MUSEUM OF COUCH LITERATURE (DIVAN EDEBIYATI MÜZESI, GALATA MEVLEVIHANESI).

Old. in. In Turkey, a dervish, a word originating in Persian, designates every person of a religious order and has reached a certain level of intellectual maturity. A wise in some way. Religious orders (tarikat) are numerous and influential in the Ottoman Empire, particularly those of Mevlevi, founded by Mevlana Celaleddin-ı Rumi (Mevlana, Mosque in Konya), close to the state. They are known instead as «dervishes turners». Built in 1491, this building was one of the convents reserved for order. Seriously damaged by a fire in 1766 under the reign of Mustafa III, he was rehabilitated in the following years. Restored under Selim III and then under Abdülmecid, he continued his activities until 1925, when he was forced to close like all other monasteries, according to a law passed under the Atatürk era. It was transformed into a museum and opened its doors to the public in 1975. Built in the form of a religious complex, the convent consists of a semahane where ritual ritual dances, dervishes cells, an apartment furnished for the Sheikh at the head of the brotherhood, a box reserved for the sultan, the part reserved for the female members of the congregation, a library, a public fountain (sebil), d. an observatory for measuring time, kitchen, mausoleums (türbe) and a graveyard. Among the high burial stelas of the cemetery, one recalls the memory of a French general, Count Claude Sur (1675-1747) who, after serving the Habsburg, ended up ordering the artillery of Sultan Mahmud I under the name Ahmed Paşa. The part transformed into a museum is semahane. The monument, which is a beautiful example of the baroque style of the th century, is built on an octagonal plane. The exhibited objects are related to the Sufi mystic culture and Turkish musical instruments.