Hüdavend Hatun Kümbeti

Hüdavend Hatun was a daughter of the Anatolian Seljuk sultan Rükneddin Kılıç Arslan IV^1,4. Niğde's culture directorate writes that her father was killed with the consent of the Ilkhanid ruler Abaqa, that in 1276 she went to the Ilkhanid court as Abaqa's daughter-in-law, and that she came home after the death of her husband Arghun in 1291⁴. The inscription over the portal says that she ordered the building of “this blessed tomb” in the months of the year 712 of the Hijra, that is 1312-1313². TDV adds that this was under Sungur Ağa, the Ilkhanid governor¹.

She died in 1332, and the head of her marble cenotaph reads “This is the resting place of the queen Huand Hatun”². Two more people were buried with her later: Paşa Hatun, daughter of Emir Şücaeddin, who died in 1340, and Belkıs Hanım, daughter of an Ottoman governor of the Niğde district, who died in 1563¹. In 1967 the art historian Gönül Öney published a study of the tomb's figural reliefs, noting that they had not been examined before³. The General Directorate of Foundations, which owns the building, restored it in 1962, and Niğde's culture directorate notes that it keeps its original features despite some repairs^4,5,6.

The tomb is built of yellow cut stone, with white marble for the lintels, arches, inscription plaques and cornice; Niğde's culture directorate names the stone as trachyte, with some black stone^4,5. An octagonal body, its corners softened by carved colonnettes, rises from an octagonal base about 1.20 m high that ends in a muqarnas moulding^1,5. At the top, small muqarnas triangles turn the octagon into sixteen sides, and a muqarnas frieze leads to an eight-sided pyramidal roof set on a sixteen-sided cornice¹. The portal is on the east side, where three steps lead up to a low door, 1.75 m high; three other sides have rectangular windows, and every side except the entrance has two pointed-arch tympana in its upper part^1,5.

The portal niche has a muqarnas hood, and its surface carries borders of geometric star interlace and panels of rumi and palmette scrolls, with small human figures hidden in the foliage¹. Figural high reliefs appear beside plant designs in the shallow window niches and in the tympana¹. On the west side a double-headed eagle has wings that end in dragon heads, with a human head between its two heads; on the north side a head wearing a three-lobed crown hides among the scrolls¹. Gönül Öney counted four sirens in high relief, two of them facing each other above a window on the south-east side with three rosettes between them, as well as pairs of lions, and Archnet also lists a gazelle^3,5. Drawing on Central Asian shamanic parallels, she read the hidden masks as charms against evil spirits and the lions as guardians of the soul of the dead; TDV likewise links the reliefs to Seljuk funerary symbolism^1,3.

Niğde's culture directorate lists the tomb as closed to visitors⁴. Published descriptions show an octagonal room with a stone floor, entered through a door with a flattened arch; a muqarnas band runs around the walls at the height of the window tops, and pointed arches of dark stone make the transition to the dome^1,2,5. A five-sided mihrab niche in the south wall, with a muqarnas hood, is framed by inscription bands and by borders of geometric and plant motifs; its inscription gives the profession of faith and the Qur'anic words “He sent him with guidance and the religion of truth”^1,2,5. Three cenotaphs, each cut from a single block of marble, stand side by side on the stone floor; Hüdavend Hatun's has three-line inscriptions in thuluth script at its head and foot².