Davud-i Halveti

Davud-i Halveti is remembered as one of the saints who flourished in Mudurnu during the Ottoman period. He was the son of a man named Ali Bey and is also known in the sources by the names 'Uzun Davud' (Davud the Tall) and 'Davud-i Mudurni.' He received his training on the path of Sufism under Sheikh Habib, one of the foremost disciples of Sayyid Yahya-i Shirvani, a great figure of the Khalwati order; it is stated that by attending his discourses he attained the lofty gnostic stations of Sufism. It is related that he was a man of divine attraction (majdhub). Upon the request of İsfendiyaroğlu Kızıl Ahmed that he write a work on the 'dawa'ir-i hamsa' (the five circles), he is recorded to have composed and sent his book titled Gülşen-i Tevhid, in which he expounded the states of divine attraction (jazba) and spiritual wayfaring (suluk) in Sufism through Arabic and Turkish poems. According to the sources, certain states have been attributed to him: it is recounted that in a waterless steppe a majdhub dervish, namely Sheikh Süleyman, hurled into the air the water-filled ewer in his hand, and the moment the ewer fell to the ground the suffocating hot weather passed. It is likewise narrated that a person who was mute from birth had his tongue loosened after Sheikh Davud prayed and recited over his mouth. These accounts are conveyed in a dignified and measured manner, without passing any definitive judgment. It is stated that Davud-i Halveti died in 1507 (913 AH) in Mudurnu.