Ismail Rumi

Founder of the Rumiyya branch of the Qadiriyya order; because of his role in the spread of the order in the Ottoman lands he is known by the title pir-i sani ("the second founder"). The branch named after him is called Rumiyya from his epithet "Rumi", and also Isma'iliyya after his name; it was through this branch that the Qadiriyya was first represented in Istanbul.

He was born in the village of Bansa near Tosya. His father, Çoban Ali, moved to Tosya so that his son might be better educated. While studying the madrasa sciences he began to attend the gatherings of Ahmed Efendi, one of the shaykhs of the Khalwatiyya.

One night he saw 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani in a dream and, at his spiritual prompting, set out for Baghdad. There he went to the central lodge of the Qadiriyya and introduced himself to its shaykh, the naqib al-ashraf of Baghdad, Sayyid Feyzullah Efendi. After a time he entered retreat for a forty-day seclusion; having completed his spiritual training, he left Baghdad on his guide's advice. Before reaching Anatolia he stopped in Egypt and received a licence also from Ahmed-i Mısri, whose gatherings he attended.

According to the article on the Rumiyya, before coming to Istanbul he had lodges founded in cities such as Kastamonu, Tosya, Bursa, İzmir, İzmit, Manisa, Tekirdağ, Edirne, Salonica, Crete, Štip, Constanța, Plovdiv, Serres and Timișoara, and in Egypt.

In 1020 (1611) he came to Istanbul; he stayed for a time at the Sofular Mosque, beginning his work of guidance, and then had a lodge built at Tophane on land belonging to a certain Hacı Piri: the Kadirihane. After the founding of this lodge the Qadiriyya began to spread in Istanbul and, together with the Eşrefiyye branch founded at Bursa in the XV century, played an important part in the order's spread in the Ottoman lands. At the invitation of Ahmed I he performed, with his dervishes, the Qadiri remembrance after the Friday prayer at the opening ceremony of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. The recitation of the Qadiri litanies after the Friday prayer in this mosque became a tradition, which is still kept today by a dervish appointed by the shaykh of the Kadirihane.

He died in 1041 (1631) and was buried in the graveyard of the lodge he had founded. While still alive he had appointed his deputy and son-in-law Şerif Halil Efendi as shaykh of the Kadirihane.

His Circle of Influence — The shaykhship of the Kadirihane was carried on by his deputy and son-in-law Şerif Halil Efendi. Son of Feyzullah Efendi, shaykh of the Qadiri lodge in Baghdad, Halil Efendi was the first representative of the family of shaykhs known as the "dynasty of the Şerifs", which held the lodge's shaykhship until 1925. His deputy Ahmed Efendi of Strumica founded the İsmail Rumi Lodge (Hamam Tekke) at Bursa in 1038 (1628). From its founding until the closure of the lodges in 1925 the Kadirihane remained attached to the Rumiyya and held the status of chief lodge in the Ottoman capital not only of this branch but of the Qadiriyya in general; licences given by Qadiri shaykhs in Anatolia and Rumelia, and even by other Qadiri branches, were ratified by the shaykh of the Kadirihane.

His Tomb and Complex — The Kadirihane is a complex centred on a mosque-tevhidhane, in the Tophane quarter of Beyoğlu, on the Kadiriler Slope, which takes its name from the lodge. On the left of the path following the main gate, on a retaining wall, stand İsmail Rumi's tomb and the graveyard; the tomb evidently took its final form during the restoration under Mahmud II. It belongs to the group of open tombs and consists of six slender marble columns, metal grilles between them and an onion dome on a metal frame. On the curved marble lintel, a relief of the Qadiri rose sits at the centre of a medallion crowning a couplet in ta'liq script dedicated to İsmail Rumi; the tops of the corner columns and the dome carry finials in the form of the Qadiri-Rumi crown. A glazed opening in the porch of the mosque-tevhidhane is arranged as a prayer window facing the tomb; in the western gallery of the prayer hall a hair of the Prophet's beard and some belongings of İsmail Rumi are kept. When the lodge was destroyed in the Tophane fire of 1179 (1765) it was rebuilt by Mustafa III, and when it was ruined again in the fire of 1239 (1823) it was restored by Mahmud II. After 1925 the mosque-tevhidhane was used only as a mosque; the mosque-tevhidhane and the men's quarters were ruined in a fire in 1997.