Guide
The lodge in Odunpazarı is known locally as the Salı Tekkesi, the Tuesday lodge, because people used to gather there regularly on Tuesdays. Buried in it is Şeyh Şehabeddin Sühreverdi, who came to Anatolia as the envoy of the Abbasid caliph to invite the Anatolian Seljuk sultans İzzeddin Keykavus I and Alaeddin Keykubad I into the futuwwa organisation.
That organisation matters for what grew out of it. The futuwwa, which the Seljuk sultans joined, forms the basis of the Ahi organisation in Anatolia, and Eskişehir is among the first places where the Ahi movement took shape: a lodge was founded at Odunpazarı in the name of the mystic Sühreverdi and the futuwwa was organised in the city. During the authority vacuum of the Mongol invasion in particular, the futuwwa's role in protecting the city and holding people together came to the fore, and it was through that role that the lodge survived for many years.
