From Dervish Lodge to the Museum; from Konya to the World

The Konya Mevlana Lodge, which developed around the tomb of Rumi, is the central residence of the Mevlevi order, which has had great influence on our cultural life and world of belief.

This is the central organization of more than 170 Mevlevihanes located within the territory of the Ottoman Empire. After the proclamation of the Republic, Konya Mevlana Lodge was closed like other dervish lodges, and in 1926, at the request of Atatürk, it was opened to visitors as Konya Asar-ı Atika. In the museum, which has nearly three million local and foreign visitors every year, works belonging to Mevlevi ethnography and artifacts donated by Seljuk, Karamanoğlu and Ottoman period sultans and statesmen to the Mevlana Lodge are exhibited. Konya Âsâr-ı Atîka Museum was organized as Mevlâna Museum after the new exhibition and arrangement works in 1954, and the archeological artifacts exhibited in the museum were moved to the İplikçi Mosque. In the restoration work carried out by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2011, dervish cells were transformed into their original form and an arrangement was made showing the services in the Mevlevi Lodge. In 2021, it was separated from the Konya Museum Directorate and became a separate Directorate under the name of Mevlana Museum.

The oldest building: Mausoleum

The oldest of the structures in the Mevlana Museum is Rumi’s mausoleum built in 1274. The tomb was built by the Architect Bedreddin of Tabriz by the wife of Alâmeddin Kayser and Emir Süleyman Pervane from the Seljuk Palace, by Gürcü Hatun. Since the masjid and semahane buildings built in the Seljuks Period on the north side of the tomb became insufficient over time, the present semahane, masjid, matbah-ı sherif, dervish cells and a fountain were built in the 16th century during the Ottoman Period.

All over the World

After Rumi's death, his close friend and secretary Çelebi Hüsameddin became sheikh to those who loved him. After the death of Çelebi Hüsameddin, Hz. Sultan Veled, the eldest son of Rumi, became the head of the community. During this period, the Mevlevi Order was organized and branches began to be opened outside of Konya. The Çelebi institution was established in Konya Mevlana Lodge, and sons descended from Rumi ruled the lodge as "postnishin" (the person sitting on the post, who is the sheikh of the lodge). Mevlevi order spread first in cities such as Afyon, Kütahya, Muğla, Istanbul, Tokat, Erzincan, and then in the region from the Balkans to the Hijaz Peninsula, and Mevlevihanes were opened.