The Birth of Galata Mevlevihanesi

In Pierre Nora's terms, in his essay, Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire, Nora discusses history and memory, and how the modern day allows a certain important reading of history by virtue of being so distant from the culture. "We speak no longer of 'origins' but of 'births.'" I will read the Galata Mevlevihanesi in terms of this sentence, and through the differentiations of lieux de mémoire "material, symbolic, and functional" (17, 19). 

The Galata Mevlevihanesi is a whirling dervish lodge existent in some form or another since 1491. It is and has been a symbolic and functional lieu de mémoire; its various features can be read through different "births." For example, the birth to foreigner's interests in it can be traced to the whirling dervish dance; the whirling dervish dance can be traced to the ancient Islamic poet and spiritual leader Rumi; the Islamic seeds in Istanbul can be traced to Constantinople, planted by Mehmed II the Conqueror. We will also look at a barrier to the continuation of the tradition, the laws against religious activity started in the 1920s.