Tâcüddîn İbrâhim Karamânî

The name of this figure, one of the Anatolian saints, is İbrâhim bin Bahşî, and his epithet is Tâcüddîn. His date of birth is unknown, and he died in Bursa in 1467 (AH 872). He was originally from the village of Demirciler in Manavgat; his father was known as Fakîh Bahşî. He carried out his education in Eğridir, learning the exoteric sciences of his time from Pîrî Halîfe, the son-in-law of the Şeyhülislâm. When Pîrî Halîfe heard that his own teacher had settled in Konya, he took Tâcüddîn İbrâhim along with him to visit him; thus Tâcüddîn İbrâhim found himself in the service and company of Abdüllatîf Makdisî and attained his favor. When Pîrî Halîfe asked permission to return to Eğridir, upon his teacher Abdüllatîf Makdisî's request that they leave Tâcüddîn İbrâhim with him, Tâcüddîn İbrâhim did not part from his teacher, and later, when his teacher settled in Bursa, he went there together with him. Owing to this devotion he attained spiritual ranks and rose to the station of training students. After the death of Abdüllatîf Makdisî in 1461 (AH 866), he took his place and enjoined good and forbade evil among the people; he purchased the surroundings of his teacher's grave and had a lodge, a mosque and a bathhouse built there. According to the sources, one of those who loved him, Bostancı Dede, relates that one day they could not find him at his lodge and, after a long search, found him occupied with worship on a mountain within a forest; Çanakçı Dede, for his part, relates that one night he carried a hundred and ten vessels of food to his students, which shows that many people there learned knowledge and good manners. Veliyyüddînzâde Ahmed Paşa praised him, calling him the trustee of the treasury of spiritual secrets and the ornament of the garden of lights.