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Shaykh of the Khalwati order; author of the Gülşen-i Tevhid, in which he expounded Sufi questions in verse.
He was born in the district of Mudurnu in Bolu. He studied in Baghdad.
After his studies he went to Amasya and took initiation from Habib Karamani (d. 902/1497), one of the deputies of Sayyid Yahya-yi Shirwani. Some time later his shaykh sent him to Mudurnu to spread the Khalwatiyya.
Dawud-i Khalwati, who appears to have been one of the important scholars and shaykhs of his time, enjoyed great esteem with the İsfendiyaroğulları. This is clearly shown by the fact that the emir Ahmed known as Kızıl Ahmed — brother and rival of İsmail Bey, ruler of the İsfendiyaroğulları — asked him to write a work explaining certain Sufi questions.
He died at Mudurnu in 913 (1507).
His Works — Gülşen-i Tevhid: according to Taşköprizade, this large book, composed in a mixture of Turkish and Arabic, was much in favour among the people of the Sufi path. A quarter of the work is devoted to the subject of the atwar-i sab'a (seven stages); in the other sections, together with certain Qur'anic verses and hadiths, sayings of 'Ali and of famous Sufis such as Abu Sa'id ibn Abi'l-Khayr, Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi, Muhyi al-Din Ibn al-'Arabi, Mawlana Jalal al-Din, Sayyid Yahya-yi Shirwani and Habib Karamani are translated and commented upon. The translations and commentaries of these sayings, taken as headings, are in verse. Written mostly in the mathnawi form, the work contains here and there qasidas, ghazals and quatrains; it also includes stories on Sufi-ethical subjects. The work was introduced to the scholarly world by Necati Elgin on the basis of a copy dated 1042 (1633) in the Library of the Mevlana Museum in Konya. A copy made in 913 (1507), the year of the author's death, and another copy of unknown date are in the Süleymaniye Library.
Differing Scholarly Views
Why the Gülşen-i Tevhid was written — The source sets two accounts side by side. According to Taşköprizade, Kızıl Ahmed sent Dawud-i Khalwati a letter asking him about the dawa'ir-i khams (five circles), and the shaykh wrote this large book in reply. According to the work's own "Reason for Composition" section, however, Dawud-i Khalwati first wrote, at Kızıl Ahmed's request, a small prose treatise and read it to him; Kızıl Ahmed liked it so much that at his wish the shaykh later treated the same subject in verse. The atlas makes no choice between them.
Location of the grave — The source says only that he died at Mudurnu; it gives no information on his grave or tomb. The tomb location marked by the atlas is not confirmed by this source and awaits verification from an independent source.
Sources
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) · vol. 9, p. 28, entry “DÂVÛD-i HALVETΔ
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