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A Turkmen sheikh of thirteenth-century Anatolia; he is regarded as the patron saint of the Bektashi order and of Alevism. His given name was Bektaş, and he probably became famous as Hacı Bektâş-ı Velî only after his death.
The source stresses that what is known of him rests on two separate planes. Since he left almost no trace in the sources of his own age, it may be said that he did not enjoy wide fame in his lifetime; on the other hand, his being regarded as the patron of the Janissary corps and of the Bektashi order, and his strong position as an article of faith among Alevi-Bektashi communities, make him — in the source's words — "a historical problem requiring resolution". The hagiographic Hacı Bektaş is the patron of the Abdals of Rûm and one of the great saints of the land of Rûm.
He can be studied only through secondary sources written considerably after his own time: ① Elvan Çelebi's Menâkıbü'l-kudsiyye (fourteenth century; the earliest) ② Ahmed Eflâkî's Menâkıbü'l-ârifîn (about a century after his death; a short passage) ③ the Menâkıb-ı Hünkâr Hacı Bektâş-ı Velî, better known as the Vilâyetnâme (last quarter of the fifteenth century) — a book of semi-sacred character in those circles, since it forms the source of most of the beliefs present in Bektashism and Alevism today ④ Lâmiî Çelebi's Nefehât Tercümesi ⑤ Âşıkpaşazâde's Tevârîh-i Âl-i Osmân, containing oral information from within the family about Hacı Bektaş, who was the successor of the author's great-grandfather ⑥ Taşköprizâde's eş-Şekāiku'n-nu'mâniyye (sixteenth century).
According to the source he was one of the Sufis belonging to the Qalandari current known as the "saints of Khurasan", and hence to the Khurasanian Malâmatî school; he must have come among the dervish migrations to Anatolia caused by the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century, as one of the Yasawi or, more probably, Haydari dervishes. Research based on Ottoman survey registers has shown the existence of a wide Bektaşlı tribal group attached to him. From Âşıkpaşazâde's record it is understood that Hacı Bektaş and his brother Menteş attached themselves to Baba İlyâs-ı Horasânî, and from the statements of Elvan Çelebi and Eflâkî that he rose to the rank of successor.
His brother Menteş took part in the Babaî revolt that began in 1239 and was killed in the battle with Seljuk forces at Sivas; that Hacı Bektâş-ı Velî did not join this revolt is learned both from Elvan Çelebi and from Âşıkpaşazâde. According to Âşıkpaşazâde he afterwards appeared at Karayol (then Sulucakarahöyük, today Hacıbektaş); it may be estimated that this appearance came after Anatolia passed under Mongol domination, that is after about the 1250s.
According to the Vilâyetnâme he led there a way of life resembling that of his master Baba İlyas, withdrawing from time to time into a nearby cave that is a place of visitation today, and at other times occupying himself with the daily work of his tribe, such as pasturing the village animals. While continuing his task of guidance within his own community, he also developed close relations with the Christians of the present-day Ürgüp region and sent his successors to every corner of Anatolia. The source notes that his method "gave rise to an important climate of rapprochement between the Muslim and non-Muslim communities of Anatolia"; indeed it is known that the Christians of the region felt a great closeness to him and venerated him under the name of Saint Charalambos.
Since he is referred to as "the late" in an endowment record dated 691 (1292), he died before that date, probably in 669 (1271).
His Circle of Influence — The source records that the person who made this sheikh — little known in his own lifetime — known throughout central and western Anatolia was Abdal Mûsâ, buried at Tekkeköy near Antalya-Elmalı. Abdal Mûsâ, who became sheikh of the Hacı Bektâş-ı Velî lodge after the first quarter of the fourteenth century, played a great part in spreading this cult through the legends that were produced.
Note: No section of "His Counsels and Teachings" has been opened in this record. That the works ascribed to him — foremost the Makālât — came from his own pen has, in the source's explicit words, not been proved historically; to transmit counsel from a work of unproven attribution would be to ascribe that counsel to him.
Differing Scholarly Views
🔴 The debates in this record are live, and the atlas does not close them. What follows are the assessments of the encyclopaedia article (Ahmet Yaşar Ocak) together with the views from which those assessments diverge; the atlas takes no side and leaves no party's view incomplete.
① Sunni or non-Sunni. The source stresses that none of the sources listed — apart from the eş-Şekāiku'n-nu'mâniyye — regards him as a Sunni Sufi in the classical sense. In Taşköprizâde's sixteenth-century work, by contrast, Hacı Bektâş-ı Velî is presented, unlike in the other sources, as a fully Sunni saint. The source also writes that the thesis that Bektashism was originally a Sunni order and was brought into its present form by Balım Sultan has "no scholarly or historical basis whatever". As for the Makālât, on which those who argue that he was a Sunni Sufi rely, it records that no critique of its content has been carried out and that its attribution has not been proved.
② Ecstatic or scholar. Âşıkpaşazâde records that Hacı Bektaş was in no condition to be a sheikh or to found an order, being so possessed by rapture that he was not aware of himself; Emînüddin b. Dâvûd Fakīh uses of him the term "the absolute ecstatic"; Vâhidî writes that he "departed to the hereafter in that state". Against this, M. Fuad Köprülü, relying on the Vilâyetnâme, holds that he was a learned Sufi of a standing to be an authority in the Islamic sciences. The source keeps its distance from both extremes: had he truly been so absorbed as to be unaware of himself, he could have had no connection with what the Vilâyetnâme relates; on the other hand, that a nomadic Turkmen sheikh should rise to such a scholarly level in that environment is not easily accepted either.
③ His attachment to Ahmed Yasawi is chronologically impossible. The Vilâyetnâme attaches him not to Baba İlyâs-ı Horasânî but to Ahmed Yasawi, presenting him as the latter's direct successor. Yet it is certain that Hacı Bektaş was born at least half a century after the death of Ahmed Yasawi. Nevertheless, the appearance of Baba Resul's name in the Vilâyetnâme shows that this relation of succession was not wholly forgotten; but the work reverses the relation.
④ The question of sayyid descent and confessional affiliation. The Vilâyetnâme, by tracing Hacı Bektâş-ı Velî's lineage to Imam Mûsâ al-Kâzim, both makes him a sayyid and presents him as a Shi'i Sufi. The source, noting that no trace of the Imâmî or Ismâ'îlî confession in thirteenth-century Anatolia has yet been found, assesses this conception as an influence of the late fifteenth century in which the Vilâyetnâme was written. In the same passage the source also records: today the ascription of such an identity to Hacı Bektâş-ı Velî is accepted without hesitation in Alevi-Bektashi circles. The atlas carries both statements side by side; it does not substitute one for the other.
⑤ He did not himself found Bektashism. According to the source's analysis he most probably came to Anatolia as a member of the Haydari order, formed from a mixture of Yasawism and Qalandarism, then attached himself to the Vefâî order and lived so to the end of his life; hence the conclusion that, although it bears his name, he did not found Bektashism.
⑥ The attribution of his works is unproven. To him are ascribed the Makālât, the Kitâbü'l-Fevâid, the Nesâyih-i Hacı Bektâş-ı Velî and a Risâle; several further works such as the Tefsîr-i Fâtiha, Şathiyye and Şerh-i Besmele are also assigned to him, but the source states that no scholarly evidence whatever has been produced that they were written by him. Of the Makālât it further records that almost all works bearing this title in classical Sufi literature were later made into books by anonymous compilers, and that the text contains expressions showing this.
⑦ The source's own warning. The article records that the scarcity of information about him has made Hacı Bektâş-ı Velî "from time to time a respectable material for political and ideological speculation". The atlas takes this warning seriously: this record is not a place for passing judgement but a place for showing what the sources say.
Sources
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) — Ahmet Yaşar Ocak · vol. 14, pp. 455-458, entry “HACI BEKTÂŞ-ı VELΔ
The sources for this record are listed below (Mandatory Sources).
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Permanent ID: EA-Z-000002 · this address reaches the same record even if its name changes; use it when citing.
External records: TDV Encyclopedia of Islam article