Indian Cultural Heritage in Turkey: The Graveyard of the Hindus Lodge, Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey

Aksaray-Horhor Hindiler Lodge. It was located in the district of Fatih, in the part of Aksaray district called Horhor, next to the Horhor fountains that gave the district its name. Also known as the Horhor Lodge due to its neighborhood, the lodge is one of the oldest activity centers of Nakşibendiyye in Istanbul. It is recorded in Hadîkatü’l-cevâmi that it was founded by Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror at the request of Hâce İshak Buhârî-i Hindi, its expenses were paid by the sultan’s foundation, and its administration was attached to the lodge sheikhs.

In the same source, Mehmed Ağa, the commander of the Conqueror, lived here as a prison cell and was buried in the graveyard of the lodge when he died, and also in the XVIII. In the first half of the 19th century, during Sheikh Türabi-i Hindi’s mashhad, upon the request of Sheikh Seyyid Feyzullah Efendi al-Hindi (d. 1748), who was the founder and first furnisher of the Hindus Lodge in Üsküdar, some daily diaries were sent from the customs by Grand Vizier Yeğin Mehmed Pasha.

On the other hand, the rumor that Otman Baba visited the Hindu Lodge while passing through Istanbul in the Vilayetnâme-i Shah, which was written by Küçük Abdal in 1483 and contains the legends of Otman Baba, is remarkable. The visit of a prominent Kalenderi sheikh like Otman Baba to the Hindu Lodge suggests that during this period, travelers and mucerred dervishes belonging to Naqshbandiyya had Kalenderi tendencies.