Mesnevihane Mosque

The Mesnevihane Mosque in the Carsamba quarter of Istanbul's Fatih district began as a dervish lodge, the Mesnevihane Tekkesi, founded by the Naqshbandi sheikh Mehmed Murad Efendi to teach Rumi's Mesnevi. Construction finished in 1844 and the lodge opened formally on 18 January 1845 in a ceremony attended by Sultan Abdulmecid, at which the historian Ahmed Cevdet Pasha received his certification in Mesnevi studies. The original complex held a prayer hall that doubled as a classroom, a separate meditation room, eight dervish cells, a library, a fountain, a gatehouse, a water tank, a kitchen, and a reception room; a minaret and a tomb for the founder were added soon afterward. When Turkey's Sufi lodges were closed in 1925, most of the ancillary buildings fell into disrepair and were eventually demolished. The surviving prayer hall was restored in 1968 and has functioned since as an ordinary neighborhood mosque.