The commander of the conquering army, Lala
Mustafa Pasha, Arap Ahmet Pasha, and the first Kadi
and mufti of the island were
members of the Mevlevi
order (order of dervishes founded by Mevlana
Jalaladdin Rumi, called also the "whirling
dervishes").
The building to the South of the
Kyrenia Gate was constructed towards the end of the
16th century by Arap Ahmet Pasha after the conquest
of the island by the Ottomans.
The building which
constitutes a different aesthetic sight in the city
centre is now used as a museum of ethnography.
Inside
the
building, there are tombs and a semahane
(dervish meeting-house for religious music and
whirling).
Until Ataturk banned the lodges in 1920,
it served as a Mevlevi Lodge; its last sheikh – or
head of the order – died in 1954. At the entrance to
the lodge there is a heAddress, a panel and a
fountain.
Sixteen Mevlevi sheiks are buried in the
six tombs in the building.
members of the Mevlevi
order (order of dervishes founded by Mevlana
Jalaladdin Rumi, called also the "whirling
dervishes").
building, there are tombs and a semahane
(dervish meeting-house for religious music and
whirling).
