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Sufi and poet of the Bayrami Malamatiyya; disciple of Pir Ali Aksarayi, and successor of Ismail Ma'shuqi in the rank of qutb among the Bayrami Malamatis.
He was born at Hayrabolu. What is known of his life rests largely on the information given by Nev'izade Atai in his Dhayl al-Shaqa'iq.
According to Atai, he was in the sultan's service as a sarban (camel driver) on the Campaign of the Two Iraqs launched by Süleyman the Magnificent in 940 (1533-34); while the army was in Karaman he met Pir Ali Aksarayi, one of the Bayrami shaykhs, and took initiation from him at that time. The Bayrami Malamati Sarı Abdullah Efendi, in his Samarat al-fu'ad, records instead that he joined the campaign as sersarban, that Pir Ali Aksarayi discovered his aptitude and showed him favour, and that on the return from the campaign he left the army and stayed with his shaykh. According to the same author, during his spiritual training he composed many poems under the pen names Ahmedi and Kaygusuz.
He then returned to Hayrabolu and carried on his work of guidance. Atai states that he was known as a man of ecstatic attraction (jadhba), that he was accused of heresy (zandaqa) on account of his spiritual temperament, yet that he was counted among the saints who had reached high spiritual ranks and possessed miraculous gifts. In this period, extremely critical for members of the order, he continued his activity without being prosecuted by the state, although some unfavourable rumours circulated about him.
He died at Hayrabolu in 952 (1545).
His Circle of Influence — After the execution of Ismail Ma'shuqi, son of Pir Ali Aksarayi, the rank of qutb among the Bayrami Malamatis passed to Sarban Ahmed. After him the line was continued by his disciple Husameddin Ankaravi; Ankaravi, however, unlike his shaykh, did not escape prosecution. Another of his disciples was Alaeddin Efendi of Vize, who wrote poems under the pen name "Kaygusuz". Gazanfer Dede, trained by Alaeddin Efendi, was brought from Vize to Istanbul on a denunciation that he was a heretic and unbeliever, and was tried before the Imperial Council.
His Poetry and Sufi Line — Sarı Abdullah Efendi quotes his poem that begins "I gave all I had to that Friend, no house or home is left to me / I washed my hands of it all, no two worlds are left to me"; Müstakimzade Süleyman Sadeddin Efendi also records two of his letters and some poems he says are his. The divan registered under his name is wholly imbued with the spirit of malamat and love of the Ahl al-Bayt, and contains about 3000 couplets; in the view of the article's author, such a divan must belong to a Sufi poet who had undergone the spiritual path, a description that fits Sarban Ahmed. The attribution of the divan is disputed (see Multiple Views).
His Works — Copies of the divan attributed to him are catalogued under different titles: in the Istanbul University Library as Divan-ı Ahmed Sarbani and Divan-ı Ahmed Sarban Dukakinzade, and in the Millet Library as Divan-ı Ahmedi. Hüseyin Süzer wrote a doctoral thesis on the copies registered under the name of Ahmed Sarban or Dukakinzade Ahmed Bey, and Ayfer Kayabaşı a master's thesis on two copies in the Hacı Selim Ağa Library in Üsküdar.
His Tomb and Complex — A tomb was later built over his grave. Having undergone various repairs, it was renovated in recent years in an undistinguished style, and today stands within the garden of the Hayrabolu Qur'an School.
Differing Scholarly Views
His role on the campaign — Atai says he was on the Campaign of the Two Iraqs as a sarban (camel driver); Sarı Abdullah Efendi records that he took part as sersarban (chief camel driver). The atlas makes no choice between them.
Whose divan it is — The source lists divergent views on this. Abdülbaki Gölpınarlı, relying on a note that Ali Emiri Efendi saw in a miscellany in the hand of the Mevlevi poet Fasih Ahmed Dede, reported that the owner of the divan was Ahmed Bey, son of Dukakinzade Ahmed Pasha, and stated categorically that Sarban Ahmed and Dukakinzade Ahmed Bey were the same person; in a study a year later he established that the poems bearing the pen name "Kaygusuz" belong not to Sarban Ahmed but to his disciple Alaeddin of Vize. In his Yunus Emre, published in 1936, Gölpınarlı said his earlier information on the matter was wrong, and later separated the two men, saying "Dukakinzade's grave is in Eyüp, his gravestone survives, his date of death is 964", but said nothing about whose the poems were. Sadettin Nüzhet Ergun holds that the two were different persons and that until new documents are found the divan should be accepted as Dukakinzade Ahmed Bey's; Nejat Sefercioğlu likewise, starting from their being different persons, argues that the poems were mistakenly recorded under Sarban Ahmed's name. Hüseyin Süzer's doctoral thesis also proceeds from this view. A study by Ahmet Yaşar Ocak states that Sarban Ahmed's real name was Dukakinzade Ahmed, without giving details. The article author's own assessment: the mention of Oğlan Şeyh Ismail Ma'shuqi in the divan's poem with the refrain "dede", and the explicit reference in one couplet to Pir Ali Aksarayi and his son, contradict the view that the divan is Dukakinzade's. The atlas makes no choice among these views.
The chain of information, and a silence — The information on his life rests on Atai and on Bayrami Malamati authors (Sarı Abdullah Efendi, Lalizade Abdülbaki Efendi, Müstakimzade); Mehmet Ali Ayni, Sadık Vicdani, Bursalı Mehmed Tahir and Hüseyin Vassaf repeat it. The source finds it remarkable that Abdurrahman al-Askari, author of the Mir'at al-'ishq — a fellow disciple of Sarban Ahmed under the same master, who ought to have known him closely — never mentions him in his work.
Sources
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) · vol. 36, pp. 132-133, entry “Sârbân Ahmed”
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