography.

The Story of the Yakutiye Madrasa

Hoca Yakut Gazani built the madrasa in 1310, in the reign of the Ilkhanid ruler Olcaytu, in the names of Gazan Han and Bolugan Hatun.

After a restoration in 1995, the building became the Museum of Turkish-Islamic Arts and Ethnography.

What to See at the Yakutiye Madrasa

Start outside with the minaret. Its shaft is wrapped in geometric interlace and glazed tiles. Then look at the carved portal, before you go inside to the galleries of the museum.

Oltu Stone and the Taşhan

After the museum, walk to the Rüstem Paşa Caravanserai, the Taşhan, where Erzurum’s craftsmen sell work in black Oltu stone, the city’s best-known souvenir: prayer beads, cigarette holders, necklaces, brooches, earrings and hair clips. The museum in the madrasa is one of the sites of the provincial culture and tourism directorate, together with the Erzurum Museum, the Atatürk House Museum, the Painting and Sculpture Museum and Erzurum Castle.

How to Visit the Yakutiye Madrasa

The madrasa stands in the center of Erzurum, a short walk from the Çifte Minareli Madrasa and the Taşhan. We time your visit to the museum hours of the madrasa.

Would you like to see Erzurum with a local guide, or combine it with Kars and the Black Sea coast? We add the Yakutiye to the old city morning of our Erzurum tour, before the Taşhan and the road to Tortum; the rest of Erzurum is in our Erzurum guide.