Saints and Tombs of Manisa

Ahmad al-Rumi al-Akhisari

An Ottoman scholar known for his work Majalis al-abrar and for his severe stance against innovations ( bid'a ). He was born in Cyprus into a Christian family and embraced Islam after the Ottoman conquest of the island. He studied with scholars in Damascus and Istanbul. He settled in Akhisar, a district of the sanjak of Saruhan in western Anatolia, where, without accepting any official post, he taught and wrote until the end of his life. According to the source, the subjects of his works are first of all personal piety, the ascetic life and honesty in trade, with no bearing on administrative, political or military matters; hence Majalis al-abrar was written for Ottoman merchants, scholars and service people rather than addressed to any sultan or ruler. The source states that it is possible to say al-Aqhisari was connected with the Ottoman revivalist movement of the XVI and XVII centuries influenced by Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. In his Radd al-qabriyya and in the seventeenth chapter of the Majalis he refers explicitly to Ibn Qayyim and his master and quotes from their works rejecting the veneration of graves. In his commentary on Birgivi Mehmed Efendi's al-Durr al-yatim on Qur'anic recitation he speaks of him with praise. In many collections of treatises in libraries, Birgivi's Vasiyetname , Kadızade Mehmed Efendi's Risale and al-Aqhisari's Risala fi al-aqa'id are bound together, showing that these works were perceived at the time as complementary texts. His works give much space to such topics as innovations, commanding right and forbidding wrong, the ragha'ib and bara'a prayers, dhikr , the supplications in Friday sermons, hand-shaking after congregational prayers, Sufi rites and sama' ceremonies, and the use of tobacco. According to the source these were the subjects of the debates between the Kadızadelis and the people of the Sufi orders and were treated in Katib Chelebi's Mizan al-haqq ; on them al-Aqhisari mostly took a strict and prohibitive position. He died in Akhisar. Because Katib Chelebi fixed the date of his death on the authority of al-Aqhisari's son, who was his own student, the source regards the date 1041 (1632) as more reliable than those given elsewhere. He is recorded as having been buried in the Uzuntaş Cemetery in Akhisar. His Circle of Influence — According to the source, al-Aqhisari's influence on later Ottoman society has not yet been brought to light. By contrast, Majalis al-abrar can be said to have strongly influenced the Indian subcontinent. Around 1850 long extracts from it, together with sections from the works of Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim, appeared in a Persian work titled al-Balagh al-mubin , wrongly attributed to Shah Wali Allah al-Dihlawi. The work was printed in Delhi in 1866 with an Urdu translation by Subhan Bakhsh al-Shikarpuri, without naming its author and with its end missing; this edition carries a foreword by Shah Abd al-Aziz al-Dihlawi. In 1903 it was published in Lucknow with a different Urdu translation by Abd al-Wali al-Madrasi, this time attributed to al-Aqhisari. The Urdu translation printed in 1978 was made by Kifayat Allah Dihlawi, mufti of the Deobandi movement, and has been reprinted ever since. In 2011 Mustafa Şeyh (Mustapha Sheikh) wrote a doctoral thesis and Mustafa Boz a master's thesis on al-Aqhisari. His Works — ① Majalis al-abrar wa-masalik al-akhyar : his most famous and, according to Katib Chelebi, his last work, comprising a hundred religious topics inspired by hadiths in sources such as al-Baghawi's Masabih al-sunna . Many manuscripts exist in Turkey, the Arab countries and India; in all its Urdu translations the 100th session is missing. Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Khumayyis published four of its sessions (Riyadh 2001), and this edition was translated into Turkish (Istanbul 2002). ② Sharh al-Durr al-yatim fi al-tajwid . ③ Risala fi al-aqa'id : the author's only known work in Turkish, also called Vasiyetname . He also wrote treatises on imitation ( taqlid ), the superiority of prophethood over sainthood, the degrees of the self and of worship, the remembrance of the tongue and the heart, the blameworthiness of innovation, evil and non-evil innovation, graves ( Radd al-qabriyya ), blessings and amin during the sermon, hand-shaking after the prayers, dancing and whirling ( dawran ), and tobacco ( Dukhaniyya ). Ali Çelik produced a study of the treatise on innovation (Eskişehir 2000), and Yahya Michot translated the Dukhaniyya into English.

Karaca Ahmed (Karacaahmed Sultan)

Sultan

One of the Abdals of Rûm who lived in the reign of Orhan Gazi; among the people he is known as a physician who cured the mentally ill. In the words of the historian Âlî Mustafa he became the "renowned pole" of the Abdals of Rûm. According to tradition he was the son of Süleyman al-Khurâsânî, who ruled in the land of Persia. Living at first a life of pleasure and ease, he turned on some occasion to the dervish path, came to Anatolia, took part in the conquest of Akhisar at Geyve, and settled there after the conquest. The Hacı Bektaş Vilâyetnâmesi states that Karaca Ahmed was the watchman of the saints of Anatolia and a disciple of Şeyh Nûreddin of Sivrihisar . According to the Vilâyetnâme, when Hacı Bektâş-ı Velî came to Anatolia Karaca Ahmed was already there and, at Fatma Bacı's prompting, told those with him that Hacı Bektaş was at Sulucakarahöyük; after witnessing some of his miracles he went to him and attached himself to him. In the reign of Orhan Gazi, after the battle of Pelekanon with the Byzantines, he came to Üsküdar and settled in the area where the tomb and cemetery bearing his name stand today; in the lodge he founded there he trained a great many disciples, and his lodge served as a buffer zone on the Ottoman-Byzantine frontier. After taking part in the conquests in Rumelia he travelled through many regions of Anatolia, both treating the sick and contributing through the lodges he founded to the Islamisation of Anatolia. Having left Ottoman territory with a large body of disciples, he first settled in the region at Afyon that bears his name today; during these activities he was accompanied by such companions as Yargeldi Sultan, whose tomb is at Göynük, and Hasan Basri. After a time he left Afyon and settled in the Manisa region ruled by the Saruhanids. From historical records it appears that he lived in Saruhanid territory in the time of İshak Bey, the last ruler of that principality. Akhisar was probably his last halt; after that he went nowhere else, but in the lodge he founded both practised the healing of souls and trained disciples. In the Saruhanid endowment deeds the name of Karaca Ahmed appears as a witness to an endowment made to Revak Sultan in 1371; from a document of 1390 concerning the endowment of the Hoşkadem Mosque and of the Karaca Ahmed endowments at Yengi to the Karaca Ahmed lodge, it appears that he was no longer living. It may therefore be said that he died between 1371 and 1390 . Mecdî records that his grave lies in the village at Akhisar that bears his name. After his death his son Eşref continued the office of sheikh and the healing of souls; he is also known to have had another son named Hızır Abdal. His Circle of Influence Having won great fame in Ottoman lands, Karaca Ahmed was often identified in the Balkans with Saint George ; as a result the Christian people readily accepted him and with him Islam. The source notes that Karaca Ahmed's attachment to Bektashism, and his later becoming one of the most important figures of that order, arose from his relation with Abdal Mûsâ rather than with Hacı Bektaş: Abdal Mûsâ, who was propagating Bektashism intensively in the region during Karaca Ahmed's time in Ottoman lands, must have met him in his capacity as head of the Hacı Bektaş hearth. His Tomb and Complex He has seven tombs, in Istanbul, Afyon, Manisa, Aydın, Sivrihisar, Göynük and Macedonia, and three stations, in the villages of Karaköy at Akhisar, Eşme-Karaca Ahmed and Horoz at Manisa. Beside the tomb at Üsküdar is a further grave said to hold the horse on which Karaca Ahmed is believed to have ridden from Khurasan to Anatolia. The Karacaahmet Cemetery is likewise named after him.

Revak Sultan

(q.s.)

A sheikh of the Halwati order who lived in Manisa during the reign of Saruhanoglu Ishak Celebi. His lodge was established on land granted by Ishak Celebi, with an endowment deed (vakfiye) dated 773/1371; his tomb stands in the Sehzadeler district of Manisa, near the rock known as the 'weeping rock' (Niobe).

Shaykh Majduddin Isa of Akhisar

(q.s.)

A Bayramî sheikh and poet of Akhisar; the man from whom the Îseviyye branch ascribed to him takes its name. His given name was İlyas and his father's name Îsâ. He was born in 902 (1496-97) at Akhisar, then the centre of a district attached to the sanjak of Saruhan in the province of Aydın. What is known of his life rests on his own work, the Menâkıb-ı Şeyh Mecdüddîn , which he wrote on the virtues of his father, a Bayramî sheikh, and especially on the section about himself appended to the end of that work, whose author is unknown. After completing his medrese studies he finished his spiritual training beside his father Mecdüddin Îsâ and received the licence to guide. His father had received his own licence first from Muhammed Çelebi, one of the Bayramî sheikhs, and later from Şeyh Kasım Efendi, son of İbrâhim Tennûrî, the founder of the Tennûriyye branch of the Şemsiyye-i Bayrâmiyye. When his father settled at Aydın in 928 (1522) he succeeded to his place at the lodge in Akhisar; yet while his father was alive (d. 937/1530-31) he gave the licence to no one , thinking that it would be a disrespect towards him. İbn Îsâ died at Akhisar and was buried beside his father in the tomb adjoining the Şeyh Îsâ Mosque. His Circle of Influence — His initiatic chain reaches, through Mecdüddin Îsâ Saruhânî and Şeyh Kasım, to İbrâhim Tennûrî, and through him to Akşemseddin, the founder of the Şemsiyye-i Bayrâmiyye. He is known to have granted the licence to eight men: Baba Ahmed Germiyânî, Muslihuddin Germiyânî, Muhammed Rûmî, Kasım Malatyavî, Rûşen-i Rûmî (Nûri Rûşenî), Abdî Halîfe Tirevî, Ömer Menteşevî and Dede Hasan Bayındırî. Of these, Kasım Malatyavî is said to have been sent to Amasya, while Muhammed Rûmî founded his lodge somewhere near Istanbul. After İbn Îsâ the Îseviyye did not long continue. His Poetry and Sufi Line — His poems, in which he treats the doctrine of the unity of being, are notable for their literary quality as much as for their mystical content; the figures of simile, metaphor, double entendre and paronomasia that he employs show his command of the subtleties of Ottoman Turkish. One of the best-known representatives of the science of letters and numbers in his day, İbn Îsâ is related to have been skilled in composing magic squares. Some sources also state that he was a physician and wrote a work on medicine. His Works — The Nutk-ı İbn Îsâ (twenty ghazals recorded under this heading in a compilation in the National Library). The Menâkıb-ı Şeyh Mecdüddîn ve Âdâb-ı Sâlikîn — he completed this work relating his father's virtues in 961 (1554) , when he was about sixty; the three accounts at the end of the work, which contains 150 in all, concern İbn Îsâ himself and were probably added by one of his disciples. The Şerh-i Esmâ-i Hüsnâ (composed in 1541 in the "mefâîlün mefâîlün feûlün" metre, running to some 868 couplets). The Rumûzü'l-künûz fi'l-cifr (in twelve chapters; completed in 965 (1557-58) ). Also the Ferahnâme , Fusûl-i Seb'a , Fusûl-i Aşere (on the initiatic chain, the etiquette of the order, the master-disciple relation and the spiritual stations), Kavâidü't-teshîr , Tabîatnâme , Kıyâfetnâme , Risâle-i Mukantarât (on the calendar), Terceme-i Müfredât and Nûriyye .

Ahmad Shamsuddin al-Marmaravi (Yigitbasi Veli)

(q.s.)

The founder of the Ahmediyye branch of the Halvetiyye; a Sufi and author known by the epithet Yiğitbaşı. He was born in 839 (1435) in a village near Akhisar. He received his first education from his father İsâ Halîfe, who was a Halvetî sheikh. After studying the exoteric sciences he drew benefit from Alâeddin Uşşâkī, a Halvetî guide living in the village of Kabaklı near Uşak. He afterwards settled at Manisa and began to train disciples there. When he went to Istanbul in order to settle the disputes between the orders and succeeded in doing so, he was given the epithet Yiğitbaşı (fatâ'l-fityân). After the death of his sheikh Alâeddin Uşşâkī he succeeded him and carried on the work of guidance at Manisa. He died in 910 (1504). His Circle of Influence — The Ahmediyye branch of the Halvetiyye is attributed to him. After him this branch divided into four sub-branches: Ramazâniyye , Sinâniyye , Uşşâkıyye and Mısriyye . His influence thus did not remain confined to a single lodge but became one of the principal channels of the spread of the Halvetiyye in Anatolia and Rumelia. His Poetry and Sufi Line — His treatises treat the theoretical and the practical sides of Sufism together: in verse he takes up such subjects as the divine attributes, the perfect guide, the love of God, the world, manifestation, the vision of God and the self; in prose, such subjects as belief, the sharia, instruction, remembrance, the divine unity and the realities of the human being. That he wrote a simplified text for disciples shows that he took care that what he wrote should be read. His Works — Eleven treatises of his have been identified. 1. Câmiu'l-esrâr (in verse; the divine attributes, the perfect guide, the love of God, the world, manifestation, the vision of God and the self). 2. Risâle-i Tevhîd (in prose; belief, the sharia, mâye, instruction, remembrance, the divine unity and the realities of the human being). 3. Keşfü'l-esrâr (a simplified prose text for disciples). 4. Ravzatü'l-vâsılîn (questions of the divine unity and the interpretation of dreams). 5. Atvâr-ı Seb'a (an exposition of the stages of the spiritual path). 6. Risâletü'l-hüdâ (Sufi counsels). 7. Kenzü'l-hakāyık (the attributes of God). 8. Hurde-i Tarîkat (the etiquette of the order). 9. Tabakātü'l-evliyâ (on the abdâl, the evtâd and the gawth). 10. Mukaddimetü's-sâliha (the people of the sunna, the godfearing, the ascetics, and the states of sheikh and disciple). 11. İrfânü'l-maârif (the methods of guidance of the scholars of the outward and the inward). His Tomb and Complex — It is in the Seyyid Hoca quarter of Manisa. Beside his tomb there was a lodge of his; in place of the ruined lodge a mosque was built by the Yiğitbaşı Foundation.