Monday, December 4, 2023 13:00

“Healing Complex” – Edirne

(Sultan Bayezit’s Health Museum)

Şefika Kutluer & Trakya Ensemble

In 1652, Evliya Çelebi, who visited Edirne, wrote down his admiration for the Sultan Bayezit II Complex, which was built nearly two centuries before his time:

“There is a healing center that cannot be described verbally or written.”

The most magnificent of the Ottoman healing-houses, which were the continuation of the Seljuk-era healing centers in Anatolia, was undoubtedly the Sultan Bayezid II Complex Healing Hospital in Edirne, as Evliya Çelebi reported.

At a time when the mentally ill were being hunted down, as witch hunts, burned and brutally murdered, in Europe, the Sultan Bayezid II Complex Healing Hospital, like other Ottoman healing centers, were treating them with compassion and with unprecedented methods like healing with music and sound of water, to restore their health.

The acoustics of the building were perfect and it was possible to relax the patients with music on the music stage, and the music could be easily listened even from the closed rooms. The sound of water emanating from the marble pool with a fountain located in the center serves the same purpose as the relaxation of the patients with performances organized at certain times. The sound of water emanating from this pool played a role in calming the patients on days when there was no music.

In this hospital, the soothing tones of music and the sound of water echo off the stone walls and transform into healing. From Ibn Sina to Farabi and from the Seljuks to the Ottomans, a deep-rooted understanding of music therapy is successfully applied in the treatment of physical and mental illnesses. The most important feature of this hospital is the use of music, water sounds and fragrances in addition to the medical knowledge of the period.

For example, Turkish music theme “Rast” was played for convulsions and paralysis, “Iraq” for nervous people, “Rehavi” for headaches, “Zengule” for heart diseases, and “Isfahan” to open the mind and increase intelligence.

Likewise; today, many doctors say that they heal by playing Şefika Kutluer’s CDs both during their surgeries and during recovery period.

Many babies have grown up with the CD “World Lullabies” accompanied by the British Royal Philharmonic orchestra and recorded by Şefika Kutluer, who has carried out many projects for the children of the world as the goodwill ambassador of Unicef.

Magic Flute Kutluer says; “When I play the flute, I feel myself in a very different, magical world. Sometimes this world can be a holy temple, sometimes a sunny and colorful nature. It is a wonderful feeling to be able to make the audience feel this magical world that I have entered.

After some of my concerts, the audience says that they are mesmerized, that there is not a single sound heard in the hall other than the music and that everyone is in the same emotional mood.  It is a very nice feeling to make other people feel these positive emotions that I experience, because it gives people happiness. I am very happy to affect people’s emotions in such a positive way.”

On Monday, December 4, 2023, history will repeat itself and the audience who will have the chance to be in the famous “Şifahane” will be healed with Şefika Kutluer’s flute.