Architectural artefacts of Turkish Period In Niksar

Niksar, a district of Tokat province, is located on fertile land where Kelkit Stream passes. The area where the city is located is important in terms of creating a natural defense area due to its geographical structure. Niksar, where settlement was seen in the Pontus, Roman, and Byzantine periods, has become a Turkish Homeland together with the Danishmend Principality since the end of the 11th century. The fact that it was the capital of the Taceddinoğulları Principality, as well as the Danishmends, contributed to the development of the city. There are buildings belonging to every period from the second half of the 12th century to the 20th century in the city. In the studies carried out until today, it has generally been limited to the district center, and the main structures in the center have been discussed. Since there is no study that deals with Niksar together with its rural area, it was decided to carry out this study. In this study, the Hurufat notebooks are taken as a basis, and the architectural works in the Niksar district center and the villages of the district have been determined by using other archive documents (vakfiyes, cadastral registers, cevdet-i evkaf notebooks, etc.). It was aimed to determine the places of the structures whose names were specified on the documents by fieldwork, and also this study tried to determine whether they reached the present day or not. Although not mentioned in the documents during the fieldwork phase, the buildings that were determined to be historical monuments, especially in the villages and plateaus, were also included in the study. As a result of the study on the Hurufat notebooks, a total of 167 buildings of eight types were identified in Niksar town center and its villages, including 114 mosques and masjids, 14 fountains, 2 baths, 1 Caravanserai, 2 bridges, 6 madrasas, 10 schools/teachers' houses, 6 tombs, 12 zawiyas, 14 of these structures in the district center and only 8 in the villages have survived to the present day. 8 structures were identified in other archive documents. Only one of these structures has survived to the present day. There are 36 structures whose names are not mentioned in the archive documents, but which were identified during the fieldwork. The buildings were built with rubble stone and cut stone during the Danishmends and Taceddinoğulları Principality, with brick, cut stone, rubble stone during the Seljuk period, and with cut stone materials, mainly wood, during the Ottoman period.