The Shrine of Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273) and Early Mevlevi Architecture in Anatolia (ca. 1273-1520): Architectural Networks and Patronage

Abstract

Despite substantial scholarship on Rumi’s poetry and biography, the roles of his shrine and Sufi lodges in shaping his legacy remain largely unexplored. This dissertation explores the entangled, shifting networks of patronage, the complex relationships between architectural form and ritual practices, and the poetics of space at the shrine of Rumi and earliest lodges of the Mevlevis (Whirling Dervishes) in Anatolia. The development of Rumi’s shrine illustrates the dynamic interplay between dynastic religio-political legitimation and popular devotion and pilgrimage. Its diachronic history reflects how Rumi’s followers evolved from a heterogeneous community into an institutionalizing Sufi order. I reconstruct this formative period by interpreting the architectural forms, inscriptions, and endowment deeds in light of Sufi hagiographies, dynastic chronicles, and urban histories, among other sources. The spread of the Mevlevis took place in a politically fragmented post-Mongol Anatolia, where multiple Turco-Muslim principalities (Ar. emirate, Tr. beylik) ruled over different towns. This beylik period remains little understood compared to the earlier Seljuk and later Ottoman periods. The dissertation offers a contextualized architectural and socio-political history of this period, from the death of Rumi (1273) to the accession of Ottoman Sultan Süleyman I (r. 1520–66). I argue that the network of Mevlevi shrines and lodges, constructed across these polities, constituted a form of “devotional territory” anchored in the presence of shared Mevlevi saints and rituals. The success of the Mevlevis in establishing this territory stemmed from their ability to navigate political upheavals and adapt to emerging centers of power. The first three chapters trace the formation of this devotional territory, beginning in Konya and extending into the western Anatolian principalities. The fourth chapter examines the beginnings of Ottoman patronage through Murad II’s foundation of the first Mevlevi lodge in Edirne. The fifth chapter returns to the shrine of Rumi in Konya, analyzing Ottoman patronage following the conquest of Karaman. This period reveals the cross-fertilization of devotional and ritual practices between the Mevlevis and other Sufi orders. The final chapter explores landscape murals in Mevlevi interiors and the discursive role of depiction in Mevlevi writings. Revisiting the “paradise versus paysage” debate, it argues that these scenes display a selective and creative juxtaposition of both modes of depicting nature. It examines the devotional functions and meanings of these murals, with particular attention to their surrounding texts and spatial contexts. A group of previously unexplored poems composed for the shrine of Rumi at the turn of the sixteenth century ascribes devotional and affective agency to inscriptions and mural paintings.