Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi

Hüdâyî's counsel rests not on free-floating sayings attributed to him but on the works he WROTE and the hymns he sang. This section gives the subject matter of those works and the versified examples we have, with sources named; the atlas records no sentence as "Hüdâyî said" unless it is his.

The Triad of Knowledge, Practice and Character

The title of his most widely read work, Câmiu'l-fezâil ve kâmiu'r-rezâil, already states its programme: gathering the virtues, crushing the vices. The book has three chapters treating, in order, scholarly, practical and moral virtues. H. Kâmil Yılmaz translated it into Turkish as "İlim Amel ve Seyr ü Sülûk" (Istanbul 1988). In Hüdâyî's understanding of training, knowledge alone is not sufficient; unless completed by practice and character it does not count as virtue (TDV DİA; TEİS)

The Wisdom of the Prayer

Miftâhu's-salât ve mirkātü'n-necât ("the key of prayer and the ladder of salvation") is a treatise on the merits and wisdom of the ritual prayer, in which Hüdâyî also gives place to the views of great Sufis such as Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabî and Shihâb al-Dîn al-Suhrawardî. Its oldest copy is dated 1010/1601 (TDV DİA)

The Lesson of Love

Habbetü'l-mahabbe ("the seed of love") is a small treatise on the love of God, of the Prophet and of the Ahl al-Bayt. Ahmed Remzi Akyürek translated it as "Mahbûbü'l-ahibbe" and Rasim Deniz published it in modern letters (Kayseri 1982) (TDV DİA)

In Defence of Semâ

Keşfü'l-kınâ' an vechi's-semâ' ("lifting the veil from the face of semâ") was written in defence of the lawfulness of semâ. Its 1016/1607 copy is in the Köprülü Library; H. Kâmil Yılmaz published his translation as "Azîz Mahmûd Hüdâyî's Treatise on Semâ" (MÜİFD no. 4 [1986], pp. 273-284). The treatise shows his manner of defending Sufi practice with scholarly proof (TDV DİA)

The Etiquette of the Path and the Terms of Wayfaring

Among his Turkish treatises, Tarîkatnâme sets out the etiquette of the Celvetiyye order, while Necâtü'l-garîk fi'l-cem' ve't-tefrîk explains in verse the Sufi terms "cem'" (union) and "fark" (separation) (TDV DİA). The Vâkıât consists of the notes he took at his master Üftâde's gatherings — that is, his own notebook of learning — and contains the moral and mystical conversations that passed between master and disciple over three years (TDV DİA; TEİS)

Preaching and Admonition

Nesâih ve Mevâiz contains his sermons and admonitions; it runs to 237 folios in forty-three chapters, and its only known manuscript is in the Hacı Selim Ağa Library (Hüdâî Efendi no. 266). The Mektûbât consists of 152 Turkish letters, most of them to Murad III, and some twenty-two in Arabic (Süleymaniye Library, Fâtih no. 2572); TEİS records that these letters also voiced THE VIEWS OF THE PEOPLE concerning the governance of the state — that is, he counselled the palace by carrying to it the condition of the people (TDV DİA; TEİS)

The Principle of Humility

His answer when Sultan Ahmed I asked to be accepted as a disciple is transmitted as the summary of his understanding of the path: "In our order there is no distinction of rank or office." According to the narration, the sultan thereafter attended his gatherings together with the other disciples, indistinguishable from an ordinary dervish (TEİS)

The Discipline of the Self

That his master Üftâde required him to abandon property and estate, then office, and to sell liver on a pole through the streets of Bursa in his judge's robes in order to break his pride, is the best-known example showing that in Hüdâyî's understanding of wayfaring the discipline of the self comes before learning and rank (TEİS)

His Counsels in His Own Verse

The stanzas below are taken from published editions of the Dîvân-ı İlâhiyyât, with sources named.

① Seeking God alone:

What shall I do with the world
it is my God I need
I want nothing besides Him
it is my God I need

I want no passing fortune
no manner of ornament
no paradise without the Truth
it is my God I need

Leave vain desire aside
find the Truth, yâ Hû
this is Hüdâyî's word
it is my God I need.

Tatcı, Mustafa – Yıldız, Musa [eds.], Azîz Mahmûd Hüdâyî, Divân-ı İlâhîyât, Istanbul: Üsküdar Municipality, 2005, pp. 97-99; from the "Examples from his works" section of TEİS.

② Seeking forgiveness, the manners of a servant:

If I have strayed outside the straight path
my master, my sultan, I ask God's forgiveness
whatever I have done against Your pleasure
my master, my sultan, I ask God's forgiveness

The servant's lot is error, heedlessness, forgetting
the master's is pardon, mercy, forgiveness
from You again comes the cure for every ill
my master, my sultan, I ask God's forgiveness.

Same edition, p. 487.

③ Looking on creation with the eye of instruction:

What is the cause of the roses that open at dawn
what of the enraptured nightingales that sing

Those who look upon the power of the Sustainer
who see the artistry of the Truth plainly
look upon the new spring with the eye of instruction
what is the cause of flowing waters and blowing winds

All of it is the work of the Absolutely Powerful
and whoever grasps this secret is the knower.

Same edition, pp. 127-129.

④ Love of the Prophet and the plea for intercession:

Your coming is mercy, delight and serenity, O Messenger of God
your appearing is the cure for the ailment of lovers, O Messenger of God

Intercede for Hüdâyî, outwardly and inwardly
he is a beggar who has attached himself to your door, O Messenger of God.

Same edition, pp. 73-75.

⑤ Devotion to the guide:

If you desire a lofty guide, hold fast to his pure hem
the one who shows the way of guidance is Hazret-i Üftâde
be a servant in sincerity always at Hüdâyî's threshold
know in truth that the pole of poles is Hazret-i Üftâde.

Ertan, Mehmed Emin, Aziz Mahmud Hüdâyî, Istanbul: Şule Yayınları, 2001, p. 70; from TEİS.

His Manner

The TDV author records that Hüdâyî wrote plain, aphoristic tekke poems, using sometimes syllabic and sometimes aruz metre, and that he adhered to the doctrine of the unity of being as systematised by Ibn al-'Arabî; the same author notes that it is hard to claim he treated that doctrine as deeply as Yûnus Emre, yet that he versified the vast spirit of Sufism with sincere expression. Some of his hymns were set to music by himself and some by his admirers and affiliates; these compositions were sung in the lodges for centuries and became inseparable from the gatherings of dhikr (TDV DİA)

The accounts below are narrations (rivâyet) as they appear in the sources; the atlas records them not as "this is what happened" but as "this is what the sources relate". The work each account comes from is given in parentheses.

Two Accounts of His Initiation

According to the first, Hüdâyî saw in a dream certain people he had assumed were destined for Paradise — among them his own teacher Nâzırzâde Efendi — burning in the fire of Hell. Deeply shaken, he took it as a sign shown to him in the world of meaning, and the next day left his property, his estate and his office to become a dervish of Üftâde (TEİS)

The second account rests on a divorce case brought before him during his judgeship in Bursa. A man of Bursa who intended every year to make the pilgrimage but never went was told by his wife, "Do not form the intention in vain"; he answered, "God willing I shall go; if I do not, I divorce you thrice." The man was seen at home until the Day of Arafa, disappeared that day, and knocked at his door on the fifth day of the feast; his wife, recalling his words, would not open, and the matter was brought to the judge. The man asked that the return of the pilgrim caravan be awaited and their testimony taken. When the caravan returned the witnesses testified that they had been with him on the pilgrimage, naming the places where they had sat and lodged. Judge Hüdâyî ruled that no divorce had taken place, and asked the man to explain how this had come about; he said it had been accomplished through the mediation of Mehmed Dede the cobbler, by way of "traversing space" (tayy-ı mekân). The more widespread account continues that Hüdâyî then went to Mehmed Dede's shop wishing to become his disciple, and that Mehmed Dede sent him on to Üftâde with the words: "Your portion is not from us but from Hazret-i Üftâde" (TEİS; the narration is referred to Tezeren 1987, pp. 9-10 and Yılmaz 1990, pp. 46-47)

The Trial of the Liver

Before accepting him, Üftâde required that he renounce first his property and then his office; and, to place his ego underfoot and break his pride, that he sell liver on a pole through the streets of Bursa in his judge's robes. Hüdâyî accepted without hesitation and entered the circle of guidance in this way (TEİS). The sources relate this not as a miracle but as the discipline of the self that precedes miracles.

The Dream of Sultan Ahmed I

Sultan Ahmed I turned to Hüdâyî to have a dream interpreted; so pleased was he with the interpretation that he counted it a miracle, kissed his hand and asked to be accepted as a disciple. Hüdâyî replied, "In our order there is no distinction of rank or office," and told him his wish was granted. From then on Ahmed I attended his gatherings together with the other disciples, indistinguishable from an ordinary dervish. It is related that the sultan poured water from the ewer for his shaykh's ablution while the Vâlide Sultan held the towel (TEİS; the narration is referred to Küçük 1976, p. 186)

"Let Sultans Walk Behind Him"

It is related that these words, spoken by Üftâde to Hüdâyî before his death, were fulfilled when Ahmed I, out of reverence, mounted him on his own horse in the Üsküdar market and walked behind him for a time like a groom (TEİS; the narration is referred to Tezeren 1987, p. 15)

His Prayer For Those Who Visit Him

It is recorded that he prayed for his affiliates, those who love him and the visitors of his tomb: "that they not drown at sea, that they not see poverty at the end of their lives, and that they not depart before their faith is secured." The TDV author links directly to this prayer the fact that his tomb came to be among the most visited in Istanbul, after Eyüp Sultan, Sünbül Efendi and Yahyâ Efendi (TDV DİA)

Those Who Took Refuge in His Lodge

It is known that in his lifetime many statesmen who saw their lives in danger saved themselves by taking refuge in his lodge; after his death, thanks to the very rich endowment he left, his lodge, soup kitchen and complex became a shelter and refuge for the people (TDV DİA)

Evliya Çelebi̇'s Report

The Seyahatnâme states that seven sultans kissed Hüdâyî's hand and that he gave the pledge (irâdet) to 170,000 disciples (both TDV and TEİS transmit this). The figure is transmitted as a traveller's record; the atlas carries it not as a historical count but as contemporary testimony to his influence.

After His Death

That histories and bibliographies of his time and after refer to him with titles such as "kutbü'l-aktâb", "sâhib-i zamân" and "mürşid-i kâmil", and that his menkıbes and miracles passed from tongue to tongue, caused his visitors to increase in every age. That the complex — all of whose buildings save the tomb burned in the fire of 1266/1850 — was rebuilt by Sultan Abdülmecid shows that this bond of love continued in palace circles as well (TDV DİA)

This record rests on two independent academic sources: the entry "Azîz Mahmud Hüdâyî" in the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam (Hasan Kâmil Yılmaz, vol. 4, pp. 338-340) and the entry "HÜDÂYÎ, Azîz Mahmûd" in the Dictionary of Names of Turkish Literature (TEİS; Hulusi Eren). They agree in outline; the points where they diverge are left visible below — in such places the atlas does not pick one source and hide the other.

The Place of His First Schooling

TDV writes that he began his first studies in Sivrihisar, where he spent his childhood; TEİS records that he received his primary schooling in Şereflikoçhisar. The two sources agree on his birthplace (Şereflikoçhisar) and on his madrasa education in Istanbul, and differ on the place of his first school.

The Judgeship of Bursa

TEİS says that upon the death of his teacher Nâzırzâde, Hüdâyî was appointed judge of Bursa, and that he left the post shortly afterwards to become a disciple of Üftâde. The TDV entry does not mention this appointment; there his offices in Bursa are a professorship and the deputy judgeship of the Câmi-i Atîk court. The "Judge Hüdâyî" narrative of the menkıbes agrees with the line of TEİS; the silence of TDV suggests the appointment may be disputed.

His Marriage to Ayşe Sultan

Both sources give, with the qualifier "it is related", that he married Ayşe Sultan (d. 1006/1598), granddaughter of Süleyman the Magnificent through his daughter Mihrimah Sultan. The marriage is thus not settled information but a narration that entered the sources.

The Order of the Initiation Accounts

TEİS states explicitly that it is not known with certainty which of the two accounts — the dream or the divorce case — happened first, and notes that the widespread narrative is the one that begins with the pilgrimage/divorce episode and leads, through the direction of Mehmed Dede the cobbler, to Üftâde.

The Attribution of the Vâkiât

The Vâkıât, made up of notes taken at his master Üftâde's gatherings, is in TDV's words "generally attributed to Hüdâyî" — that is, it is a record rather than an original composition, and the attribution is not absolute. The two sources also differ on the manuscript number: TDV points to Hacı Selim Ağa Library, Hüdâî Efendi no. 250, while TEİS gives no. 249.

The List of Sultans

TDV names the sultans to whom he wrote as Murad III, Ahmed I and Osman II; TEİS adds Mehmed III and Murad IV to the list. Both agree that he girded Murad IV with the sword of state and joined Ferhad Paşa's Tabriz campaign.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque

That he delivered the first sermon at the opening (1024/1616) is in both sources. His attendance at the foundation ceremony (1018/1609) appears in TEİS; the name of the vizier mentioned in that sentence is not repeated here because secondary sources write it differently — the atlas neither corrects nor reproduces a probable spelling problem in its source.

The Figures

"Seven sultans kissing his hand" and "170,000 disciples" are transmitted from Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatnâme; likewise "close to sixty deputies at his death" is given with the qualifier of narration. These figures are not a historical census but an expression of contemporary testimony and renown.

The Date of Death

Both sources agree on Safer 1038 / October 1628. As no day is stated, the atlas's death record keeps the Hijrî month (Safer) and leaves the day field empty — the unknown day has not been invented.