What is Seljuk Architecture? Ambiguousness in Style and Semantic Legibleness of “Seljuk” Architecture

Abstract

Some characterizations, taken as a reference which are preferred to recall an era, such as ‘Byzantine’, ‘Seljuk’, ‘Beylik’, ‘Ottoman’, are to identify a network of dull and unwieldy relationships through various resemblances, established between legacies of an era which is invented among the historical periods. Homogenised and idealized historical heritage via architecture has become the basic references of reading in general style. This text will search for ways of reframing style with regard to generate historical knowledge of architecture. In the context of criticism of a generalized reading mode such as style, it is thought that examinations, done by focusing on a period, accommodate both pertinent fields in order to generate fertile implications and tension lines which present spatial paths through timewise sections. Thereby, it is benefitted from a well-accepted characterization which is mentioned both narratives of academic canon and current popular discourses when concept of style transforms a simple way of ‘reading’ into a kind of a transposition which points out merely architecture itself. Ultimately it will be searched that concept of style, described by characterization of ‘Seljuk’ which reduces a fluid cultural milieu to a network of unwieldy relationships, should correspond to what kind of a translation and to what extent ‘Seljuk’ is an ambiguous characterization according to its stipes.