The oldest settlement area around Kayseri is Kaniş Höyügü, located 20 km northeast of the city. Many documents belonging to the Old Bronze Age, Assyrian Trade Colonies and Hittite Ages were found in the center which preserved its importance until the Hellenistic Age in 2800 B.C.
After the Hittites, the region came under Phrygian rule, and Mazaka came to the fore during the Phrygians, who dominated the Kızılırmak Basin. It is stated in historical resources that the Cimmerians who came to Anatolia in 676 B.C. destroyed Kaniş and Mazaka and ended the Phrygian rule.
After Kaniş lost its importance, Mazaka on the northern skirt of Argaios (Erciyes), which is accepted as the sacred mountain of the region, came to the fore. With the expulsion of the Cimmerians from Anatolia by the Assyrians and Lydians, Mazaka came under the rule of Lydia and Med and became an important trade center of the period.
In 590 B.C., when the Persian King Kyros defeated the Lydian King Krisos, Mazaka along with the whole Anatolia came under Persian rule. People immigrating from Iran to the region settled in Argaios (Erciyes) and its surroundings, which they considered resembling to their own country.
In 332 B.C., I-Ariarathes declared his independence as the first King of Kappadokia. While the capital of this kingdom, which ruled for 349 years until 17 A.D., was Mazaka, the name of the city was changed to Eusebia during the rule of Ariarathes V. In 8 B.C., a change was made again and the name CEASAREA was given in honor of the Roman Emperor Ceasar. Since then, the city has been called Kayseri for 2000 years.
The city stadium was built between 193-211 A.D. and became the center of many competitions as in important Roman cities. The city walls were built during the reign of the Roman Emperor Bordianus III (241 A.D.) At the beginning of the 4th century, the people were completely christianized and Kayseri became the scientific center of this religion.
With the division of the Roman Empire into east and west, Kayseri became a Byzantine city because it remained in the east. Kayseri was occupied many times during the Istanbul raids of the Arab and Iranian armies in the Byzantine period.
After the great Seljuk Sultan Alpaslan defeated the Byzantine armies in Malazgirt in 1071, the gates of Anatolia were opened to the Turks. 15 years after this date, we see Kayseri as a Turkish and Muslim city in 1085. It is seen that the Greeks and Armenians, the former people of Kayseri, gathered in one neighborhood under the rule of Muslim Turks and gradually lost their dominance in the bazaar, market and trade.
The city gained an Islamic city identity in a short time with its mosques, inns, madrasahs, baths and fountains that were built rapidly. Being a center of Danishmends for a long time, Kayseri became one of the top three cities of Seljuks along with Konya and Sivas especially under the rule of the Seljuk Sultan Uluğ Keykubat (Alaeddin Keykubat I). Grand Mosque, Gülük Mosque and Bathhouse, Hunat Küllüyesi, Şifaiye-Gıyaiyesi Madrasa, Hacı Kılıç Kulliye, Lala Muhlisiddin Mosque, Sahabiye Madrasa, Castle Walls and Yogunburc are among the most important buildings constructed during the Danishmends and Seljuk reigns.
The defeat of the Seljuk army by the Mongolian army with the Battle of Kösedağ in 1243 was a turning point in Turkish history and the Mongol domination began in Anatolia. The Mongolians, who inspected Anatolia with the governors they sent, looted all the material and spiritual resources of Kayseri and Anatolia for 150 years. The Seljuk State, which was crushed under the Mongol exploitation, lost all its power and was replaced by the principalities after Mesud II (1308)
After the Seljuk State, Kayseri came under the rule of the Eretna principality. Kadi of Kayseri and Vizier Kadi Burhaneddin Ahmet, who put an end to the Eretna dynasty, founded his own state in 1381. Burhaneddin, whose father was also a Kadi of Kayseri, was a ruler with a strong personality. Like his sword and intelligence, his pen was very powerful. The love of this combative sultan, who was a good poet, for Kayseri finds its expression in the following lines.
"Let us tear our eyes and let us make a river and compare Kayseri to Baghdad with this water."
Kadı Burhaneddin was killed in 1397-98. His son Alaeddin Ali Çelebi (Zeynel Abidin) ascended the throne in Sivas for a short time. In those years, the people of Anatolia, who united against the approaching Timur danger, decided to join the Ottoman Empire. Zeynel Abidin, who first obeyed Dulkadiroğlu and then the Ottoman state, was a scholar statesman, known by the people as "Imam Sultan". The tomb of Abdulhamid Han was built on the grave of Zeynel Abidin, who died in Kayseri in 1442. In the "Interregnum Period", which started with the defeat of the Ottomans to the Timur armies in the Ankara War in 1402, Kayseri repeatedly changed hands between Dulkadiroğulları and Karamanoğulları.
During the reign of Fatih Sultan Mehmet, Gedik Ahmet Pasha terminated the Karamanoğulları Principality and the regions of Karaman, Konya and Kayseri joined the Ottoman land. (1474) Since 476, Kayseri became a sanjak center. In 1839, it became under Bozok State and Ottoman administrative division
as an independent sanjak center in 1867.
It was made a province with the new constitution made in 1924 during the Republic period. State-led industrialization was initiated in Kayseri, which has been a trade center since the earliest times. Sümerbank weaving factory, Plane Factory, Main Repair Maintenance Factory and Military Sewing House were established, respectively. After 1850, Kayseri started to transform its savings from trade into industry. Today, Kayseri is an average sized commercial and industrial city. It is still earning its former reputation by becoming a cultural center with its strengthening university.
The first municipal organization in Kayseri was established in 1869. From that date until 1926, it was administered as the district governor of Kayseri. Since Mollaoğlu Mustafa Aga, who was the first mayor, around 50 mayors, including the deputies, have carried out this duty. Especially after Osman Kavuncu, who was the mayor between 1950-57, great steps were taken in the field of modern urbanization. Kayseri Municipality, which gained metropolitan status in 1989, has 2 central districts, Melikgazi and Kocasinan.
Kayseri, which was an important center during the Seljuk period, has many mosques, madrasahs, cupolas and fountains from that period. The current situation of these structures is sufficient to give an idea about the revolutionary power of art. Grand Mosque, Hunat Mosque, Hacı Kılıç Mosque, Han Mosque, Lale Mosque are some of the Seljuk works. Their common feature is that they are with wide space and dimly lit and for large group of people. Portal (door), minbars and mihrabs are particularly noted.
Portals and mihrabs are masterpieces of stone working and minbars are masterpieces of woodworking. The most important madrasah structure is the world's first medical madrasa (university) and hospital, which was built in 1206 in the name of Gevher Nesibe, one of the female Seljuk Sultans. It is a work that is beyond its age, consisting of rooms lined up around a square courtyard, where even mental patients are treated in the adjacent hospital. Hunat Madrasa, Hacı Kılıc Madrasa, Sahabiye Madrasa, Seraceddin Madrasa, and Köşk Madrasa are also the distinguished examples of the period with their monumental portals, which are also square planned. Döner Kümbet is one of the rare examples known around the world. Hunat Kümbet, Gevher Nesibe Kümbet, Ali Cafer Kümbet, Köşk Kümbet etc. are beautiful architectural examples of the same period. Kümbets are monumental tomb structures in the form of Central Asian Turkish tents, with a pyramid cone and polygonal body. The tomb is located in the pedestal part. Those who survived from the Ottoman period are Fatih Mosque in the castle, Kurşunlu Mosque, the only work of Mimar Sinan, the Grand Bazaar, a few fountains and covered bazaars. These structures were among the beautiful Seljuk Turkish houses in Kayseri Today, the integrity is broken. These structures are now trying to reach the future with those surviving among the piles of multi-storey buildings. In new buildings, Turkish tradition could be reflected so that the character of the Turkish city could be preserved in certain dimensions directly with new technical possibilities.
The Grand Mosque was built by Melik Mehmet Gazi, the third ruler of the Danishmends, who made Kayseri the capital of his state between 1134 and 1143. A four-line inion in very thick thuluth was placed on the marble on the north wall of the mosque. The mosque is a rectangular building with a roof, stone-covered, and two domes resting on 42 arches. The brick minaret is built high and thick. The precious, artful wooden pulpit was repaired again. As it can be understood from the Ottoman Period inion on the northern gate of the mosque, it was devastated by the earthquake in 1722 and was reconstructed. Thus, four doors took their present shape with the last repair.
It is a part of the complex built by Mahberi Hatun, wife of the Seljuk ruler Alaaddin Keykubat I in 1238 The dome and minaret in the middle of the mosque was built later. Crown gates in the east and west are among the most beautiful examples of Seljuk stonework. Its wooden minbar is original. It attracts attention with its solid cut stone workmanship and walls resembling a castle. The name "Huand" is pronounced as "Hunat" among the people. The Turkish version of the three-line marble inion placed above the front door arch is as follows. ‘’Keykubat ordered the construction of this blessed mosque to his son Melik the great scholar, abstentious, honor of the world and religion, the conqueror of goodness, in the period of Keyhüsrev, the great Sultan, the protector of the religion and the world, the owner of conquests, (May 1238). May Allah perpetuate his supreme existence and increase his power.’’
It is located in the Gülük District, in the south-west of the Düvenönü district, in the city. It consists of mosques and madrasahs belonging to Danishmends. This work, which is important with its Seljuk period tile mihrab and original mosque madrasa plan, was named “Gülük” after renovation of a person called Gülük Şemseddin in 1334 (735 – Hijri Calander) for the mosque which was devastated by an earthquake. Two domes cover the middle part of the mosque which was built on a rectangular plan. Four small windows were opened on the base of the dome. In the middle of the courtyard there is a skylight opening to the roof. There are two-storey madrasah cells in its west. The cut face on which the door is located turns into a very elegantly processed molding.
It is on Talas Street in the center of the city and it was named like this because it also functions as an inn after the outer walls of the city were closed. It was built with well-carved large cut stones. There is a cupola with the same name on the south side of the mosque.
The mosque built by Lala Muhlisiddin Pasha in the Lale District behind Kayseri High School belongs to the Seljuk Period. A neat dome was built on the central part of the square-planned, vaulted mosque. The mihrab part was built later in accordance with the original. The wooden pulpit in the Seljuk style was carved in wood and there is Ayete'l-Kürsi (a verse from Quran) on it and it is original.
The mosque, whose minaret was built later, has a cupola on the east and a bathhouse on the north.
It is in the new park on Talas road. It has emerged as an art value with the cleaning of the old buildings around it. This mausoleum, built in the name of Princess Shah Cihan Hatun, is one of the most beautiful examples of Seljuk artifacts in Kayseri. The cupola is made of yellowish cut stone and has a 12-cornered upper body according to its plan. The lower base is also square planned and there is a sarcophagus room.
