Abdalata Mosque and Tomb
The Abdalata Mosque and Tomb stand in Abdalata village, south of the centre of Çorum, and are the surviving part of the lodge (zaviye) of the same name. According to the Çorum Governorate’s promotional text, the building dates from the Seljuk period; the stone mosque and the tomb beside it are covered by two domes. Aysemin Çanak puts the village about 18 km from Çorum.
The name of the village
As reported by Ethem Erkoç, the village appears as Yakacık or Yanacık in records from before the lodge was founded. The 1530 survey register lists it as Yanacık with 30 households; the 1845 land and tax register (temettuat) lists it as Abdalata with 57 households and 353 people (Çanak gives the same figures).
The lodge and its endowment deeds
Erkoç writes that the Abdalata family settled in the village around AH 600 / AD 1204 and that a small mosque (mescit) and a dervish lodge were established through him. The earliest document concerning the lodge is an endowment deed dated AH 822 / AD 1419, in which Şeyh İlyas, a grandson of Abdalata, endowed land he had bought to the lodge. Later deeds and decrees bear the dates 826/1423, 840/1437, 848/1444 and 868/1464; a decree of 874/1470 records that the sheikh’s son Seyit İbrahim was appointed after his father’s death and that the lodge was exempt from taxes.
The sources read the family line differently:
- A scheme based on Neşet Köseoğlu’s articles in the journal Çorumlu (1938-1939) gives the sequence Abdulburhan, Şeyh Toklu, Abdalata, Şeyh Mahmut.
- The deed of 822/1419 reads “İlyas son of Şeyh Mahmut son of Burhan, known as Abdalata”, in which Burhan and Abdalata are one person rather than two.
Erkoç also notes that it is not certain that Abdalata was the original form of the name.
According to the records Erkoç cites, the lodge was destroyed in the earthquake of 1509 and several reconstruction projects were submitted to Bayezid II. An inscription at the entrance of the mosque records a violent rainstorm and flood in AH 1029 that destroyed most of the village and filled the mosque with water. Erkoç dates the event to July 1620, while Çanak writes spring 1029/1619. Erkoç supposes that the mosque, lodge and tomb were repaired at that time.
The building
According to Erkoç, the stone masonry mosque and the tomb section are each covered by a dome eight metres across. The wooden minaret stands at the north-west corner of the mosque; the Governorate text places it in the north-east. The last-congregation porch is a later addition, made around 1965. In the courtyard stands an octagonal ablution fountain with a wooden dome.
The tomb contains four sarcophagi. Erkoç lists them from the qibla side as Şeyh Burhan, Şeyh Recep and Emir Seyit, with Abdalata nearest the door. Erkoç also reports that Ali İzzet Efendi, in his Tezkire-i Makamat (printed in 1899), mentions that one of those buried here was from Ardabil.
Çanak notes that flower-decorated Byzantine sarcophagi were reused in building the lodge and the mosque.
Present condition
According to Erkoç’s 2015 book, nothing remains of the tekke and zaviye buildings; only foundation traces can be found within the cemetery boundaries east of the mosque. Most of the lodge’s endowed property has passed into private ownership. For the current state of maintenance and use, a current source should be consulted.
Sources
- Ethem Erkoç, Çorum’da Sahabe ve Evliya Makamları (Companions of the Prophet and Saints’ Shrines in Çorum), Çorum Municipality Cultural Publications, December 2015, pp. 310-318 (Abdalata entry). https://www.corum.bel.tr/public/uploads/2023/05/sahabeevliyamakamlari.pdf
- Aysemin Çanak, “Abdal Ata Village According to Temettuat Register”, The Journal of International Civilization Studies, III/2, 2018. DOI: 10.26899/inciss.180. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/1352761
- Çorum Governorate promotional text, quoted in “A Seljuk-period legacy in Çorum: the Abdalata Village Mosque and Tomb”, Çorum Haber, 20 April 2024. https://corumhaber.net/corumda-selcuklu-doneminin-yadigari-abdalata-koyu-camii-ve-turbesi
- Kültür Envanteri (Cultural Inventory), entry “Abdal Ata Camii Ve Türbesi”. https://kulturenvanteri.com/yer/abdal-ata-camii-ve-turbesi/