Abdullah Sermest

Kilisli Abdullah Sermest (Tazebay) (1819-1882) was a renowned 19th-century Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi sheikh, tekke poet and calligrapher. He spent ten years in Egypt studying medicine and calligraphy, then became a disciple of the Naqshbandi sheikh Muhammad Can in Mecca. Sent to Kilis as a spiritual guide, he settled in the Muhammed Bedevi lodge in 1858 and served the tekke for about twenty years until his death. He was buried in the garden of his lodge across from the Çekmeceli Mosque on Kurtağa Street in the Bölük quarter; a tomb was built over his grave and it is a place of pilgrimage today. (Sources: TDV Encyclopedia of Islam; TEİS Dictionary of Turkish Literature Names; Kilis Governorate.)