Dervish Lodge and Palace in the Sixteenth-Century Istanbul an Evaluation on the Nature of the Closeness Between the Sheikh and the Patron

Abstract

In this study, five Khalwati dervish lodges built in Istanbul in the sixteenth century are discussed. What makes these dervish lodges privileged is that they were either built in the garden of the palace/ mansion or very close to it. With this study, it is aimed to make sense of the presence of dervish lodge and palace in the nearby places and to examine the relationship between the patron and sheikh from multidimensional perspective. By undertaking construction of these dervish lodges in the palace garden or very close to it, the patrons wanted to further reinforce their intimacy with the Khalwatis and make it clear that they were from the Khalwati order. The fact that the tombs and graves of the mentioned patrons in the dervish lodges were another proof of these issues. The fact that the patrons' location the dervish lodge structure and their inhabitants so close to it, should reflect the desire to give more space to religious and mystic elements in their daily lives.