Dervish Pasha Mansion -
Ethnographical Museum
Belig Pasha Street, Nicosia
Open 9am-1pm, 2.30-5pm Mon-Fri and on Sat 9am-1pm
The
konak of Ahmed Dervish Pasha, a traditional Nicosia mansion, is on Belig Pasha
street which is off Salahi Shevket street. It houses the island's richest
collection of Ottoman artefacts. It is one of the hidden treasures of the city.
Ahmed Dervish Pasha was a
leading figure of the Turkish Cypriot community and a member of the small
assembly that rubber-stamped the decisions of the British colonial
administration. His mansion is a fine example of Ottoman domestic architecture.
The whitewashed walls, plain yellow stone arches, terracotta-tiled roof and
blue-stained woodwork reveal a disciplined restraint and classical love of order.
The house is L-shaped, with a sturdy stone-arcaded basement which combines
neatly with the arcade that defines the walled garden. The ground floor was
devoted to the practical working of the household and spilled out into the
shaded garden which contained a well, washroom, outdoor oven and bathhouse.
At the entrance door is a
linen-lined cafe which has been made from the external roadside room
traditionally used to entertain male visitors at a distance from the family
compound. The first ground floor room is arranged as a simple kitchen and
displays Turkish metalware and plain glazed ceramics. The second room is
furnished with a central charcoal brazier, a household loom, and a mill and a
carved and painted dower chest. In the open downstairs hall are agricultural
tools from the surrounding Mesaoria
cornlands. The third room contains items relating to the wider culture of
Ottoman Empire: scribes tools, mother-of- pearl inlaid work, 19th-century
glassware, metal tableware, curved swords and two Iznik dishes from the
Arsenal
(Djambulat) Tower excavations at Famagusta.
The
private rooms of the family are all located in the wooden and plaster built
first floor, approached up a formal exterior stairway leading directly into a
cool, hall-like, veranda.
On the first floor, care was taken to ensure that all
rooms enjoyed harmonious rectangular proportions.
The upstairs veranda is
devoted to island embroidery, including a gorgeous deep red velvet waistcoat,
patterned with silver and gilt floral devices, and a handkerchief stitched with
poppies and pomegranates, the very image of Desdemona's fatally lost
handkerchief.
The Turkish Cypriot costume room contains three richly coloured and embroidered
wedding dresses as well as the formal kaftan of Ali Rifat Efendi, the
last `Kadi' (judge of traditional Islamic law) in Cyprus. There are two
furnished bedrooms, both hung with the yellow shade of Cypriot cotton beloved by
the Turks, as well as local woodwork and embroidered covers mixed with imported
carpets, braziers and inlaid boxes.
The house tour concludes at the
formal reception room with its painted ceiling. It has a sparse eastern elegance
with its minimal furnishings of light coffee tables, charcoal burner and narghiles
-hubbly-bubbly pipes- for the smoking of water-cooled and filtered tobacco. An
Ottoman gentleman took pride in his heritage of Turkic nomadic mobility, and
traditionally could be on road with all his possessions packed within a few
hours of receiving summons from his sultan.
References
-
B. Rogerson, (1994), Cyprus,
Cadogan, London.
Nicosia 
