Sahib Ata Fahreddin Ali’s Waqf Water Structures of Konya

Abstract

The water was considered as a means for doing kindness, charity and creating waqfs (religious endowments) by the both statesmen and ordinary people in the Turkish Seljukid State. Water services; which are being performed by different state organizations in this day, had been performed by waqfs in the Seljukid and Ottoman eras. The Ottoman state continued to use the water structures which was built by the Seljuk, Byzantine and the Roman empires. Because the water is not only a humane need, it is also considered as a prerequisite for praying. In the time of Seljuks, many different water structures are present at the big cities as well as small towns. These structures are; fountains, water kiosks, water tanks, water wheels, water channels, water dams, water distributors, watering troughs, water gauges, cisterns, public baths, ice factories, pools and aqueducts. At the time of Seljuks, many water structures had been built by the Vizier Sahib Ata Fahreddin Ali. In this study, the distribution and usage of water in the Medieval Age Konya would be explained over the waqfs of Vizier Sahib Ata Fahreddin Ali with the contemporary chronicles and waqf charters.