Guide
The building at Damlarca village in the Güçlükonak district of Şırnak is described in the records as a mosque, but everyone knows it as the Faki Teyran Medrese. Faki Teyran's real name was Muhammed and he came from Bahçesaray, the old Müküs, in Van province, where his grave lies in a grove at Kartal village. Faki means a student of a medrese; the name Teyran, of the birds, attached to him in his own lifetime from the tradition that he spoke with birds. When exactly he lived is disputed. Different accounts have been offered, and on the evidence of the content, themes and style of his poems and of what is known of his life, he is accepted as having lived somewhere within the 140 years between 1550 and 1690; the stone over his grave carries no date. He was a contemporary of the Cizre scholar Mela Ahmed-i Ciziri, with whom he wrote poems such as the Mela u Faki, and he is known to have stayed in Cizre for a while and kept his connections with the region.
The area is generally known as Finik and commands the Tigris and its valley, with old settlements spread widely across it. This building stands on the west side of the stream that emerges from the rocks just beyond it, on a level platform created by retaining walls; the platform lies on the north side of the building. Various ruins and caves are found on both slopes. The building now stands beside the Güçlükonak road and is registered as a cultural property. It is 27 kilometres from Güçlükonak and 70 from Şırnak.
