YAHYA EFENDİ MOSQUE

Çırağan, Beşiktaş - İstanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°02'44.6"N 29°01'05.0"E / 41.045722, 29.018056



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Yahya Efendi shrine and its cemetery are always busy with the crowded people who are looking for right answers for their problems. Circumcised children, pregnant ladies, unmaried girls, unemployed people and so on come to Yahya Efendi shrine, tell their difficulties or problems to his sarcopgahus silenlty, pray to him in the name of Allah and ask for help then they leave with a great respect and wait the result. If their fresults come true, they come again and thank to him by praying and deliver some presents to the vistors and poor around the shrine.

It has been going on since Yahya Effendi was buried here. Yahya Effendi was one of the famous scholars of 16th century AD and he was the milk brother of famous Kanuni Sultan Süleyman. Yahya Efendi was born in Trabzon of Black Sea region in 1495 at the same time when prince Süleyman was born. Yahya Efendi and prince Süleyman were breastfed by Yahya Efendi’s mother so they became milk brothers were brough up together.

When prince Süleyman became the 10th of Ottoman empire, Yahya efendi came to Istanbul and became a famous scholar. He worked as the university dean for a long time and he was the close friend and advisor of the sultan. Before he got retired, he bought a large piece of land in Beşiktaş and established his lodge as a big complex then he began training the inhabitants of Istanbul and helping to the fishermen and poor people.

Thousands of people had attended his funeral and his lovers wanted to be buried in this cemetery to be closer to him. Therefore a big cemetery around his tomb has been arisen for centuries. The members of Ottoman dynasty, high bureaucrats such as grand viziers, state governors, sheikhs-el Islam, university teachers, tutors, soldiers, judges and so on  have been buried in their shrines and in this cemetery.

It has been restored several times because of great fires and earthquakes. During the reign of Sultan Abdülhamit II, it was restored  with some buildings and a big shrine in the courtyard where Ottoman female members-sultans- and princes were buried. The library and the fountain were also restored in late 19th century and after the republic handmade books were sent to Süleymaniye library to be kept there.

When he died in 1571 AD, Ottoman Sultan Selim II ordered architect Sinan to build a domed shrine for him and he was buried in his shrine later. Yahya Efendi has a big shrine in the middle of the cemetery where he was buried with his wife and his children. The shrine has a charming entrance with a fountain built by Sultan Abdülhamit II and before entering his shrine his lodge members gravestones are located on both sides with a nice calligraphy on.

His sarcophagus is located in the center seperated with ivory cage surronding with his family members coffins. On the left hand side of his shrine, Güzelce Ali Paşa-Handsome Ali Pasha’s shrine is situated and six marvelous marble sarcophagus with wonderful gravestones can be visited inside overlooking the Bosphorus bridge. Güzelce Ali Pasha was one of the famous Ottoman grandviziers in 18th century who was the lover of Yahya Effendi.

Yahya Efendi cemetery has more than 2500 unique and ordinary Ottoman gravestones. Sect masters’ gravestones such as Rufai, Kadiri, Mawlavi, Nakshibendi and Baktashi  with their sect headgears, sailor formed gravestones of  late Ottoman fleet captains, female gravestones with flowers and traditional symbols, the gravestones which Ottoman coat of arms were carved on and the gravestones with Fes headgears are worth seeinf after the visit of Yahya Effendi shrine. At the right hand side of the entrance, there is a big shrine where late 19th  and early 20th Ottoman dynasty members Şehzades, Sultans were buried aslo can be seen.

Except the windows on the eastern and western sides, the windows have been changed during the repairs and lost their authenticity. Other known restoration works have been in progress during Sultan Mahmut II (1808-1839) and Sultan Abdülhamit II (1876-1909). The carving inside the tomb are originally kept. Actually, there are also carvings of the 19th century on the walls.

The tomb is still one of the attraction places for people, although it has lost many of its properties during the restorations that took place during centuries. By the time, the tomb's environment has been surrounded by other timber structures of the dervish lodge and the main masonry dome was converted into another timber frame, squat dome during the repair progresses held by Pertevniyal Valide Sultan.

It is located within the Dervish Lodge established by Yahya Efendi in 1538. It has lost most of its original features due to numerous repair and restoration work over the centuries; however, it still attracts visitors' attention with its surrounding buildings and the landscape of its burial area. Also built there were a small mosque, a mansion, a school, cells, a hamam and a fountain beside the road.

Yahya Efendi Madrasa was located on a wide area in Sheik Yahya Efendi Dervish Lodge. The construction of madrasa started with small mosque, Turkish bath and fountain in 1538. New constructions were added to it in 18th century. In 19th century a large part of land of madrasa remained in the garden of Yıldız Palace and Çırağan Palace. That the name of this madrasa was not encountered in the list of madrasahs made in 1869 shows that it was pulled down before this date.

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ŞEYH SEYYİD MUSTAFA SELAMİ EFENDİ TEKKESİ

Nişanca, Eyüp - İstanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°02'26.4"N 28°55'55.0"E / 41.040667, 28.931944

This lodge is located in the Nişanca neighbourhood to the south of Nazır Ağa Çeşmesi Street. It was built in 1798-99 (1213) by Sadaret Kethüdası Arabacızade İbrahim Nesim Efendi (died 1807) for the Izmir born Sheik Seyyid Mustafa Selami Efendi (died 1813), of the Nakşibendiyye order. The lodge was originally used by the Nakşibendiyye, but after the death of Sheik M. Selami Efendi it was used by the Müştakiyye branch of the Kadiriyye order between 1813-1831, and from 1831 onwards by the Rıfaiyye, although Nakşibendi thought was disseminated here until the end.

The lodge was restored at the end of the 19th century, and the main building containing the ceremonial hall-tomb and male quarters was repaired by the Religious Foundations in 1985, after which it was allocated to a cultural foundation. The ruins of the harem and kitchen sections have been abandoned to their fate. Because of the slope of the land, a support wall runs along the length of Nazır Ağa Çeşmesi Street to the north, with the buildings of the convent arrayed around the courtyard containing the fountain, which is overshadowed by this wall.

One proceeds from a raised area laid with Malta stone through the undistinguished garden gate into the courtyard, which is paved with the same stone. The lintel of the courtyard gate, surrounded by brick columns, contains marble panels with clearly discernable sülüs script containing on the outer surface the declaration of God’s unity, and on the inner surface the names of the founders of the Nakşibendi sect. The small-scale goblet shaped ablutions fountain of marble in the center of the courtyard is of an interesting style.

It carries an inscription dated 1228 (1813) belonging to the poet Razi in the name of the founder and with the phrase “tekye-i darüsselam” (Convent of the Dominion of Islam). The main building is an L-shaped block, of which the 23 meter wing to the south contains the ceremonial hall-tomb, and that to the east contains the male quarters. It consists of a brick basement floor and a wooden floor that is slightly above the level of the courtyard.

The 7.5 x 6 m area allocated to sufi ritual in the ceremonial hall-tomb section is flanked to the south by the external wall, and to the west and north by twostoried L-shaped galleries, while the tomb area is located to the east on the same level as the galleries. Decorative molded railings front the men’s galleries and the tomb, while grills rise to the roof from a low parapet in front of the women’s section.

The northeastern and northwestern corners of the ceremonial area are rounded to soften their appearance, and the whole area is enclosed with eight octagonal columns on which are supported the upper level of galleries allocated to the women. Broad (false) arches of wood have been fitted between the columns, and the corners of the large opening to the north have been fitted with curved semi-arches. The northern wall of the ceremonial halltomb over the courtyard contains a door to the ceremonial hall with a window to either side, along with a larger prayer window at the level of the tomb.

The southern wall contains an entrance to the ceremonial hall, the mihrap and a window beside each of these. The mihrap alcove is semicircular on the interior and semihexagonal on the exterior and is framed with a wooden molding, crowned by a rounded arch. In the northeastern corner of the ceremonial hall is an anteroom containing the stairs to the women’s upper galleries and a small service window, a visiting area to the east of the tomb, and an area for serving sherbet.

There are two adjacent spaces in the basement floor of the ceremonial hall-tomb. To the west below the ceremonial hall is what was presumably a storehouse, and to the east below the tomb are the graves of Sheik Selami Efendi and his successors. The ground floor of the male quarters consist of two rectangular anterooms joined by a glass section with doors to form a T-shape, and various other rooms of the quarters organized around these. The anteroom on the east-west axis contains stairs to the basement.

It is thought that the low-ceilinged rooms in the basement floor, some containing closets for bedding, could have been used for sitting, conversing, eating and sleeping, as the need arose. The façades and ceilings of the main building display features of 19th century wooden houses of Istanbul and reflect the tastes of that era. The ceilings were executed using the “çubuklu” or rod method. However the ceiling roses of the ceremonial hall, tomb and visiting area are exceedingly simple, consisting of two interconnected squares.

The three-storied harem shares the same materials and construction features as the main building, with “two-sided” anterooms and symmetrically connected rooms. In the kitchen situated
in the northwestern corner of the harem, the long chimney, on the verge of collapse, only survives by being propped against the outer support wall. The small graveyard is in the back garden of the harem.

The unity of the ceremonial hall and the tomb which can be seen in his lodge, whose outward similarity to a wooden mansion of the last century and architectural details make it a typical example of late period Istanbul convent architecture, is an unique and ancient practice in the buildings of sufi orders. The most interesting architectural aspect of the Sheik Selami Efendi Lodge arises in relation not to its status as a religious building but from a feature of Anatolian Turkish architecture that it displays; that is the continued use at the end of the 19th century of the crypt vault style, which was largely abandoned as a technique in the early Ottoman era, albeit with a completely different appearance.

In summary, as with tombs and gravestones, it is possible to determine the developments in Ottoman architecture with regard to religious structures and their typology from the middle of the 15th century until 1925 by examining the buildings of religious order in Eyüp Sultan alone. Sadly, it cannot by any means be claimed that these treasures of Eyüp Sultan have been protected and valued as they should have been.

As was touched on at the beginning, not many of the dervish lodges of Eyüp Sultan have survived until the present day, and not much is known of the architectural features of those that have disappeared. None of those that have survived have done so architecturally intact; in other words all of the complexes that survive today are missing some of their original structures.

Of these, the buildings discussed in group II above that operated as both mosque and lodge generally continued to have their ceremonial hall used as a mosque after 1925, but the other sections went out of use (male quarters, harem, kitchen etc) and went to ruin over time or were altered for other purposes. The same is true for some of the complex plan lodges that we discussed in group III above. Some of those buildings that did manage to survive have been restored in recent years by foundations and put to cultural use.

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