Turkey's second-most-visited museum after Topkapı Palace, the Mevlana Museum in the central Anatolian city of Konya, is undergoing its largest-ever restoration and its first since 1926. The restoration work has revealed details about the dervish lodges there that counter popular assumptions

The first phase of restoration work on the Mevlana Museum in Konya has revealed new details about the lives of the dervishes who lived there in the past.

This is the first comprehensive restoration since 1926 at the central Anatolian city’s well-known museum complex, which includes a number of historical buildings. The museum will remain open during the current restoration efforts, which have begun with the historical structure next to the main entrance that includes 18 “suffering houses,” or çilehanes, where dervishes trained. The sides of the dervish lodges overlooking the courtyard have been covered with canvas cloths.

Sille stone on the original floor

Upon reaching the original base of two of these dervish lodges, the restoration works have revealed that the floors were covered with sille, a type of stone, which was also found in the courtyard.

“Contrary to what we thought before, people did not have to bend down to pass through the doors of the suffering houses – as is written in many sources – because the doors were the same size as the current ones,” museum officials said, noting that they had reached the original floor, which was 20 to 30 centimeters lower than the current ones, and determined that the doors of dervish lodges were 1.80 to 1.85 meters high and that the windows were comparable in size with those of an ordinary house. Sixteen additional lodges remain to be investigated.

Museum officials said the dervish lodges are very popular with those who are interested in Rumi and the Mevlevi Order. According to the Konya Museum Directorate, the Mevlana Museum, where Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi and his family lived, and which is now home to some dervishes’ sarcophaguses and historical works of art from the period, is the second most-visited museum in Turkey, after Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. The building is known for its green dome, called “Kubbe-i Hadra.”

The restoration has also revealed a new entrance door connecting 18 suffering houses to the Çelebi Mansion behind the museum.

How Mevlevi dervishes suffered

According to associate professor Nuri Şimşekler, the director of Selçuk University’s Rumi Research and Application Center, the 1,001-day period of suffering was the most important training level in the Mevlevi Order, which was established in the 13th century.

“The Dervish Convent in Konya is one of the rare places where dervishes were trained, in more than 140 Mevlevi houses, in the Ottoman period,” said Şimşekler, who noted the importance of the training process to Mevlevi culture and the strict rules that appeared during the time of Veled Sultan, the son of Rumi. “These people, who were exposed to very hard conditions, stayed in these lodges for three to 18 days and suffered there without seeing anyone. Each dervish who took the 1,001-day training there was accompanied by a grandfather who served as a guide. When they become mature enough, and learn to read the Koran and speak Arabic and Persian, they were sent to other Mevlevi houses.”

KONYA - Anatolia News Agency