Saints and Tombs of Bilecik

Dursun Faqih

A judge, mufti and poet who stood beside Osman Gazi in the founding years of the Ottoman state. He was the son-in-law of Şeyh Edebâli (d. 726/1326) and Osman Gazi's brother-in-law by marriage. The sources contain little about his life; he came from Karaman. He studied Qur'anic exegesis, hadith and jurisprudence under Şeyh Edebâli, became his disciple and completed his spiritual training with him. He joined Osman Gazi's campaigns and led the prayers for the warriors. After the conquest of Karacahisar (today the village of Karacaşehir in the central district of Eskişehir) in 688/1289, Osman Gazi appointed him judge of the town and imam of the mosque converted from a church. There he delivered the first Friday sermon in Osman Gazi's name. According to the sources this was the first sermon read as a token of Ottoman independence. Osman Gazi divided the lands he had conquered into five parts and left Bilecik to the administration of his father-in-law (1302). Dursun Fakih accordingly remained with Edebâli, and on the latter's death succeeded to his office and conducted the issuing of legal opinions. His grave lies in the tomb within the Şeyh Edebâli lodge at Bilecik. Besides Şeyh Edebâli, Dursun Fakih and Muhlis Baba, some of Edebâli's descendants are buried in the same tomb. His Works — A contemporary of Yûnus Emre, Âşık Paşa and Gülşehrî, Dursun Fakih was among the first poets of the Ottoman period. The Gazavatnâme , the only work attributed to him, matters less for its literary qualities than for its religious content and for being one of the earliest specimens of Old Anatolian Turkish. Composed in mesnevi form in the "fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün" metre, it runs to about 640 couplets, and three manuscript copies have so far been identified. It narrates the campaigns waged by the Prophet, together with Ali, Khâlid b. al-Walîd and other Companions, against Mukaffa', chief of the idol-worshipping Benî Pinhân tribe; the subject is also popularly known as the "Battle of Mukaffa'". The source notes that the work was probably written to reinforce religious fervour and the consciousness of holy struggle at a time when efforts were being made to secure Muslim Turkish unity in Anatolia.

Sheikh Edebali

Hazrat

The father-in-law of Osman Gazi, the first Ottoman judge and mufti; a scholar and Sufi known for the lodge he founded at Bilecik. He was born in Karaman. In the sources his name is found written, besides Edebâlî, sometimes as Atabâlî and in abbreviated form as Ede-şeyh. He received his first education in Karaman and became a student of the Hanafi jurist Necmeddin al-Zâhidî. He then went to Damascus and studied the religious sciences under such well-known scholars of the day as Sadreddin Süleyman b. Vüheyb al-Azra'î and Cemâleddin al-Hasîrî. On returning home from Damascus he turned to Sufism; he founded a lodge at Bilecik and began to guide the people. Âşıkpaşazâde records that his lodge was never empty, that the sheikh strove to meet every need of the poor who passed through, and that he even kept a flock of sheep for this purpose. Edebâli met Osman Gazi at Bilecik. Osman Gazi, who greatly loved scholars and Sufis, would go to the sheikh's lodge on blessed days and always consulted his opinion on religious and administrative matters. A member of the Vefâiyye order ascribed to Abû al-Wafâ' al-Baghdâdî (d. 501/1107), Edebâli was at the same time the head of the akhi organisation. To whom the akhi leadership passed after him is not known, though it is recorded that it later devolved upon Murad I. In his last years Edebâli lived at Bilecik with his daughter and his grandson Alâeddin Bey, and was granted the tithe and yield of the village of Kozağaç; his daughter endowed this village to the lodge. After a long life he died in 726 (1326). Besides being a Sufi, Edebâli was the first Ottoman judge and mufti . He met and studied with many jurists of his time and trained a great number of students. Foremost among them was his son-in-law Dursun Fakih, who after the sheikh became the second mufti and judge of the Ottoman state.