Tomb of Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi

The tomb of Azîz Mahmûd Hüdâyî stands within the Hüdâyî complex, founded between 997 and 1003 (1589-1595) in the Ahmet Çelebi quarter at Doğancılar in Üsküdar. The complex became the âsitâne and "house of the pîr" of the Celvetiyye order; Ottoman sources call it "Hazret-i Hüdâyî Âsitânesi", "Hüdâyî Mahmud Efendi Âsitânesi" and "Pîşvâ-yı Tarîkat-ı Aliyye-i Celvetiyye", among other names. Hüdâyî himself purchased the site of the lodge that forms the core of the complex in 1589; the building was completed in 1003/1595 and served as a tevhidhâne, and in 1007/1598-99 its founder turned it into a mosque by adding a minbar.

In the fire of 1266/1850, which broke out in the Üsküdar market and spread up the slope where the complex stands, every building EXCEPT THE TOMB was lost; the tomb served briefly as a tevhidhâne. In 1272/1855-56 Sultan Abdülmecid had the complex — the tomb included — rebuilt from the ground up, preserving the architectural programme and layout almost unchanged. The minaret, felled by lightning in 1910, was rebuilt; the tomb's present glazed entrance section was built in 1912 by Princess Fatma Hanım, a daughter of the Egyptian Khedive İsmâil Paşa. The complex was closed in 1925, after which the mosque-tevhidhâne continued to serve as a mosque only; its surviving buildings were repaired in 1975 by the General Directorate of Foundations.

Inside the Tomb

From north to south it consists of a glazed entrance section, a room roofed with a pyramidal cone where the tomb keepers kept watch, and the main chamber. At the centre of the rectangular chamber rises a wooden dome resting on four round marble columns, divided on the inside into THIRTEEN SEGMENTS like the crest of the Celvetî cap. Beneath this dome stands the pîr's wooden sarcophagus enclosed by gilded iron screens; around it are ranged ten sarcophagi belonging to his children and one grandchild. Above the chamber door is an Arabic inscription in ta'lîk script giving the date of death (1038/1628), and around the upper walls runs a thuluth frieze containing Sûrat al-Mulk from the pen of the calligrapher Mahmud Celâleddin. Certain relics of Hüdâyî are kept in chests within the tomb. East of the tomb lies a second section, originally an open graveyard and probably roofed over in 1272/1855-56 to become a tomb, where lodge shaykhs and their affiliates are buried.

THE VISITING TRADITION (historical record). From Hüdâyî's death until 1925 the tomb was visited collectively by members of the Celvetiyye on the eves of religious festivals, led by the shaykh of the âsitâne; it has carried to this day its standing among the most frequented saints' tombs in Istanbul. The TDV author links this intensity of visiting to Hüdâyî's prayer for his affiliates and for those who visit his tomb. The upkeep of the complex is today carried out by the Aziz Mahmud Hüdâyî Foundation, and food is cooked daily in its kitchen for students and those in need.

SOURCE: TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam, "AZÎZ MAHMUD HÜDÂYÎ KÜLLİYESİ" (M. Baha Tanman), vol. 4, pp. 340-343, and "AZÎZ MAHMUD HÜDÂYÎ" (Hasan Kâmil Yılmaz), vol. 4, pp. 338-340. COORDINATES: the existing pin has been verified against two independent numeric sources (the Kültür Envanteri record and OpenStreetMap; the deviation between them is 2 metres) — meeting the criterion of ADR-024.