Sufis From the Late Ottoman Istanbul and Photography: Alternative Readings on the ‘Popular’ Mevlevi Images

Authors : Onur ÖNER

Pages : 207-225

Doi:10.16985/mtad.1223928

View : 126 | Download : 70

Publication Date : 2023-06-06

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Despite the growing literature on Ottoman photography, the depictions of the Mevlevis, in particular, are still considered a vestige of Orientalist thinking. Beyond those art historical approaches, a close reading of rather ‘popular’ dervish images reveals that the Mevlevis were actively engaged in representing themselves. From this perspective, this article argues that their intimate involvement in photography, as a modern medium, was profoundly related to certain characteristics of the Mevlevi order. This article also scrutinizes the possible contributions of the visual sources to the history of Ottoman music, particularly the musical aspects of the Mevlevi photographs, to which the scholarship has paid little attention. What is more, those images are instrumental in critically addressing the historiographical debates around the Mevlevi tradition and the waves of Mevlevi revivalism, both of which have emerged overwhelmingly from the 1950s in Turkey.
Keywords : Mevlevi order, Sufism, Ottoman photography, Pascal Sébah 1823 1886, , Polycarpe Charles Joaillier 1848 1904, , Ottoman music, Abdülbaki Gölpınarlı insert ignore into