1620
A sheikh from Galata
Abdullah Dede — called Sırrı Abdi, the keeper of secrets — built a lodge inside his own garden. He died there in 1631 and is buried there still.
Philosophy · Kasımpaşa Mevlevihanesi
A prayer,
in motion.
A seven-hundred-year-old ritual, renewed this year after a hundred winters of silence.
Founded 1620 Renewed 1445 ah · 2024 UNESCO heritage
§ 01 · The renewal
1445
The year
The year
the lodge
began again.
In December 1925, the doors of every Mevlevi lodge in Türkiye were locked by decree. The semahane at Kasımpaşa fell silent. A fire in 1979 took everything but the stone stairs, the gate, and a small garden of graves.
This past year, after one hundred winters, the poet Ekmelî composed an inscription whose letters add, by the old abjad reckoning, to the year 1445 — the year the lodge began again. The word he used was not reopening. It was tecdid. Renewal.
§ 02 · The lineage
Four centuries,
built in a garden.
1796
Three imperial restorations
Hasan Ağa (1731), Mihrişah Vâlide Sultan and Selim III (1796), Mahmud II (1834). Sultans came to restore what they did not found.
1979
Silence, then stone
Closed in 1925. A 1979 fire left only the stairs, the gate, and the small hazîre of the founders. Then a hundred winters.
§ 03 · The teaching
The dervish enters the floor
already dead to himself.
- Sikke
- The tall felt hat. Mezar taşını simgeler — the shape of a tombstone.
- Tennure
- The white skirt. Nefsin kefenini simgeler — the shroud of the ego.
- Hırka
- The black cloak of the world, shed at the threshold of the whirl.
- Eller
- Right palm upward to receive. Left palm downward to give.
- Kırmızı post
- The Sheikh's red sheepskin. Five corners — two feet, two hands, one head — meaning at once the five daily prayers, the five pillars of the faith, and the Hamse-i Âl-i Aba: Muhammad, Ali, Fatima, Hasan, Hüseyin.
Hakk'tan alır, halka sunarız.
We receive from the Truth,
and we offer it to humanity.
Teaching of the Kasımpaşa lodge · on the hand gesture of the semazen
§ 04 · The seven movements
One hour, told in seven parts.
01
Naat-ı Şerif
A single voice praises the Prophet, alone in stillness.
02
Kudüm Vuruşu
The drum strikes — the first heartbeat of creation.
03
Ney Taksimi
The reed flute laments its separation from the reed bed.
04
Devr-i Veledi
Three circumambulations, each greeting another dervish.
05
Selâm I–IV
The four salutes. The whirling begins, builds, descends.
06
Son Peşrev
The closing instrumental. Movement returns to stillness.
07
Kur'an-ı Kerim
Recitation and silence. The ceremony ends as it began.
§ 05 · The lodge, in numbers
A specification sheet, in four centuries.
- Founded
- 1620 by Abdullah Dede 'Sırrı Abdi'
- Founded under
- Murad IV Ottoman, 1623–1640
- Imperial restorations
- 3 1731 · 1796 · 1834
- Closed
- 1925 by republican decree
- Fire
- 1979 stairs, gate, hazîre survived
- Renewed
- 1445 ah · 2024 inscription by Ekmelî
- Heritage
- unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2008
- Ceremony
- 60 min Saturday evenings
- Capacity
- 80 intimate semahane
- Music
- live ney · kudüm · rebab
An invitation
The semahane has lit its candles
every Saturday for four hundred years,
with one long silence between.
On the evenings it lights them,
the door is open to you.
Next ceremony · Saturday · 8:30 pm · Kasımpaşa