Saints and Tombs of Kastamonu

Omar Fuadi

Born in Kastamonu in 1559, Ömer Fuâdî was the fifth sheikh (postnişin) of the Şâbâniyye branch of the Halvetiyye order, holding the post for some 33 years. By writing a hagiography and an account of the tomb's construction about Şâbân-ı Velî, he played a major role in establishing Şâbâniyye as an independent order and led the building of Şâbân-ı Velî's mausoleum. He died in 1636 and was buried inside the Şâbân-ı Velî Mausoleum beside his master Muhyiddin Efendi. (Sources: TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam 'Ömer Fuâdî'; Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü)

Abdulfattah al-Wali

Abdülfettah-ı Velî is recorded as a Qādirī sheikh descended from Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, traditionally placed in 13th-century Kastamonu. Around 1272 he founded the Yılanlı complex in central Kastamonu, comprising a hospital, mosque and tomb. He is reported to have died in 672/1273 and to be buried, with his children, in the tomb adjoining the Yılanlı Mosque. (Sources: Kastamonu Municipality — Yılanlı Külliyesi; Cultural Inventory)

Aşıklı Sultan

Known popularly as 'Yanık Evliya' (the Burnt Saint), Aşıklı Sultan is, by tradition, a Turkish commander said to have been martyred by an arrow during the siege that wrested Kastamonu from Byzantium. The eyvan-type tomb in the Honsalar quarter holds five cenotaphs. His death date is not firmly documented and is tied to the 12th century; its legendary character should be noted transparently. (Sources: Kastamonu Municipality — Aşıklı Sultan Tomb; Cultural Inventory)

Sheikh Mehmed Efendi (of Daday)

Born in Sofular village (Daday, Kastamonu), Sheikh Mehmed Efendi is named among the deputies personally licensed by Şeyh Şâbân-ı Velî, thus belonging to the Halvetiyye-Şâbâniyye lineage. He settled in the Kuzyaka area as a spiritual guide and died in 1662. His tomb stands in Kuzyaka, in the Akçasu quarter of Şeyh village, beside the Akçasu Mosque. (Sources: Fazıl Çifçi, 'Kastamonu Mosques and Tombs', Kastamonu Municipality; Evliyalar.net compilation)

Muzaffereddin Yavlak Arslan (Atabey Gazi)

Muzaffereddin Yavlak Arslan, ruler of the Çobanoğulları principality (r. 1280-1292), advanced the Turkification of Paphlagonia through his campaigns against Byzantium. In 1273 he had the Atabeygazi (Forty-Columned) Mosque built in Kastamonu. He was killed in 1292 in a battle against Rükneddin Kılıçarslan during a Seljuk succession struggle; his tomb, venerated popularly as 'Atabey Gazi', adjoins the southeast of the mosque. (Historically a bey/ruler, but venerated in folk tradition as a gazi-saint.) (Sources: TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam 'Yavlak Arslan'; Kastamonu Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism)

Haddadizade Sheikh Seyyid Ahmed Siyahi Efendi

Sayyid, Sheikh

A saint of the Halidiyye-Nakshibendiyye path in Kastamonu. Because he constantly wore a black turban, he was given the epithet 'Siyahi' by Mevlana Halid-i Baghdadi; he received his authorization and returned to Kastamonu in 1827. He died around the age of ninety-five in 1874 (AH 1291); per his bequest no domed tomb was built over his grave, which lies in central Kastamonu.

Benli Sultan (Sheikh Mehmed Muhyiddin Efendi)

Sultan, Sheikh

A saint whose real name was Muhyiddin, known as 'Benli Sultan' due to a large mole (ben) on his cheek. Believed to have lived in the 16th century, he carried out spiritual teaching and trained students in the region for a long time. His tomb and complex are in Ahlat village near Kastamonu, on the foothills of Mount Ilgaz; the complex was built during the reign of Yavuz Sultan Selim.

Seyyid Sunneti Efendi

Sayyid, Sheikh

The representative of the Khalwati order in Kastamonu before Şeyh Şâbân-ı Velî, and the founder of the first small mosque that stood where the Şâbân-ı Velî complex stands today. The source records his death as 864 (1459) , accompanied by a question mark. It is known that the Khalwatiyya existed in Kastamonu before Şeyh Şâbân-ı Velî, in the time of Seyyid Sünnetî Efendi: the order's activities began for the first time in the Şeyh Sünnetî Efendi Mosque , a small wooden building. Şeyh Şâbân-ı Velî too at first worshipped in this mosque and carried on the order's activities there; but because the mosque lay outside the town in those years, at the people's request he worked for a time in the Honsalar Mosque, and after that mosque burned down he returned to the Şeyh Sünnetî Mosque. According to the inscription above the door of the present mosque, the building was rebuilt in 988 (1580) by Şücâ' Efendi, the spiritual guide of Murad III; the mosque also served as the tevhidhâne of the lodge. Şeyh Seyyid Sünnetî Efendi, the first founder of the mosque, is buried in the burial enclosure in front of the qibla in the courtyard of the complex — that is, not inside the tomb of Şâbân-ı Velî but in the enclosure. The complex lies in the Hisarardı quarter and consists of a mosque, a tomb, a library, a kitchen, a fountain and two lodge houses. Limit of this record: This record rests not on an article devoted to the sheikh himself but on the article about the complex in which his grave lies; the source gives no more about Seyyid Sünnetî Efendi than the above. The text has been kept within what the source provides and has not been padded out with architectural description.