In the Light of Archive Documents and Foundation Registrations Durmus Dede Lodge

Abstract

Durmuş Dede Lodge was a two-storey building by the sea, at the end of the Kayalar cemetery of Bebek Neighbourhood in Rumelihisarı, which was subordinated to Galata during the Ottoman history. The lodge was built by Hasan Zarifi Efendi (d. 1569) in 1528. Since this person was attached to İbrahim-i Gülsenî (d. 1533) in Cairo during his Hajj journey, this lodge operated as Gülsenî lodge for many years. In the 17th century, Evliya Çelebi mentions this lodge as one of the important Bektashi structures. According to the legend, Durmuş Dede, the fellow townsman of Ali Baba from Akkirman, who was the postnish in this lodge during the reign of Sultan Ahmet I, gained a great reputation among the Muslim captain and sailors, so the lodge has been named after him since then. The lodge passed to the Jarrāhiyya order in the second half of the 18th century. There are sources that state that Durmuş Dede Lodge was connected to the Shabaniyya branch of Khalwatiyya after Bektashism was banned in 1826. Archival records show the dervish lodge as Jarrāhī in the second half of the 19th century. Shaykh Eşref Efendi, whose administration was entrusted to him in 1894, served as the shaykh of the lodge for many years. Durmuş Dede Lodge, which continued its activities until the closure of all dervish lodges and tombs in 1925 and showing features that remind the mansions in the Bosphorus, was demolished and completely destroyed during the extension of the Bebek-Rumelihisarı road after 1938. In this study, the history of Durmuş Dede Lodge, which has a distinguished place in the belief and cultural texture of İstanbul and the Bosphorus, has been revealed in the light of main sources, especially archive documents and foundation records.