Ismail Dede Efendi Museum

Dede Efendi () was born in Istanbul , lived in Eyup and studied the ‘ney’, a type of flute. He wrote hundreds of songs and composed music for the Mevlevi dervishes and is considered one of Turkey’s best composers of classical music.  Sultan Selim III was very fond of his work and had Dede perform for him on many occasions.  Whilst on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in 1846 he unfortunately caught Cholera and died and was buried at Mecca.  Some of his songs still remain popular today.

The museum is in a lovely old wooden mansion that was once Dede’s home and after he died, for a time it was used as a local police station, after which it fell into total disrepair.  It became a small museum for musical instruments after being fully restored in the 1980s.  When visiting here you are given a glimpse of what the neighbouring houses once looked like that have now, unfortunately, been left to rot away.  
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There are occasional concert’s held at the museum and located next to it is an ornate fountain dating from 1734 and was commissioned by the mother of the Grand Vizier Hekimoğlu Ali Paşa.