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education, were decorated with libraries with very special collections; the
tombs where sultans and religious elders are buried, took their places in
the city architecture with domes and their elaborate stonework.
The Islamic city of Merv continued to live during the periods of Ta-
hirids, Saffarids, Samanids and Ghaznavids, and new institutions were
built in different places. However, since the capital of the region and cen-
ter of gravity were then made Nishapur, and briefly Bukhara, the progress
that Merv showed was interrupted. The dynasty, which was to awaken the
city from this slumber was the Seljuks, who settled in Khorasan beating
the Ghaznavids and made Merv the capital again.
SULTAN KALA
It was built during the Seljuks period by Sultan Malik-Shah I (1072-1092)
between the years 1080-1090 to the west of Gyaur Kala, on a rectangular
land approximately 1700 m × 2200 m. The walls, quite devastated today,
used to surround the Seljuk city. The towers, known to be located on the
corners and the doors, were appropriate to the Turkish city customs. The
castle walls were surrounded by moats for security and by water channels
in two directions. Shahriyar Ark, built to the Turkish architectural tradi-
tions on the north-west of the city, is an inner city (where the ruler with
his army and statesman reside) containing a Seljuk palace and government
buildings.
The north-west remains were identified as the shelter of guards, the
middle ones as the sultan's palace (Fig. 9) and
divanhane
(statesman
meeting place) (Fig. 10). The palace plan was identified by Pugatchen-
kova having two-stories and four courts with iwans, and more than 50
rooms (Hermann, 1999). It has been suggested that the Divanhane was
the meeting hall used to discuss state affairs, being identified as rectan-
gular shaped, with outside grooved walls, vault covered and single-story
structure (Sayan, 1999). Other views are that the building with this ar-
chitectural form is a
keboterhane
(noted as
kepterkhana
by Herrmann,
meaning
pigeon house
) with samples in the city or the high and win-
dowless walls suggesting that it had been used as the state archives or
treasury (Herrmann, 1999).
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