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

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.