Rakım Elkutlu House

Rakım Elkutlu House

Our current stop is the house of composer Rakım Elkutlu, who is considered to be the best known imam of Hisar Mosque and Dede Efendi of the 20th century.

Rakım Elkutlu, aka Rakım Hodja, was born in 1869 in Izmir. In addition to completing the Izmir High School, he also continued in the madrasa for a long time. He received his music education in İzmir Mevlevihanesi, where he has been attending since the age of seven. Upon the death of his father, Shuayib Efendi, who was the imam and orator of Hisar Mosque, in 1892, he was appointed to the same duty; He continued in this post until his death in 1948.

He was the president of İzmir M & ucirc; Siki Association for many years. Those who listen to him say that he has a strong and upright qualified voice. His reading with a clean and effective style made him a favorite and sought-after hanende* in music circles. He started composing at the age of twenty with the encouragement of his uncle Nureddin Efendi. He has written nearly four hundred and fifty works in many forms of our religious and secular music. He composed many poems of contemporary poets and poets from Izmir, as well as divan poets such as Şeyh Galip, Fuzuli and Nabi.

While he was taken out of the mosque to be buried after his funeral prayer at Hisar Mosque, where he worked for years, his composition was heard from an open radio in the vicinity:

'Such an affair does not suit me at all now

Life is a grave in my mourning heart now.'

Those who heard this could not hold back their tears.

Someone who has acquired singing as a profession, a singer