Mevlâna Museum

Sultan 'Ala' al-Din Kayqubad, the Seljuk sultan who had invited Mevlâna to Konya, gave his rose garden as a burial place for Rumi's father, Baha' ud-Din Walad (also written as Bahaeddin Veled), who died on 12 January 1231. When Mevlâna died on 17 December 1273 he was buried next to his father.

Mevlâna's successor Hüsamettin Çelebi decided to build a mausoleum (Kubbe-i-Hadra) over the grave of his master. The Seljuk construction, under architect Badr al-Din Tabrizi,[1] was completed in 1274. The construction costs were met by Gurju Khatun, the wife of the Seljuk Emir Suleiman Pervâne, and Emir Alameddin Kayser. The cylindrical drum of the dome originally rested on four pillars. The dome is covered with turquoise tiles.[2]

Additional sections were added to the original complex until 1854. Selimoğlu Abdülvahit decorated the interior and carved the wood for the catafalques.

A decree issued by Atatürk on 6 April 1926 ruled that the mausoleum and the dervish lodge (dergah) must be turned into a museum which duly opened on 2 March 1927. In 1954 it was officially renamed the Mevlâna Museum.[3]

^ Crane, H. (1988). "BADR-AL-DĪN TABRĪZĪ". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. III, Fasc. 4. p. 382. BADR-AL-DĪN TABRĪZĪ, architect and savant active in Konya in Anatolia during the third quarter of the thirteenth century. He is described by Aflākī (I, p. 389) as the architect (meʿmār) of the tomb of the great mystic poet Jalāl-al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 1273). He came to Anatolia probably as one of those Iranian craftsmen and men of learning who sought refuge in Asia Minor after the Mongol invasion of Iran in the middle of the thirteenth century. ^ "Mevlana Museum's turquoise dome to be renovated". Daily Sabah. 16 June 2020. ^ "Mevlana Museum's turquoise dome to be renovated". Daily Sabah. 16 June 2020.