Demirşeyh Mausoleum
The Demirşeyh Mausoleum stands in Demirşeyh village in Sungurlu district and has given the village its name. According to Ali Kılcı’s article in the Journal of Waqfs (Vakıflar Dergisi, 1985), the square, domed building lies inside a large cemetery; over the plain grave inside lies an iron mass known as the “muallak taşı” (the “suspended stone”). The brochure of the Çorum Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism spells the village name “Demirşıh”.
The village and the name
Kılcı writes that the village had 1,539 inhabitants in the 1975 census and was once on the Ankara-Samsun road, ending up off the route when a new road was opened. Reused (spolia) building material in the tomb, the mosque, the fountain and the houses suggests an old settlement. He notes that he found no trace of a “Demirşeyh” or “Timurşeyh” in the sources on the Seljuk period and knew nothing about the man beyond a legend heard from the villagers. The archive of the General Directorate of Foundations holds endowment records from 1827 and 1869 for a mosque in “Timurşeyh village”; Kılcı writes that this mosque may have been built in Demirşeyh’s name.
The legend
According to the story told in the village, a young commander, Şeyh Mehmet, was put at the head of a Turkish army prepared in Khorasan for the conquest of Anatolia; his elder brothers Balişeyh and Sarışeyh took part in the campaign. Praying before a battle, Şeyh Mehmet saw a stone fall from the sky beside him and kneaded it like dough, after which those who had opposed his command submitted to him. The battle was won, the three brothers fell as martyrs and were buried where they died. The story places Balişeyh at Balişıh in Kırıkkale and Sarışeyh at the site of Sarışıh village in Çorum. Kılcı says he retells it on the principle that every legend holds a share of truth.
The tomb is visited by people wishing for children, for late-walking children to walk, or for relief from certain pains, and the local people are said to have gathered here to pray for rain. Kılcı saw a wooden mallet and a wooden root in the tomb and was told that visitors with aches and pains use them.
The iron mass
Kılcı suggests that the stone may really be a meteorite. An analysis of a piece taken from it at the Mineral Research and Exploration Institute (MTA) showed iron as the main element, about 10 per cent nickel and small amounts of copper and cobalt. In the legend the stone was taken to Kalehisar on the order of its lord to be worked, vanished from the blacksmith’s shop overnight and was later found back in the tomb. According to Kılcı, Kalehisar is today a village of Alaca; see Kalehisar Madrasa.
The article says that in 1971 some people dug inside the tomb, found nothing and left; in later years the iron mass was extended over the grave and its surroundings were covered in concrete, so that at the time of writing a part measuring 60x70 cm remained exposed.
Construction and endowment records
The building has no inscription. The legend says the tomb was built soon after the conquest of Anatolia; Kılcı writes that its present form shows a plain Ottoman building rather than a Seljuk one. A local family known as Tekkeşinler looks after the tomb; they say their ancestor Şeyh Mustafa endowed it, and they hold a decree of Mahmud II dated AH 1242 (AD 1827). The decree speaks of the “Zaviye-i Demürlü Foundation” at “karye-i Demür Ziyareti” in the nahiye of Karahisar-ı Demürlü in the sancak of Çorum, with 132 tax-paying households. Kılcı writes that a lodge (zaviye) must have stood nearby, that villagers told him food was cooked here continuously until 1946, and he considers it likely that Şeyh Mustafa had the tomb built in the 15th century. In his conclusion he counts the building as a plain example of that century.
Architecture
By Kılcı’s measurements the tomb is about 6.40x6.60 m outside and about 4.40x4.20 m inside, with walls generally thicker than 1 m. The dome is reached from the square body by squinches (trompes) in the corners, with windows between them. The walls are rubble masonry faced in cut stone, while the dome and arches are brick. All cut stones from the first building are reused; some carry cross motifs or inscriptions, and the author states that this material belongs to the Byzantine period. The door on the east is an arched opening, with jambs and a wooden lintel on the inside. The south wall has a mihrab-like marking and a niche beside it. The tomb has no crypt. The floor, covered in concrete, lies about 70 cm below the ground outside. The outer dome covering and the facing up to the window sills later collapsed and were rebuilt in a way that does not match the original; the roof is covered with Marseille tiles.
Comparing it with the tombs of Küçük Şami village in Sulakyurt (Ankara) and İsa Dede in Söğüt (Bilecik), Kılcı thinks the Demirşeyh tomb may also have had a dome on an octagonal drum, and he calls for it to be repaired systematically.
In the Directorate’s brochure
The “Manevi Huzurum Çorum” brochure describes the tomb as a stone-built, two-room structure inside the Demirşıh village cemetery, rectangular on the outside, laid out east-west, with its entrance on the east. The first room was rebuilt 25-30 years before the brochure was prepared, while the second kept its original form. A low, pointed-arched door leads into the tomb chamber; the rooms are square and the main room is domed. Three façades have windows and the south wall has a niche. Yellow cut stone is used at the outer corners and rubble and reused material in the walls; the building resembles Ottoman tombs but is described as “provincial”. As the inscription has not survived, the date of construction is unknown; popular belief holds that it was built after the Battle of Manzikert. The brochure says the name Demirşıh is thought to come from the meteorite in the tomb and that the Directorate General of Foundations repaired the tomb in 1977. Kılcı, in his 1985 article, writes that repairs were made from time to time by the local people.
For the wider history of the district see History of Sungurlu.
Sources
- Ali Kılcı, “Demirşeyh Türbesi” (Demirşeyh Mausoleum), Vakıflar Dergisi (Journal of Waqfs), no. 19, 1985, pp. 179-184. https://vakiflardergisi.org/index.php/pub/article/view/76
- Çorum Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, “Manevi Huzurum Çorum” brochure, Kültür Portalı. https://www.kulturportali.gov.tr/Common/DownloadFile.aspx?f=manevihuzurumcorum.compressed_20160414113807476.pdf