Ahmad Quddusi (Ahmed Kuddusi)

A mystic poet who grew up at Bor; a Qādirî dervish whose poems were widely read in Anatolia.

He was born on 15 July 1769 in the district of Bor in Niğde. His father was Hacı İbrâhim Efendi, a Naqshbandi scholar.

After his father's death in 1786 he set out on long journeys; he travelled through Anatolia and visited the major Islamic centres. He resided in Mecca for seventeen years; he afterwards saw Damascus and Egypt.

At first he followed the Naqshbandi path and later passed to the Qādirî path; the source records the reason for this transition as his finding the Qādirî way more suited to his spiritual temperament. He himself expressed this multiple affiliation in a line of verse: "I am Halvetî and Celvetî and Qādirî and Naqshbandi."

The later part of his life was passed at Bor. On his return there he met with severe pressure and for thirteen years could not leave his lodge. He contracted sixteen marriages and had twenty-six children.

He died in 1849 in the Kavaklı quarter of Bor.

His Circle of Influence — His spiritual chain continued within his family: his son Abdurrahman and his grandson Ali carried on his path.

His Poetry and Sufi Line — He wrote his poems in both the aruz and the syllabic metre; this double idiom allowed the Sufi content to reach beyond the circle of the medrese as well. His line rests on a temperament that does not close itself within a single order but, in his own words, claims all four paths at once.

His Works — He has a published Dîvân containing mystical poems in both the aruz and the syllabic metre. He also has the treatises Pendnâme and Vasiyetnâme.