Museum of the Whirling Dervishes. Whirling Dervish Museum in Istanbul
(Galata Mevlevi Lodge / Galata Mevlevi Lodge)
In the Whirling Dervishes Museum, tourists have the opportunity not only to see their hypnotic dance with their own eyes, but also to get acquainted with the lifestyle of the famous Muslim monks. On Sundays you can also watch the Whirling Dervishes dance here.
In the public consciousness, the Whirling Dervishes have become a symbol of Turkey, its calling card. However, this is not just an attraction invented to attract tourists, but one of the real practices of the religious order of Sufism, which is more than eight centuries old. Sufism significantly lost its social influence during the reign of Ataturk, when religious gatherings were dispersed en masse, and their participants were sent to forced labor. In those years, the dervish brotherhood ceased to exist as a community, but did not completely disappear, preserving traditions semi-underground. Later, the dervishes returned as a cultural phenomenon, as a conductor between the modern world and the historical past of the country and became incredibly popular in the tourism sector. In 2011, a museum of whirling dervishes opened on the territory of one of the few dervish monasteries that have survived to this day.
Now tourists have the opportunity not only to see with their own eyes the hypnotic dance of the dervishes, but also to get acquainted with the lifestyle of the famous Muslim monks, as well as the religious background of their movement.
Dervishes are Muslim ascetic monks who lived in so-called tekkiye communities. The dervishes have no concept of property, because, according to the trend that they preached, everything belongs to Allah. If the dervish owned something, he was obliged to share it. But it was not altruism and asceticism that made these monks famous; it was the traditional dance performed during religious events that made them world famous. Dervishes perform their dance dressed in long snow-white dresses; an indispensable attribute on their heads is a tall felt hat made of camel hair. They close their eyes, raise their right palm up, tilt their heads slightly and begin to quickly spin around themselves. Mystical spectacle!
It is believed that during the whirling dervishes personify the rotation of planets in space and human souls around God.
The monastery, where the museum is now open, is located in the center of a large flowering garden; a pleasant atmosphere of peace and serenity reigns here. The ground floor of the museum is a richly decorated hall intended for ritual dances; on the lower floor there is an exhibition that tells about the ideas, beliefs, as well as the daily life of the dervishes, their living conditions. The exhibition features personal belongings of the monks, musical instruments, costumes, and there is also a small exhibition of calligraphy.
Advice: For dervish performances, people are allowed into the hall in advance - half an hour in advance. We recommend arriving at this time in order to have time to take your seats - because... There are only 2 rows of chairs in the hall. Latecomers may not have enough seats and will have to stand.
Despite the fact that the Whirling Dervishes are essentially a symbol of Turkey and its calling card, these days they have become a well-selling show for tourists, and the Whirling Dervishes are a religious order of followers of Mevlana, whose history goes back more than 800 years. The whole point is that at the time of the creation of the republic, he dispersed the religious orders and forced the dervishes to work. Thus, the Whirling Dervishes lose their significance as a religious community and appear on the scene years later, but more as a cultural phenomenon and a well-selling show. In Istanbul, tourists have a unique opportunity not only to watch a show of whirling dervishes, which is often performed by people far from religion, but also to visit the oldest Istanbul monastery of dervishes and get acquainted with their way of life and way of life.
Galata Mevlevihanesi was founded during the reign of Beyazit II by Sheikh Mehmed Dede in 1491 and became the first dervish abode in Istanbul. Subsequently, the monastery of the dervishes only expanded, new buildings were added to the building, and the area around was developed. Near the monastery of the dervishes, mausoleums appeared (the mausoleum of Sheikh Galip and the mausoleum of Halet Said Efendi) and a cemetery where sheikhs, composers, poets, thinkers were buried, and the grave of the first Turkish book printer is also located here. According to some documents, the body of the strangled great man was brought here by order and buried without any tombstone. The first building of the wooden Mevlevihanesi completely burned down during the great fire in Tophane in 1765, thus, of the oldest buildings of the dervish monastery, only the fountain of Hassan Aga, dating back to 1649/50, has survived to this day. After the fire, a new building was rebuilt in the same year , which was subsequently repaired several times. In 1925, the Galata Mevlevihanesi, like 667 other dervish abodes, was closed under a new law banning the activities of religious orders and monasteries. Later, the monastery building was used as an elementary school and a museum. The museum, now located in the Mevlevihanesi building, was opened in 2011.
Cemetery in Galata Mevlevihanesi
Entering the courtyard of the Galata Mevlevihanesi, you seem to be immersed in another world, calm and measured, so far from the fussy world that remained outside the gates. There is a beautiful garden in the yard, in the shade of trees there are graves on which carefree Turkish cats sleep. In the center of the courtyard stands the building of the monastery itself, in which a museum is opened. On the entrance floor there is a magnificently decorated hall in which Sema ritual dances were held; on the lower floor there is an exhibition dedicated to the daily life of the dervishes; in addition to household items, books and musical instruments, here you can see the arrangement of the rooms and kitchens of the dervishes. On the second floor there is a section of instruments, as well as a section dedicated to manuscripts and printing. In this room, the pages of Pamuk’s book “” seem to come to life.
One of the cats sleeping peacefully in the cemetery
Monastery building
Ritual dance hall
Exhibition dedicated to book printing
The museum is open every day except Sunday from 9.00 to 18.00 Ticket price is 5 Turkish lira. In addition, you should definitely take an audio guide, which not only talks about the museum exhibits, but also talks about the order of dervishes, philosophy and ritual dances; the audio guide is equipped with a screen on which a video is played. The cost of the audio guide is 5 Turkish lira, languages: English, German, Turkish, Italian. Galata Mevlevihanesi address: st. Galip Dede No. 15 (end of Istiklal Street near). You can get there by light rail; at the Karakoy stop you need to change to the Tunnel.
Audio guide
Entrance to Galata Mevlevihanesi
In fact, performances of dancing dervishes in Istanbul can be seen in several places. Including in local restaurants, and even in street food stalls. But, nevertheless, the real mystical atmosphere of this dance can be felt at the old Serkenci station, located in the Eminonu district. The show is very popular among tourists, so tickets for it must be booked in advance. Since it only takes place two or three times a week, you should check the schedule in advance.
By the way, the Serkenji station is the same station where the Orient Express, described in the novel by Agatha Christie, once arrived in the old days. High-ranking public, including members of royal families, came to Istanbul in luxurious velvet carriages.
And it is at this station that you can watch performances of dancing dervishes. Tickets can be pre-ordered or purchased on the day of the performance one hour before it starts. And the performances themselves begin, as a rule, at 19 pm. Small improvised ticket offices open right on the station platform. The hall itself where the performances take place is very beautiful. All its walls are skillfully decorated with stained glass windows. Around the circle of this hall, freeing up space in the center, ordinary plastic chairs are placed in two rows. Naturally, those who come here early take the best seats in the front row. 
First, the musicians enter the hall and set up for about ten minutes. Then you will hear rather strange music, not particularly loud, rather it is quiet and somehow even natural. But you must understand that this, in fact, is not quite ordinary music. Muslim believers believe that this is the kind of music that sounds near the gates of heaven. The tone of the music is set by the sounds of a particularly viscous, hoarse flute. To help her, the drums turn on quietly and dully. The musicians' clothing is very unusual - over long white dresses with sleeves called jaluns they wear black capes, which also have wide sleeves. And on the heads of the musicians are tall brown caps made of camel hair.
The music plays for about 15-20 minutes. And then, almost silently, the dervishes themselves appear in the free space. In fact, in former times wandering monks - Sufis - were called dervishes. The order (or brotherhood) of dervishes was created by a unique person - Jalaleddin Rumi. This talented poet, mystic and philosopher was born on the territory of present-day Tajikistan. Since it is impossible to describe in a nutshell either the theory or the meaning of Sufism, this dance cannot be perceived by the mind, but only by the soul and heart. 
So, according to the ancient canons, Sufi dervishes simply must whirl in their dance. And this cannot be called a simple dance, it is rather some kind of mystical flight. In general, speaking literally, their rotation symbolizes the rotation of planets in the infinity of outer space, and besides this, human souls - around the great and omnipresent God.
The dance itself is usually preceded by a special ritual. The dervishes slowly come out, spread white rugs on the floor, and separately from them - a scarlet sheep skin. Then they take off their dark cloaks. They kneel down, crossing their arms over their chests, then stand up and bow to each other. Then they walk in a circle, then bow again, and so on. 
At first you simply observe all these actions with idle curiosity. But all this leisurely looking suddenly ends at the moment when the dervishes begin their whirling. At the same time, they raise their right hands with straightened palms up, and hold their left hands slightly lower - palms down. Then they very smoothly, gradually, begin to circle one after another. At the same time, their long, heavy and snow-white floor-length skirts reveal a beautiful wavy dome in a whirl. The faces of the dervishes at this time are completely detached. Without touching each other, with their eyes closed, they maintain their perfect balance and float smoothly, spinning at the same time. This sight is not just beautiful, it is truly mesmerizing. 
The palms of the dervishes are directed upward in order to receive the blessing of God, and downwards in order to convey this blessing down to the Earth in their dance. Moreover, all dervishes dance with their heads tilted at an angle of 25 degrees, which practically corresponds to the angle of inclination of the Earth (23 degrees). The most amazing thing is that in fact this dance, these clothes and these rituals are at least a thousand years old, but they have not changed at all since then. All their complex clothes - white dresses with skirts - jalun, with black woolen capes - capes and brown felt hats - kulas - are very symbolic. In fact, it means the death of one’s own Ego and the eternal desire for God. 
Some spectators of this mystical dance observe strange phenomena happening to them - for some, their watches stop, for others, visions begin. And all this does not happen by chance - after all, in fact, you are in contact with ancient mystical art, and not with some kind of theatrical show. And then, judge for yourself - after all, dervishes are not the only people whirling on Earth. Also in Ancient Greece, the bacchantes twirled in their dances, remember also the ancient Russian round dances, and small children also love to twirl. Obviously, in the whirling itself there is an obvious sacred meaning that we have yet to comprehend. So it’s definitely worth visiting this event.
Well, and finally, in concluding my notes about Istanbul, I want to talk about the dervishes. In principle, if we set out to meet them, then for this we would not necessarily have to go to Turkey. There are dervishes in Egypt, Tunisia, and even in Uzbekistan - in Samarkand and Bukhara. This is the name given to adherents of Sufism - a special kind of religion that arose on the basis of Islam.
In short, after the era of the Prophet Muhammad, it so happened that many Muslims began to attach great importance not to spiritual, but to material values. And just then a group of scientists appeared who began to urge people to return to a simple way of life. They emphasized sincerity, the fight against their bad qualities, the eradication of envy, arrogance and stinginess. This movement was named Sufism. And those who followed him began to be called dervishes.
It was not appropriate for a real dervish to say, for example, “my food”, “my house” - since they should not have any property. Everything that is on earth, according to their teaching, belongs to God, not to people. For the most part, the dervishes lived in monasteries, often wandered and fed on alms, but always returned there for joint fasts and prayers. Already in the early years of Sufism, many other Muslims began to consider dervishes as something like monks. However, it would be incorrect to consider them as such. Still, no one officially forbade the dervishes from having their own housing and property, although they had to share all this with others. If the dervish did not live in poverty, then he compensated for this with his generosity and hospitality; if necessary, he was obliged to give everything he had to his guest, leaving nothing for himself. And unlike monks, dervishes could get married, have children and, in principle, live the ordinary life to which they were accustomed.
Dervish abodes have survived to this day in many countries. There is one in Istanbul too. More precisely, there was. The local Sufi monastery was called Mevelevi, but now for several years now it has housed a museum telling about the life of the dervishes and their philosophy.
True, in January of this year it was under renovation, and, according to rumors, this renovation has been going on here for almost five years. So, when it will be opened to visitors, we still have no idea. And yet we managed to get a glimpse of the former monastery. It was located near one of Istanbul's most popular streets, Istiklal. But the monastery gates were so narrow and inconspicuous that the first time we even passed by. But when they returned, they saw that some worker in overalls was coming out. He calmly walked past us, and we, noticing how he opened the gate, pulled back the bolt in the same way and went inside. Literally next to the gate we saw a beautiful building with openwork bars - the mausoleum of a local teacher.
And on a hill next to it there is a small cemetery of dervishes.
Alas, as soon as we took a few more steps around the territory of the monastery, a guard noticed us, informed us that the museum was closed, and asked us to leave.
But, of course, it is not the Sufi monastery or their religion in general that attracts most travelers to see dervishes in Istanbul. And what attracts them most is their dance - whirling. Although, of course, calling the whirling dervishes dancing is not at all correct. It is rather a rite, a ceremony. During the whirling, a connection with the Divine Plan is established, the soul opens to ecstatic pleasure, and the dervish is completely immersed in prayer. If we dig into the process from a medical point of view, then spinning in one place causes the blood to move very quickly, disrupts the normal blood supply to the brain, and the monotony, duration of what is happening (dervishes can spin continuously from several minutes to an hour) and a certain dance rhythm lead to the achievement of ecstasy and removing blocks from consciousness. This effect, in principle, can be compared with the effect of recreational drugs. So, if you want, you can try it. :))
Of course, now that thousands of tourists come to Istanbul to watch the whirling dervishes, this ritual has become highly commercialized. And I’m not even sure if there are real dervishes who “perform” for tourists somewhere. Because all those performances that, as we have seen, are offered to attend in Istanbul are not given by real dervishes, but by artists. But, on the other hand, outwardly there is not much difference in this, and the artists show the ritual no worse than real dervishes.
In general, we didn’t bother with this topic, bought tickets to the dervish performance and one evening went to see Sirkeci railway station, where it actually took place. To be honest, at first I vaguely imagined how it would be possible to show dances at a station, where the arrival of trains was constantly announced over the loudspeaker, passengers were scurrying around with suitcases, children were running around, where there was noise, din and pandemonium. However, in Sirkeci everything turned out to be completely different. In the evening, only the cash registers were open here. But there were no trains or passengers here. In all likelihood, the station came to life only during the daytime, and towards nightfall it completely quieted down. However, this station was very interesting. It was built in 1889, and now it has almost completely preserved its appearance as it was at that time: battlements and semi-columns in the Byzantine style on the facade, yellow, antique lanterns along the platforms and even an old-style restaurant called " Eastern Express".
By the way, it was not named so by chance. It is here, on one of the station platforms, that the legendary “Orient Express”, glorified by Agatha Christie, still resides. True, now the times of the “Orient Express”, one might say, are already passing. If from 1889 to 1977 it ran regularly and carried thousands of passengers, now there is only one single train, which makes one single trip per year. This train departs from Paris and travels to Istanbul - its final station - for five days. But, of course, it is purely touristic, and a ticket costs about ten thousand dollars. By the way, the next such train will depart from Paris on September 2, 2011. So, if anyone is interested, you can try to ride it from Europe to Asia. :))
But I digress. As it turned out, performance of the dervishes It was not planned at all on the station platform. They checked our tickets and led us into the hall, where there were already chairs for spectators in several rows around the perimeter, a small sheepskin lay in the center, and in the place where the stage was planned there were about a dozen chairs spaced apart from each other.
Gradually the hall began to fill and soon the action began. At first, the program included a concert of Sufi music. Musicians (several girls and boys), dressed in completely European costumes, appeared on stage, and we listened to two compositions. The music was smooth, but very mournful. In general, after the sleepless New Year's night that preceded this concert, Antoshik even took a little nap, for which he was immediately angrily shoved in the side by me. :)) However, he was not the only one who dozed off. For example, an elderly European man sitting on the other side of me was also snoring rhythmically. But, in the end, the concert ended, and what we actually came here for began.
The musicians left the stage and returned to it after some time, dressed in long black cloaks and tall gray-brown sheepskin hats.
Such clothes are usually worn by dervishes. Soon they themselves appeared - or rather, the artists who portrayed them. They were dressed exactly like the musicians, walked silently and stood up, and then sat in a row on one side of the hall.
The greeting ceremony began. Their elder separated from the group of dervishes and went out into the middle of the hall. The dervishes approached him in turn, bowed (greeted) to him, then to the other dervishes and left.
Then they took off their cloaks, revealing long, colorful, flared dresses underneath.
It was in these dresses that they began to twirl. Each dervish whirled in one place in the hall. They smoothly raised their arms, tilted their heads slightly to the side, pushed off with one leg and turned around their axis 360 degrees. Push and turn, push, turn, push, turn... Some of the dervishes closed their eyes, some spun with their eyes open, but, what is most interesting, there were girls among them. As far as I know, girls were not previously allowed to be dervishes. And the actresses, in fact, could not portray them. Well, times have changed.
A colorful city of contrasts and beautiful ancient architecture - the many-faced beauty of Istanbul. It is strewn with sights like the most beautiful crown of the Sultan with diamonds. This controversial city cannot be appreciated at first glance, because even a lifetime is not enough to study it. The legendary mosques stand proud with the grandeur of their minarets, reminding that Turkey is a Muslim country; numerous noisy ones await beloved customers; Istanbul's magnificent museums open their doors. One of the most mysterious museums in Istanbul is considered Whirling Dervishe Museum.
Historical background of the Whirling Dervishe Museum in Istanbul
Galata Mevlevihanesi (Turkish: Galata Mevlevihanesi Müzesi) literally translated from Turkish as “abode of dervishes”. Indeed, for a long time the current museum existed as a place of residence and meetings for representatives of the religious order of Mevlana’s followers. At the end of the 15th century, Mehmed Dede began construction of the first monastery for dervishes. Galata grew over the years by leaps and bounds. Soon, a cemetery was added to the numerous buildings, where the ashes of famous personalities in Turkey were laid to rest. Some historians still insist on the version that somewhere here there is an unnamed burial place of Sultan Suleiman’s favorite and best friend, Grand Vizier Ibrahim.
In the mid-18th century, a fire destroyed the monastery, but they immediately began to rebuild it. But the 20th century brings the wind of change and with it a ban on any activity of all religious orders. The Dervishes are disbanded, and the Galata building is given over to a school. Almost 90 years later, the modern Dervish Museum in Istanbul opens here.
Whirling Dervish Museum - historical exoticism of modern Istanbul
In front of the entrance to the ancient dwelling of the Sufis there is a lovely garden and famous cemetery with his equally famous dead. Entering the monastery of the dervishes for the first time, you will be amazed by the beauty and luxury of the main hall of Galata Mevlevihanesi - it was here that the dervishes performed their ritual Sema dance, thanks to which this order became famous throughout the world, and the legendary dance in skirts became the main component of all shows in many Islamic countries . Wrapping themselves in snow-white robes in a demonic dance, the dervishes fell into an ecstatic religious trance.
Also at the Whirling Dervishes Museum in Istanbul you can get to know the everyday life of the monks, see their household items, the interior of the rooms and instruments for playing music. A separate part of the museum building is devoted to the theme of printing and manuscripts.
Useful information for tourists about the museum
The Whirling Dervishe Museum is located at: Turkey, Istanbul, Galip Dede Caddesi 15.
Best way to get there to the museum if you are going from- sit down by tram and go to the Tunnel stop.
Galata Mevlevihanesi works daily from 9 am to 6 pm. There is an audio guide available that will perfectly serve as your guide.
Enchanting show spinning Sufis can be seen within the walls of the museum on Sundays. Dervish dances begin at five o'clock in the evening.
Ticket prices:
- Museum entrance price - 5 lire.
- Audio assistant price - 5 lire.
- Ticket price for the show - 10 lire.
Official website of the museum with constantly updated information - www.rumimevlevi.com
Whirling Dervish Museum in the photo
A fascinating performance is the expressive Sema dance within the walls of the Whirling Dervishes Museum in Istanbul.
