Gender, identity and patronage: The role of women patrons in the urban transformation of medieval Anatolia (1200-1350)

Abstract

This thesis is on the roles women patrons played as active agents of medieval Anatolian architectural and urban transformations during the thirteenth and the first half of the fourteenth centuries. It focuses on the female patronage by discussing two examples of medieval Anatolian women patrons: Mama Khatun and Mahpari Khatun. Their multi-functional building projects in Tercan and Kayseri are studied within the political and socio-economic context of the period. As opposed to the extant scholarly literature which examines the buildings and patrons in a descriptive and formalistic approach, this thesis aims to broaden the discussion of female patronage by emphasizing concepts like gender and identity. By comparing medieval Anatolian women patrons and their buildings with their male counterparts and contemporary female patrons in Ayyubid Syria, it aims to understand the situation of women patrons. In addition to questioning the multi-cultural backgrounds of the patrons as well as the artistic and architectural repertoire which they ordered, the thesis argues that women patrons of Anatolia were important components of the cultural transformation of medieval Anatolia.