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North Cyprus:The Mevlevi Tekke museum :
The building to the South of the Kyrenia Gate was
constructed towards the end of the 16th century by Arap Ahmet Pasha
after the conquest of the island by the Ottomans. The commander of the
conquering army, Lala Mustafa Pasha, Arap Ahmet Pasha, and the first kadi and mufti of the island were members of the Mevlevi order (order of
dervishes founded by Mevlana Jalaladdin Rumi, called also the "whirling
dervishes"). Inside the building, there are tombs and a semahane
(dervish meeting-house for religious music and whirling). Until Ataturk
banned the lodges in 1920, it served as a Mevlevi Lodge; its last sheikh
– or head of the order – died in 1954. At the entrance to the lodge
there is a headdress, a panel and a fountain. Sixteen Mevlevi sheiks are
buried in the six tombs in the building. The building which constitutes
a different aesthetic sight in the city centre is now used as a museum
of ethnography. Back |
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