Mevlana Museum

The Mevlana Museum in Konya is the mausoleum of Jalal ad-Din-Muhammad Rumi (1207-1273), a Sufi mystic and poet more commonly known as Mevlana or Rumi. The museum was once the lodge (tekke) of the Mevlevi order, better known as the whirling dervishes.

Sultan Ala al-Din Kaygubad, the Seljuk Sultan who had invited Rumi to Konya, offered his rose garden as a burial place for Rumi's father, Baha' ud-Din Walad, when he died on 12 January 1231. When Rumi died on 17 December 1273 he was buried next to his father.

Rumi’s successor Hüsamettin Çelebi decided to build a mausoleum over the grave of his master. The Seljuk construction, under architect Behrettin Tebrizli, was finished in 1274. Gürcü Hatun, the wife of the Seljuk Emir Suleyman Pervane, and Emir Alameddin Kayser, funded the construction.

The cylindrical drum of the dome originally rested on four pillars and is covered in turquoise faience - fine tin-glazed pottery on an earthenware object. Several additions were made by Selimoğlu Abdülvahit, who decorated the interior and made the carved wooden framework.

A decree of 6 April 1926 stated that the mausoleum and the dervish lodge were to be turned into a museum. It opened on 2 March 1927.

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