Cennet Mehmet Efendi Tomb
About the Person:
- Cennet Mehmed Efendi, whose real name was Mehmed Fenayi, was the son of Tophaneli Katip İshak Çelebi. At a young age, he became affiliated with Aziz Mahmud Hüdâyî “with a spiritual motive” and started to serve in his lodge.
- While he was cleaning the toilets of the lodge in his first years on the path of wisdom, one day he prayed for this difficulty to end; he was given the good news by his teacher Hüdayi with the words “You have become a paradise.” and this incident was the reason for him to be given the nickname “Paradise” (tr: Cennet).
- Cennet Efendi, who later completed his journey and became the sheikh’s successor, retired into seclusion in Tophane for a while after the death of his teacher; he became the third sheikh of Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi Asitane, replacing Mesud Efendi, who died in 1656-57.
- His sheikhdom lasted 8 years and he died at the age of 90.
About the Tomb:
Construction Year: 1665
Ordered by: Rabia Adviye Hanım (Reconstruction)
Architect: Unknown
Prominent Features:
- Cennet Efendi Tomb was originally built as a hermitage; it was damaged in a fire in the 1800s and was rebuilt in wood by Rabia Adviye Hanım in 1870.
- The tomb has two sections: In the first section, Rabia Adviye Hanım, who had the tomb rebuilt, is buried together with her sons Üsküdar Chief Commissioner Burunsuz Vehbi Bey (1888) and Colonel Tevfik Bey (1907).
- Their coffins are placed on a sarcophagus base. There are also five more empty coffins in this section and it is said that Rabia Hanım and her family were buried in these coffins.
- In the second section, there are seven coffins. In the middle is the coffin of Cennet Mehmed Efendi. On the left is his wife, whose name is unknown, and on the right is one of his successors. The identity of two of the four coffins in the back is unknown; it is said that they used to have “Lady” plaques and may have belonged to his daughters. One of the other two coffins belongs to Fatma Hanım (d. 1871–72), the wife of Mehmed Ruşen Tevfikî Efendi, one of the sheikhs of Âsitâne, and the other to two women and a child.
- There is an inscription of 8 couplets written in Taliq script above the entrance to the tomb, regarding the construction commissioned by Rabia Hanım. The inscription emphasizes that the tomb was built in the name of Cennet Efendi, Rabia Hanım’s benevolence and Sheikh Osman Şems Efendi’s favor.
- The tomb architecture reflects the Üsküdar dervish lodge tradition of the period with its large windows and simple wooden structure. There was also a tomb keeper’s room and a sema section inside the tomb for a period.
