Muğlalı Şâhidî Dede Döneminde Ege Bölgesi, Afyonkarahisar ve Muğla’da Mevlevîlik

The Mevlevi Order was not institutionalized during the time of Mevlâna. However, immediately after his death, it took shape as a ‘civilization school’ with the reading of the Mesnevi, the practice of sema (the whirling dance, meşk), traditional arts, music, vocational training, etiquette education, and primary Islamic sources. Architecturally, the Mevlevi Order also had a unique structural system, and with approximately 140 Mevlevi lodges (Mevlevîhâne), it became influential from the 15th and 16th centuries onwards in Anatolia, the Balkans, North Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula, almost forming the core of the Ottoman Civilization. Before the Ottoman Empire, the Seljuks, the Karamanids, especially in the Konya region, and other Anatolian Principalities gave great importance to Mevlana and his family. They hosted their family members in their cities, even though a movement called Mevlevi order had not yet been established during Mevlana’s time. Mevlâna himself had visited Afyonkarahisar and Karaman, his son Sultan Veled had visited Aksaray, Karaman, Kayseri, Kütahya, and Afyonkarahisar, and Sultan Veled’s son Ulu Ârif Çelebi had traveled to many cities in Anatolia, including Kayseri, Tokat, Amasya, Sivas, as well as the Aegean region, including Afyonkarahisar, Denizli (Lazikiye), Burdur, Isparta, Muğla (Menteşe), Kütahya, and their surrounding areas. As a result, the first seeds of Mevlevi culture were sown. Over time, especially after Sultan Veled’s daughter, Mutahhara Hatun, married into the Germiyanids, her descendant Dîvâne Mehmed Çelebi, a ‘grandson of Hz. Mevlâna’, ‘coming from the Germiyanid family,’ and who, like his ancestor Ulu Ârif Çelebi, traveled extensively and was skilled in organizing, began opening Mevlevi lodges not only across the entire Aegean region but also in Istanbul, which had been conquered only 25 years prior. These Mevlevi lodges, which spread to towns and villages and many of which are not even mentioned in the literature, reflect the Mevlevi activities in the region through the efforts of Dîvâne Mehmed Çelebi. The work Gülşen-i Esrâr by Şâhidî Dede, who can be considered the only source on the Mevlevi movement in the region, vividly illustrates the ‘Mevlevi Organization’ and the ‘Mevlevi movements’ in the Aegean region during the mentioned centuries.This article aims to convey the situation of the region in the 16th century by evaluating the work Gülşen-i Esrâr, which can be considered the main source on the subject, and other sources, together with the first Mevlevi traces in Afyonkarahisar, Muğla, and the Aegean Region.