SSaint
Sakib Mustafa Dede
A Mevlevî sheikh and poet; the author of the Sefîne-i Nefîse-i Mevleviyân , one of the most important sources for Mevlevî history, and for forty-six years the postnishin of the Kütahya Mevlevîhâne. He was born in 1062 (1652) in Izmir. His given name was Mustafa, his father's name İsmâil and his mother's name Halime. He descended from a Sufi family reaching back to followers of Ibn al-'Arabî who had migrated from Andalusia to Izmir. After receiving his first education in Izmir he went to Istanbul at about the age of fifteen or sixteen; under the patronage of Mustafa Fâzıl Paşa he continued his studies at the Fâtih Medrese. In 1678 he took part in the Çehrin Campaign in the pasha's entourage; during this campaign he came under the influence of a Mevlevî dervish and grew interested in the Mevlevî order. Having completed his formal education he travelled to Bursa to learn Persian and studied with Ahmed Efendi, then went on to Konya where he read the Fusûs al-hikam with Köseç Ahmed Dede. On returning to Istanbul he lectured for some six months at the Fâtih Mosque. He then went to Edirne and, with Seyyid Mehmed Dede, a disciple of Neşâtî the sheikh of the Edirne Mevlevîhâne, completed his retreat (çile) and received the title of Dede. Back in Istanbul he attached himself to Gavsî Ahmed Dede, sheikh of the Galata Mevlevîhâne, with whom he read the Mesnevî for about a year. He afterwards travelled to Egypt together with Nesîb Dede, Hasîb Dede, Lebîb Dede, Vehbî Dede and Müneccimbaşı Ahmed Dede, served Siyâhî Dede for three months, and on his return continued in the service of Gavsî Dede at the Galata Mevlevîhâne. He took part in the ceremonial gatherings (mukabele) at the Beşiktaş Mevlevîhâne and from time to time conversed with Sultan Mehmed IV, who attended them. The closeness that grew up between him and the sultan provoked the jealousy of Müneccimbaşı Ahmed Dede; upon this he left Istanbul for Edirne. He then travelled through Rumelia, visiting Serez, Filibe, Selânik and Bosnia. It was during these journeys that he began to write the Sefîne-i Nefîse-i Mevleviyân . On his return he went to Konya with Sucu Mehmed Dede. There II. Bostan Çelebi, the postnishin of the Mevlânâ Lodge at Konya, appointed him sheikh of the Kütahya Mevlevîhâne in 1102 (1690), a post he held for forty-six years. He died in 1148 (1735). Şeyh Galib composed the following chronogram for his death: "Mâtemin güç eyleyip Gālib gürûh-ı âşıkān / Dediler târîh-i fevtin hay hatm-i Mevlevî." His Circle of Influence — In the course of his long tenure as sheikh he trained a great many dervishes. To the circle formed by the important figures he raised, Esrar Dede gave the name hânedân-ı Sâkıbiyye . Among his most significant disciples was Seyyid Ebûbekir Dede, founder of one of the most important sheikhly families of the Ottoman age of reform. A spiritual and intellectual bridge runs from Sâkıb Dede to Ali Nutkî Dede, son of Seyyid Ebûbekir Dede, and from him to Şeyh Galib. His Poetry and Sufi Line — He chose the Mevlevî path deliberately, after completing his madrasa education; here he parts company with other Mevlevî poets for whom the order was merely an influence or a source. For him Mevlevîism was a purposeful cause, and his art the means of pursuing it: he composed poems of extraordinary length, most of which end with a discussion of Mevlevîism and the Mevlevîs. His odes run to 164 verses; his ghazals average nineteen verses and the longest reaches fifty-one. In divan poetry he follows the hikemî (wisdom) line represented by Nâbî; some of his poems consist from beginning to end of counsel and wise sayings, and in many others treating various subjects he cannot refrain from instruction. His ode Hizmet , composed in this manner, was greatly admired in his day and entered almost every source that mentions him. Although his poetry is predominantly didactic, he sometimes succeeds in raising the idea to the plane of feeling. A striking feature of his literary personality is that he never wrote a panegyric for anyone and never presented a poem to a patron. Holding no state office whatever, he stressed in his verses that the benefit gained from such connections rests on hand-kissing and flattery, and maintained that every labour receives in the end the worth it deserves. His Works — 1. Dîvan. One of the most substantial divans devoted to Mevlevîism; it amounts to 5689 verses. Five manuscript copies are known. A critical edition was prepared by Ahmet Arı as a doctoral dissertation. This edition contains thirty-seven odes, two musemmens, five museddes, two tahmîs, 165 ghazals, one müstezad, twenty-two chronogram stanzas, forty-eight rubâîs, sixty-one independent stanzas, fifty-one other poems and one mülemma. 2. Sefîne-i Nefîse-i Mevleviyân (I-III, Cairo 1283/1866-67). A history of the Mevlevî order which he began to write during his travels. In the first volume he carries the biographical tradition on from the point where the Menâkıbü'l-ârifîn ends, treating the çelebis who served as postnishin at the Mevlânâ Lodge in Konya down to his own time; the volume opens with the biographies of the çelebis descended from Mevlânâ on the female side who founded the Karahisar (Afyon) and Kütahya mevlevîhânes, and closes with the biographies of women descended from Mevlânâ. The second volume is given over to sheikhs who served at various mevlevîhânes, and the third to seventy-eight biographies of renowned Mevlevîs. His Tomb and Complex — Although the records indicate that he was buried in the graveyard of the mevlevîhâne, no gravestone is visible there today. His sarcophagus stands in a part of the building separated by glass panels from the section that was converted into a mosque.
KütahyaDied 1148 AHView → 