About the Dil Beyti Project

Human beings are social beings who produce concepts from their values, thoughts from their concepts, and objects from their thoughts. Seen from this angle, the science of history is an instrument that, through what different societies have made, lets us witness what they truly held dear.

As a society, we too, in a past not so distant, had built a civilization of our own upon the values we believed in. In those days spirituality was lived so intensely in cities and homes that it could be perceived with the five senses at every moment. The formation of such a civilization was undoubtedly made possible not individually, but by shaping all concepts collectively with regard to divine pleasure.

The Dil Beyti Project is a data atlas focused on “Music”, one of the main arteries within this set of concepts, whose main source is the meşk recordings of Turkish Sufi music rather than sheet music and written documents.

Music is a science of mysteries that leaves no large footprint in the spectrum of modern society, which views everything rationally and whose entire set of concepts has become material. For it speaks directly to a person's inner meaning and addresses their very essence. Throughout history, the venerable masters of Sufism have filled this instrument with wisdom and used it as a “great elixir” to draw people toward the purpose of their creation.

The Dil Beyti Project, then, is an effort to codify the meşk recordings performed every Monday by music-loving luminary figures together with visiting guests at the Nureddin Jerrahi Dargah in Karagümrük, the seat of an Istanbul Sufi order and home of the Foundation for Researching and Preserving Turkish Sufi Music and Folklore (TTMFAV).

The earliest recordings we have of this centuries-old tradition date from the time of İbrahim Fahreddin Şevki Efendi (1885 - 1966), the 18th Postnişin (sheikh) of the Jerrahi Dargah. After him, in the time of Muzaffer Ozak Efendi (1916-1985), Sufi music meşk sessions continued at the dergah, and it became a meeting place where great musicians of the past and present drew spiritual benefit. From this period on, as technology became accessible, far more audio recordings were added to our archive. Throughout this period of renewal, thanks to the great efforts of Safer Dal Efendi (1926-1999), who had been at Fahreddin Efendi’s side from the very beginning as his spiritual son, our ilahis, emblems of a civilization in danger of disappearing, were recorded and revived by being performed in the dergah’s meşk sessions. With luminary figures such as Kanunî Cüneyt Kosal Efendi (1931 - 2018) transcribing them into notation, these works are now secured against being lost. Most recently, Ömer Tuğrul İnançer (1946 - 2022) and Ahmet Özhan Efendi have rendered, and continue to render, great service in making Sufi music known beyond the walls of the dergah in Istanbul, across Türkiye and the world, through the programs and concerts they have given since the time of Muzaffer Efendi. Today, too, under the leadership of our esteemed teacher and our foundation’s lead zakir, M. Hakan Alvan Bey, the Monday meşk sessions and music lessons continue at our foundation with great care.

Thanks to the devoted efforts of these figures, who walked one after another with love and meşk, today, to put it in the words of Dervish Yunus, “the drum of Muhammad” is being beaten in every corner of the world, from Patagonia to New York, from Ghana to Amsterdam, from Istanbul to Novi Pazar.

As of 2026, our website DilBeyti.com contains 600 meşk recordings. Since the project's database is built entirely from these audio recordings, new makams are added to the system organically as they are codified in the ilahis performed, and new compositions, lyrics and luminary figures as new compositions are performed. Given that the meşk recordings made at our foundation since the 1980s are estimated at around 2,400, we should note that the Dil Beyti Project currently presents only 25% of our existing archive.

Our intention is to bring our entire archive to light using the means of today, and thereby to attain divine pleasure by showing loyalty to the elders who have guided us on this blessed path.

We offer our love and humble greetings to all the faithful who have striven on this path, past and present.