Geç Dönem Osmanli İstanbulu’nda Sufiler ve Fotoğraf: “Popüler” Mevlevi Fotoğraflarina Dair Yeni Bakış Açıları

Öz

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.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Mevlevi order
• Sufism
• Ottoman photography
• Pascal Sébah (1823-1886)
• Polycarpe Charles Joaillier (1848-1904)
• Ottoman music
• Abdülbaki Gölpınarlı (1900-1982).

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

Öz

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.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Mevlevi order
• Sufism
• Ottoman photography
• Pascal Sébah (1823-1886)
• Polycarpe Charles Joaillier (1848-1904)
• Ottoman music
• Abdülbaki Gölpınarlı (1900-1982).

Kaynakça

1. Ağaoğlu, Yavuz Selim, Neyzen Selami Bertuğ’un Anılarından Belgelerle Hazret-i Mevlâna’yı Anma Törenleri (1942-1974), Kültür A.Ş., Konya 2013.
2. Aşçı İbrahim Dede, Aşçı Dede’nin Hatıraları: Çok Yönlü Bir Sufinin Gözüyle Son Dönem Osmanlı Hayatı, ed. Mustafa Koç and Eyyüp Tanrıverdi, Vol. I, Kitabevi, İstanbul 2006.
3. Atasoy, Nurhan, Derviş Çeyizi: Türkiye’de Tarikat Giyim-Kuşam Tarihi, Kültür Bakanlığı, Ankara 2000. Behar, Cem, Aşk Olmadan Meşk Olmaz: Geleneksel Osmanlı/Türk Müziğinde Öğretim ve İntikal, Yapı Kredi Yayınları, İstanbul 1998.
4. __________, “Inventors of Notation Systems in Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Istanbul: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner”, Annual of Istanbul Studies, I, (2019), pp. 193-199.
5. __________, “Mevlevî Mukabelesi: İbadet ve Temaşa”, Osmanlı/Türk Musıkisinin Kısa Tarihi, Yapı Kredi Yayınları, İstanbul 2019, pp. 177-198.
6. Behdad, Ali, “Orientalist Photography,” Photography’s Orientalism: New Essays on Colonial Representation, ed. Ali Behdad and Luke Gartlan, Getty Publications, Los Angeles 2013, pp. 11-32.
7. Clark, Catherine M., “Capturing the Moment, Picturing History: Photographs of the Liberation of Paris”, American Historical Review, CXX/3, (2016), pp. 824-860.
8. Dominici, Sara, “Cyclo-Photographers, Visual Modernity, and the Development of Camera Technologies, 1880s–1890s”, History of Photography, XL/1, (2018), pp. 46-60.

9. Eldem, Edhem, “The Search for an Ottoman Vernacular Photography”, The Indigenous Lens? Early Photography in the Near and Middle East, ed. Markus Ritter and Staci G. Scheiwiller, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2018, pp. 19-56.
10. Ergun, Sadettin Nüzhet, Türk Musikisi Antolojisi: Dinî Eserler II, İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Yayınları, İstanbul 1942-43.
11. Erol, Merih, Greek Orthodox Music in Istanbul: Nation and Community in the Era of Reform, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis 2015.
12. Fukuoka, Maki, “Selling Portrait Photographs: Early Photographic Business in Asakusa, Japan”, History of Photography, XXXV/4, (2011), pp. 355-373.