Erikli Baba Dervish Lodge

Erikli (Eryek) Baba Dergah, a Alevi-Bektashi lodge located in the Zeytinburnu district of Istanbul.

It is situated outside the Yedikule Gate of the Istanbul walls, near the historic fountain that gave its name to the Kazlıçeşme neighborhood. The lodge, whose history goes back to the years of the founding of the Ottoman Empire and is associated with the conquest of Istanbul, was rebuilt in 1993 and resumed its activities. The Erikli Baba Tomb without a roof in front of the lodge is still visited by many people today.

History

Information about the true identity and life of Erikli (Eryek) Baba, after whom the lodge is named and whose grave is in its garden, is insufficient. However, he is considered to have been one of the Khurasanian saints who came to Istanbul during the establishment of the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century and is called Erikli because he found plums on a winter day. Erikli Baba, whose real name is thought to be Es‑seyid Muhammed Eryek, is accepted as one of the first deputies of Haji Bektash Veli.

When the Ottoman armies besieged Istanbul, the Janissaries set up a camp opposite Altınkapı near the lodge; the Eryek Baba Dergah provided food and moral support to the Janissaries. After the conquest of Istanbul, the lodge also became a place where Janissaries were trained.

In the past the lodge was called “Yedikule Bektashi Dergah” and, because of people who had served as postmasters and zakirs, it was also known by names such as “Sütürşümar Mehmet Baba Dergah”, “Perişan Mehmet Ali Baba Dergah”, “Sheikh Abdullah Dergah”, “Zakirbaşı Bektashi Dergah”.

One of the postmasters buried in the lodge’s cemetery is Seyyid Mehmet Baba. After Mehmet Baba’s death in 1799‑1800, the postmaster Hüseyin Baba took his place. In 1826, during the reign of Mahmud II, when Alevi‑Bektashi orders were banned and destroyed, the lodge was demolished, but the Eryek Baba tomb and other graves were left untouched. Postmaster Hüseyin Baba was exiled to Birgi.

The revival of the tekke took place during the period of el-Hac Mehmed Perişan Baba. His successor, Seyyid Hafız Mustafa Baba, expanded the tekke.

During the National Struggle years, the dergah stood alongside Mustafa Kemal and his companions. In the cemetery at the dergah, tunnels were dug to hide weapons and they were handed over to the national forces resisting the occupation. When the law issued in 1925 closed tekkes and zawiyas, the dergah remained open for a while and continued its activities, later closed voluntarily and its administrators handed over the keys to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

The building was used as a residence after 1925; it fell into neglect. After the conquest of Istanbul, the leather industry that occupied Kazlıçeşme for about 550 years heavily polluted Kazlıçeşme, and the industrial facilities there were moved to Tuzla in 1990, leaving the Erikli Baba Dergâh in ruins. The dergah was restored by the Erikli Baba Culture Association, founded in 1993.

Today it houses a soup kitchen for 600 people, a slaughterhouse for sacrificial animals, a mortuary for funeral services and a morgue, and a library for educational activities. The second floor of the building is used as a cemevi.