The Religious Landscape of Mesopotamia in Evliya Çelebi’s Seyahatnâme, Shrines, Sufi Lodges, and Popular Beliefs

İngilizce (OpenAlex)

This study examines the historical, cultural, and symbolic functions of sacred spaces in Evliya Çelebi’s Seyahatname, with a particular focus on the religious geography of Mesopotamia. The research analyzes how the construction of sacred sites in the cities of Mardin, Nusaybin, Cizre, Hasankeyf, and Mosul interacts with local systems of popular belief. Evliya Çelebi’s narrative departs from conventional historiography by blending empirical observation, oral tradition, and mystical intuition, thereby producing a distinctive form of storytelling. His accounts create a spiritual atlas structured around pilgrimage sites, dervish lodges, shrines, sacred springs, and miracle narratives. The study explores Evliya’s observations through specific examples: the Şeyh Zûlî Sultan sanctuary in Mardin, the Zülkifl and Şeyh Emir Sultan shrines in Hasankeyf, the prophetic loci in Nusaybin, the Noahic memory in Cizre, and the talismanic and prophetic traditions in Mosul. Each city is presented as a “sacred topography” in which religious memory and social identity are intertwined. The Seyahatname is thus interpreted not merely as a travel account but as a cultural text that reveals a multilayered network of relations among faith, memory, geography, and identity