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A scholar who served as judge during the period when Kütahya passed from the Germiyanids to the Ottomans; he was the founder of the complex that bears his name. In the source his full name appears as İshak Fakih Halil.
The endowment deed of the complex he had built, drawn up in 825 (1422), mentions a mosque and a medrese containing within it a cell for his tomb after his death, a fountain and a library. The inscription of the fountain, which no longer exists and is preserved in the Kütahya Museum, bears the date 823 (1420); at that time the Germiyanid Yâkub Bey II was at the head of the principality. The source records that its founder is understood to have served both sovereignties during the transition in which Yâkub Bey II handed over his principality to the Ottomans.
Limit of this record: This record rests not on an article devoted to the man himself but on the article about the complex he built; the source gives no more about the person of İshak Fakih than the above. The architectural description of the complex is detailed; but that description has not been carried over here, because it belongs to the building, and has been left to the place record.
His Tomb and Complex
The complex stands in the İshak Fakih quarter, whose old name was Tabakhâne. The slightly extended section to the west of the mosque's porch is a tomb containing tiled cenotaphs, and this accords with the cell mentioned in the endowment deed. Above the door is an Arabic inscription of four lines in thuluth script dated 837 (1433-34). The medrese whose details are indicated in the endowment deed was thought to have been demolished; but this building stands, as stated in the deed, together with the chamber (library) within the lecture-mosque set aside for keeping the books endowed for the teachers and students.
Differing Scholarly Views
He has no article of his own. No separate article for İshak Fakih could be found in the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam; what is known of him consists of a few sentences within the article on the complex he built. The depth of this record is therefore limited, and that limit is not concealed. Since the source says nothing about his dates of birth and death, his studies, his affiliation or his Sufi line, those sections have not been opened in this record.
A building that escaped researchers' notice. The medrese building opposite the mosque did not attract researchers' attention because a second storey was added to it in the twentieth century and its façade was altered; for this reason it was long thought to have been demolished.
Sources
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) — Ara Altun · vol. 22, pp. 532-533, entry “İSHAK FAKİH KÜLLİYESİ”
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Permanent ID: EA-Z-000088 · this address reaches the same record even if its name changes; use it when citing.