Şifaiye Medrese

The Şifaiye Medrese — literally 'healing medrese' — was founded in 1217 by the Rum Seljuk Sultan Kaykaus I. in Sivas, functioning simultaneously as a Quranic school and a hospital, an unusual dual purpose for its era. The structure belongs to the high period of Seljuk stone craftsmanship in Anatolia, with its elaborately carved entrance portal featuring geometric and floral relief work characteristic of the style. It stands as one of the earliest surviving examples of institutionalized Islamic medical education in present-day Turkey. Now preserved as a historic monument in Sivas's old city, it offers visitors a rare window into 13th-century Seljuk architectural and scholarly tradition.