structural:expansion, stylistic:style_transfer
Interest in poetry and arts

A great music lover, Sultan Selim III was a composer and performer of significant talent. He created fourteen makam -s (melodic types), three of which are in current use today. Sixty-four compositions by Selim III are known today, some of which are part of the regular repertory of Turkish classical music performance. Aside from composing music, Selim III also performed on the ney (reed flute) and tanbur (long-necked, fretted lute).

Selim III's interest in music started in his days as a prince (shahzade) when he studied under Kırımlı Ahmet Kamil Efendi and Tanburi İzak Efendi. He was exceptionally respectful of Tanburi İzak Efendi, and it is recounted that the Sultan rose in respect when Tanburi İzak Efendi entered the court.

As a patron of the arts, Selim III encouraged musicians of his day, including Dede Efendi and Baba Hamparsum. The Hamparsum notation system that Selim commissioned became the dominant notation for Turkish and Armenian music. His name is associated with a school in Classical Turkish Music due to the revival and rebirth of music at his court. Selim III was also interested in Western music and, in 1797, invited an opera troupe for the first opera performance in the Ottoman Empire.

Writing under the nom de plume ″İlhami″, Selim's poetry is collected in a divan. Among regular attendees of his court was Şeyh Galib, considered one of the four greatest Ottoman poets. Galib is now believed to have been not only an intimate friend of the Sultan, as they were both relatively close in age, but through Galib's poetry, there is overwhelming support for his new military reforms.

Selim III was a member of the Mevlevi Order of Sufi Whirling Dervishes and entered into the order at the Galata Mevlevihanesi under the name ″Selim Dede". He was a renowned composer, creating many musical compositions, including a Mevlevi ayin, a long and complex liturgical form performed during the semâ (religious ceremonies) of the Mevlana (Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi) Tariqah of Sufi Whirling Mystics, in makam Suzidilara.

He extended his patronage to Antoine Ignace Melling, appointed court architect in 1795. Melling constructed several palaces and other buildings for the Sultan and created engravings of contemporary Constantinople.