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Saints and Tombs of Amasya

9 sourced records · 6 verified locations

The atlas holds 9 records for Amasya. Each record's sources and review status are shown on its own page. Breakdown: 8 Saints · 1 Scholar.

Map of Amasya

Records in Amasya

Saint

Sheikh Zakariyya al-Khalwati

A Halvetî sheikh who, alongside Pîr İlyas, played a major role in making Amasya the first center of the Halvetiyye in Ottoman lands; counted among Pîr İlyas's leading successors. He died in 893/1487-88 in Amasya. His tomb stands on a high hill at the Saraydüzü locality, built by Gümüşlüzâde Ahmed. (Sources: Metin Hakverdioğlu, 'Halvetîlik ve Amasya'; 'Bir Şehir Bir Tarikat')

AmasyaDied 893 AHView
Saint

Seydi Halife (Sheikh Sayyiduddin Ali al-Khalwati)

A saint whose real name was Ali, known as Sheikh Sayyiduddin Ali al-Khalwati, who guided disciples in the Amasya lodge for thirty-five years after Habîb-i Karâmânî. He was an ascetic. He died in 1533; his open-air grave lies west of the Mehmed Paşa Mosque in central Amasya. (Sources: Abdülhalim Durma, 'Evliyalar Şehri Amasya', 2003; Metin Hakverdioğlu)

AmasyaDied 940 AHView
Saint

Piri Baba

A Qalandari dervish who lived at Merzifon in the XV century; he is known for the legends that grew up around his life and for his tomb at Merzifon. What is known of his life rests on the Menakıb-ı Piri Baba , written by one Hoca İbrahim, and on Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatname . Hoca İbrahim says that he himself built the Piri Baba lodge mentioned in the land-survey register of 926 (1520). That Piri Baba's nephew Ali Dede was still alive when the work was written shows that not very long had passed since his death; on this basis it has been suggested that the work was composed in the reign of Selim I. Evliya Çelebi, who passed through Merzifon in 1057 (1647) and visited his tomb, says that he was one of the dervishes whom Ahmad Yasawi sent to Anatolia together with Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli. M. Fuad Köprülü, repeating Evliya Çelebi's view, likewise counts him, under the name Pir Dede , among Ahmad Yasawi's deputies in Anatolia. According to the Menakıbname he came from the village of Narince near Merzifon. At the age of seven or eight his mother apprenticed him to a master shoemaker in Merzifon. The work stresses that he attained sainthood at an early age, and relates that even at that age he was deeply devoted to worship. The main subject both of the Menakıbname and of Evliya Çelebi is his relationship with the Ottoman sultan of the day. According to the Menakıbname he lived in the furnace room of a bathhouse reserved for men in the morning and for women in the afternoon; when he stayed on in the bathhouse even when the women came, he provoked the scholars of Merzifon and was denounced to the sultan. The Menakıbname presents him as a saint who first wins the heart of the sultan who has come to punish him and then foretells the conquest of cities, raising him above the ruler of his time. According to the source this motif also appears in other hagiographies written in that period, such as the Vilayetname-i Otman Baba , and may be read as a reaction to the negative policy Mehmed the Conqueror pursued towards the dervishes. The legend also indicates that because of his Qalandari temperament he was not much liked by the scholars of his time. The date of his death is unknown. The Menakıbname states that after his death his fellow villagers from Narince wished to claim him, but the scholars of Merzifon would not allow it. Hoca İbrahim relates that he built a tomb for him and married a girl of his own family to Piri Baba's nephew Ali Dede; the source says that this last episode may also be seen as Hoca İbrahim's effort to establish a tie of kinship with Piri Baba. His Poetry and Sufi Line — This slot carries not his poetry but his Sufi line. The source lists the signs suggesting that he was a Qalandari dervish: his being called in the Seyahatname by the term "ışık", used around the XVI century for Qalandari dervishes; his going about naked; his conduct, according to the Menakıbname, when he met Mehmed the Conqueror; and his resemblance to Otman Baba. The miracle motifs related of him also resemble those of Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli: a miraculous journey to the Kaaba, ripening fruit out of season and taking the form of a dove are among them. The references to Karbala in his legends stand out as an emphasis on love for the Prophet's family. His Tomb and Complex — His tomb stands in the Tekke quarter of Merzifon; known to have been repaired several times, it was last restored in 1977 by the General Directorate of Pious Foundations. His lodge is recorded in the land-survey register of 926 (1520); at that time one Şahkulu Baba b. Bayezid was its shaykh, and the register of 982-983 (1574-1575) shows that he was still in office. Evliya Çelebi records that at the time of his visit a shaykh named Memi Dede Can served at the lodge, and that many visitors came and went to the lodge and to the bathhouse where Piri Baba was believed to have lived. In later periods many legends grew up around his person.

AmasyaView
Saint

Pir Jamaluddin Abdurrahman

A Halvetî saint of Pîr İlyas's lineage; sources describe him as the grandson of Pîr İlyas and son of Pîr Hüsâmeddîn-i Halvetî. He was among the leading figures who sustained the Halvetiyye in Amasya. His tomb lies within the Çilehâne Mosque known as 'Aşağı Pirler' (Lower Saints); the mosque and retreat cells were built in 1412 by Yâkub Paşa. (Sources: 'Pîr Cemâleddîn Abdurrahmân', Evliyalar Ansiklopedisi; Metin Hakverdioğlu)

AmasyaView
Saint

İğneci Baba (Safiyüddin Mahmud al-Khalwati)

His real name was İğnecizâde Sheikh Safiyüddîn Mahmûd Halvetî, a successor of Sheikh Zakariyya al-Khalwati who became sheikh of his lodge after him. He was among the Halvetî saints raised in Amasya. His tomb stands within the marketplace in the Kocacık neighborhood, holding two cenotaphs of İğneci Baba and his son. (Sources: 'İğneci Baba', Evliyalar Ansiklopedisi; Amasya Provincial Directorate; Metin Hakverdioğlu)

AmasyaView
Scholar

Bahşi Halife (the Akbilek Saint)

A scholar known as the 'Akbilek Saint,' real name Dede Bahşî b. İbrâhim, born in Uluköy village (Taşova). After studies in Amasya he traveled to Egypt and studied under scholars such as al-Suyuti, Zakariyya al-Ansari and al-Sakhawi, mastering jurisprudence and exegesis. He died in 1523-24 in Amasya; his tomb, with a small mosque, stands on a hill near the Akbilek gardens in the Şeyhcui neighborhood. (Sources: Abdülhalim Durma, 'Evliyalar Şehri Amasya', 2003; Rahime Özdoğan, 2006)

AmasyaDied 930 AHView
Saint

Sayyid Mir Hamza Nigari

A Nakşibendî-Hâlidî sheikh and divan poet; his poems are read to this day in eastern Anatolia and northern Azerbaijan. He was born in the village of Cicimli in the district of Zangezur in the Karabakh region. The year of his birth is recorded in the sources in three separate ways: 1212 (1797), 1220 (1805) and 1230 (1815). His family were the Cicimli Seyyids , who trace themselves to Seyyid Muhammed Şemseddin Akabâlî, who migrated from Khorasan to Karabakh; his father was Seyyid Rükneddin Efendi, known as Mîr Paşa. After at first resisting formal education he studied with Mahmud Efendi at Karakaş and then with Şikest Abdullah Efendi at Sheki. He finally attached himself, upon a sign received in a dream, to the Nakşibendî-Hâlidî master İsmâil Sirâceddin Şirvânî (Kürdemirî). In 1839 he went to Mecca for the pilgrimage. Between 1841 and 1852 he was active as a guide in Karabakh; in this period he married and his son Sirâceddin was born. Between 1855 and 1858 he resided at Istanbul; it is related that the shaykhdom of the Emîr Buhârî lodge was offered to him. Between 1866 and 1883 he settled at Merzifon and gave instruction in the Qur'an and hadith. Political concern about the size of his following, together with his rhetoric criticising the treatment of the Ahl al-Bayt by the Umayyads, led to complaints, and in 1885 he was exiled to Harput. He died in September 1886; his body was brought to Amasya in accordance with his will and buried there. His Circle of Influence — Although his formal position was that of a Nakşibendî-Hâlidî sheikh, his followers regarded him as the founder of an order (pîr) . Among his principal deputies are Gazi Osman Efendi of Maraş and Hacı Zekeriyyâ Efendi of Tokat. His Poetry and Sufi Line — He wrote in the classical divan tradition rather than in the plain idiom of lodge poetry; he avoided the usual Sufi terminology and put forward instead divine love, love of the Ahl al-Bayt and melâmet . His works show the closest affinity with Fuzûlî . He composed in Azeri Turkish and in the aruz metre. His Works — 1. The Turkish Dîvan (1301/1884; 1326/1908). It contains 644 ghazals, 119 quatrains and other verse forms; the Çaynâme on tea, of 520 couplets, and a commentary on the Nigârnâme are also in this divan. 2. The Persian Dîvan (1329/1910). An organised collection. 3. Nigârnâme (1305/1887). A Sufi allegorical work in prose and verse treating divine love. His Tomb and Complex — His grave is at Amasya; in 1894 the Şirvanlı Mosque was built on the site of his tomb.

AmasyaDied 1886View
Saint

Ismail Siraceddin Shirvani

A Khalidi-Naqshbandi sheikh born in 1782 in Kürdemir village (Şamahı, Shirvan). A successor of Mevlana Halid al-Baghdadi, who gave him the title 'Siraceddin', he came to Amasya in 1828 and spent his final years there, dying in a cholera epidemic in 1847. He is buried in the Yukarı Türbe built by his son Şirvanizade Mehmed Rüştü Pasha.

AmasyaDied 1847View
Saint

Pir Ilyas (Shujaeddin Ilyas)

A Halveti sheikh born in Amasya, also known as Gümüşlüzâde. After joining the Halveti order in Shirvan under Sadreddin-i Hiyavi, he returned to Amasya in 1405 and worked to spread the Halvetiyya in Anatolia, his lodge (endowed in 1413 by Yakub Pasha) becoming the order's center. He died in 1433 and is buried in the Pir Ilyas (Yukarı Pirler) tomb near Çilehane Mosque.

AmasyaDied 1433View

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