Cifte Minareli Medrese (Double Minaret Madrasa or Madrasah or Madrassa), by Unknown Artist, 1235, 13th Century. Turkey, Anatolia, Erzurum, Erzurum, Cifte Minareli Medrese. Detail The Eagle, a former totemic and shamanistic symbol, was a key animal in the ancestral heritage and imagery of the pre Islamic Turks. The Eagle was the symbol par excellence of the inaccessible dimension of spiritual authority, while the Tree of Life represented the Cosmic Axis at the very center of the shamanistic spiritual universe. 2009 photograph.