İskender Baba Tomb
About the Person:
- İskender Baba was a Sufi figure from the lineage of the Horasan saints and the Hacı Bektaş order. He lived during the 16th century and was a spiritual leader of the prominent Kaymakçı Lodge.
- He was buried beside Yeniçeri Commander Mehmet Efendi, the founder of the Kaymakçı Lodge. İskender Baba’s tomb, along with the nearby menzilhane and the Hatibzâdeler Tomb, played a significant role in shaping the spiritual identity of the neighborhood.
About the Tomb::
Construction Year: 1548
Ordered by: Mehmet Efendi, one of the Janissary commanders
Architect: Unknown
Prominent Features:
- The tomb is a single-story masonry structure with a gabled roof. Its southern façade features three flat-arched windows.
- Built of rubble stone, the tomb’s wooden roof is covered with tiles.
- On the western façade, there is a rectangular window with a metal grille, which, along with the adjoining mosque, was restored by Sefazade Hacı Mehmet Efendi in the 1800s.
- Inside are three wooden sarcophagi. The prominent one at the front belongs to İskender Baba; the others belong to Sheikh Mehmet Sadık Efendi and Hasan Efendi, a dervish of the lodge.
- To the north of the tomb lies Hacı Abdurrahman, a khalifah of Kaymakcızade Sheikh Mehmet Efendi from the Halveti order.
