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Saints and Tombs of Ankara

8 sourced records · 7 verified locations

The atlas holds 8 records for Ankara. Each record's sources and review status are shown on its own page. Breakdown: 7 Saints · 1 Martyr.

Map of Ankara

Records in Ankara

Saint

Tajeddin Sultan

Founder of the Tâceddin Lodge at Hamamönü in Ankara, Tâceddinzâde Mustafa Efendi ; he lived in the 17th century and is known among the people of Ankara as a Jalwati shaykh. In the literature about him he is called Tâceddin Sultan . The source states plainly that there is not enough information about the lodge's founder. He was the child of a family originally from Ankara; it is related that the family moved to Bursa and later returned to Ankara. This report about his name and Ankara origin suggests that he may have been the son of Tezkireci Tâceddin Efendi , who, while a professor at the Kaplıca Madrasa in Bursa, was appointed mufti of Ankara in 1010 (1601) and died there in 1018 (1609). His name is first met in 1075 (1664) at the head of the list of witnesses of the Aslanağa bin Muslu endowment deed drawn up in Ankara. It appears that he built a mosque together with the lodge; accordingly the Tâceddin Mosque and Lodge must have begun functioning in the middle of the 17th century. The inspection report of the Imperial Ministry of Endowments for the year 1270 (1853) records that he built the mosque and zawiya in the Tekke Ahmed quarter, on the site of the Şeyh Paşa Zawiya. The same report and an appointment register list him among the deputies of Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi ; these records agree with the report current among the people of Ankara that he was a Jalwati shaykh. Considering that Hüdayi came from Bursa to Istanbul in 992 (1584), served as shaykh at the Küçük Ayasofya Lodge and died there in 1038 (1628), it is, according to the source, highly probable that he reached him in his youth and received his licence from him. His date of death is not known. The inspection report of 1853 shows that he had no children. His Circle of Influence — After him the leadership of the lodge was held by Gizli Şeyh Mehmed Efendi and his descendants until Abdurrahman Efendi was appointed tomb-keeper in 1717. After Abdurrahman Efendi the office passed from father to son to Pir Mehmed, Şeyh Osman and Mustafa Efendi, in 1827 to Mustafa Efendi's brother Osman Vafi Efendi , and in 1853 to Osman Vafi's son Mehmed Şerif Galib (d. 1899). The lodge's last shaykh was Galib Efendi's son Mustafa Tâceddin Efendi (d. 1937). The source names Osman Vafi Efendi as the most powerful shaykh of the lodge after Tâceddinzâde. His Works — Enver Behnan Şapolyo states that a miscellany compiled by Şeyh Derviş Muslu Ankaravi in 1147 (1734-35) contained Tâceddinzâde's awrad (litanies), a list of the lodge's shaykhs, various legends and Tâceddinzâde's poems; this miscellany is lost today. The text of the litanies, which survives in several copies, was published by Sadi Bayram, and a treatise containing some of his poems by Mustafa Aşkar. His Tomb and Complex — The tomb west of the rectangular mosque and the minaret to its east are built of the red andesite stone peculiar to the Ankara region; the tomb has a Baghdadi dome. In 1892 it was decided to demolish the mosque, minaret and tomb and rebuild them with funds allotted by Abdülhamid II from the privy purse; the verse inscription over the tomb's entrance records that construction of the mosque was completed in 1319 (1901). Additions made in the 1970s to enclose the tomb were removed in the 2008 restoration. The Tâceddin Tomb remains today, as in the past, the most visited centre in Ankara after the tomb of Hacı Bayram-ı Veli. The lodge's surviving guest hall is where Mehmed Akif wrote the Turkish National Anthem on 17 February 1921.

AnkaraView
Martyr

Huseyin Gazi

Huseyin Gazi is a warrior-saint (gazi) believed to have been martyred fighting the Byzantines during the Islamization of Anatolia; folk tradition names him the father of Battal Gazi and a seyyid. His historicity is largely legendary and the sources conflict. His tomb atop Huseyingazi Hill in Mamak originated as a 13th-century lodge, was repaired in 1378 and again under Mehmed the Conqueror (1463). (Sources: Mamak District Governorate; Kultur Envanteri.)

AnkaraView
Saint

Ahi Elvan

Ahi Elvan (Haci Elvan b. Mehmed Bey) was a figure of late-14th-century Ankara's Ahi (futuwwa) milieu. He built the Ahi Elvan Mosque (Samanpazari/Altindag); per the minbar inscription the mosque was renovated by him in 1413. Sources describe him primarily as the mosque's founder; his grave is associated with the mosque complex. His exact death date is unknown (late 14th century). (Sources: TDV Islamic Encyclopedia, 'Ahi Elvan Camii'; Kultur Envanteri.)

AnkaraView
Saint

Sheikh Izzeddin

Sheikh Izzeddin was a 14th-century Sufi sheikh and teacher in Ankara whose students were largely within the Ahi organization; an Ottoman waqf document calls him a seyyid. His death date is disputed: the inscription is read either as 705/1306 or 752/1352. His tomb in Ulus/Haci Bayram is a reconstruction built on the foundations of the original demolished in the 1930s. (Sources: Kultur Envanteri, 'Seyh Izzettin Tomb/Mosque'; Konyali, History of Ankara.)

AnkaraDied 705 AHView
Saint

Bunyamin Ayashi

Bunyamin Ayashi (real name Mustafa) was a Sufi sheikh and a founding figure of the Bayrami-Melami branch. He is presented as a successor of either Omer Dede Sikkini or Haci Bayram-i Veli; the Melami line continued through his successor Pir Ali Aksarayi. His death date is disputed (c. 916/1510, 918/1512, or 926/1520). His tomb is in the Dervisimam quarter of Ayas district, Ankara, at the northeast corner of the mosque bearing his name. (Sources: TDV Islamic Encyclopedia, 'Bunyamin Ayasi'; Abdulkerim Erdogan, Ankara Velileri.)

AnkaraDied 1512View
Saint

Kara Davut Efendi

Kara Davut Efendi was a scholar and Sufi of the Bayramiyye order, one of the successors of Haci Bayram-i Veli. According to the inscription in his tomb he died in 1453. His grave is in the courtyard of the village mosque in Kuyumcutekke village, Beypazari district, Ankara, and remains an active site of visitation. (Sources: Kultur Envanteri, 'Kara Davut Tomb, Beypazari'; Beypazari Municipality.)

AnkaraDied 1453View
Saint

Tapduk Emre

A Baba'i-Haydari dervish who lived in the 13th century; he is known as the shaykh of the great Sufi poet Yunus Emre . He is thought to have come to Anatolia from Khurasan. Whether the word Tapduk was his name or his epithet is uncertain. Some of Yunus Emre's verses show that, like many dervishes of the Baba'i groups, he bore the title baba ; the existence of persons using this name in Anatolia in his time is also known. The sources give differing accounts of the period in which he lived; but if the periods of his disciple Yunus Emre and of his shaykh Barak Baba are taken into account, it can be said that he lived in the second half of the 13th century. Majdi states that he led a secluded life in his village near the Sakarya river; most sources agree that he lived in this village, which today bears his name. Like many dervishes of his time he is thought to have engaged in farming and in the training of his disciples. The sources differ on the identity of his spiritual guide. His disciple Yunus Emre himself, in the verse "Yunus's portion comes from Tapduk, Saltuk and Barak" , places him among the disciples of Barak Baba ; according to the source, these words establish conclusively that he was Barak Baba's disciple. Through Barak Baba his chain reaches Sarı Saltuk . Since Barak Baba is known to have been a Haydari dervish, Tapduk Emre too is thought likely to have been a Baba'i-Haydari dervish. According to M. Fuad Köprülü, because of his close ties with Baba'i circles he appears, like his shaykh, as a Turkmen baba; Abdülbaki Gölpınarlı holds that he belonged to the ta'ifa-i abdalan . What is told of his family is adorned with hagiographic reports. It is related that one of his daughters married Yunus Emre, but this report appears neither in Yunus's divan nor in other contemporary sources. Another daughter named Bacı Sultan , whose grave is in the village of Emre Sultan near Nallıhan, is also reported. Gölpınarlı further draws attention to the possibility that Yunus Emre may have been Tapduk Emre's son. His exact date of death is not known. It is highly probable that the guide whose death Yunus Emre announces in one of his poems died at the end of the 13th century. His Circle of Influence — The sources indicate that he had many disciples, known as the Tapduklular . His best-known disciple is Yunus Emre , who served him for many years: he spread his views in Anatolia and Syria, spoke of him with reverence and praise, and like his shaykh embraced Qalandari-Malamati thought, expressing this in the verse "We scattered Tapduk's meaning among the people, praise be to God" . Two further disciples, Shaykh Ömer and Shaykh Ja'far, are named in the sources. Village names show that his influence reached the Balkans as well: a village of the central district of Aksaray, one of the Havsa district of Edirne and one attached to Varna bear the name Tapduk. The source notes that even if this does not prove he went to these regions, it matters for estimating the spread of his disciples. His Tomb and Complex — According to the source, the most reliable view is that his grave lies in the village of Emresultan in the Nallıhan district of Ankara; this is recorded in many sources as well as in the Afyonkarahisar Sharia Court Registers. In the tomb in the village there are the graves of many other persons said to belong to his family.

AnkaraView
Saint

Ahi Sharafaddin (Ahi Sharafaddin Mehmed)

One of the akhi notables of Ankara; his tomb stands beside the mosque that bears his name, popularly also known as the Arslanhane Mosque. The source records his death as 751 (1350-51) . Ahî Şerafeddin's father and uncle were, according to what most researchers accept, the two akhi brothers Hüsâmeddin and Hasan , who had the mosque repaired when it fell into ruin towards the end of the thirteenth century; the mihrab too is accepted to have been made at that time. The mosque stands in the Ahî Şerafeddin quarter on the Atpazarı slope, and is popularly also called the Arslanhane Mosque because many lion statues once stood before and around it. The first inscription on its wooden pulpit states that it was built in 689 (1290) by the akhi brethren in the time of the Seljuk sultan Mes'ûd b. Keykâvus (Mesud II). Outside the mosque are a burial enclosure and the tomb of Ahî Şerafeddin. Limit of this record: This record rests not on an article devoted to the man himself but on the article about the mosque that bears his name. The source gives no more about the person of Ahî Şerafeddin than the three pieces of information above (the year of his death, the identity of his father and uncle, and the site of his tomb). The architectural description of the mosque is rich; but that description has not been carried over here, because it belongs to the building , and has been left to the place record. To fill a person's record with the description of a building would be to make the record appear deeper than it is.

AnkaraDied 1351View

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