TSaint
Tapduk Emre
A Baba'i-Haydari dervish who lived in the 13th century; he is known as the shaykh of the great Sufi poet Yunus Emre . He is thought to have come to Anatolia from Khurasan. Whether the word Tapduk was his name or his epithet is uncertain. Some of Yunus Emre's verses show that, like many dervishes of the Baba'i groups, he bore the title baba ; the existence of persons using this name in Anatolia in his time is also known. The sources give differing accounts of the period in which he lived; but if the periods of his disciple Yunus Emre and of his shaykh Barak Baba are taken into account, it can be said that he lived in the second half of the 13th century. Majdi states that he led a secluded life in his village near the Sakarya river; most sources agree that he lived in this village, which today bears his name. Like many dervishes of his time he is thought to have engaged in farming and in the training of his disciples. The sources differ on the identity of his spiritual guide. His disciple Yunus Emre himself, in the verse "Yunus's portion comes from Tapduk, Saltuk and Barak" , places him among the disciples of Barak Baba ; according to the source, these words establish conclusively that he was Barak Baba's disciple. Through Barak Baba his chain reaches Sarı Saltuk . Since Barak Baba is known to have been a Haydari dervish, Tapduk Emre too is thought likely to have been a Baba'i-Haydari dervish. According to M. Fuad Köprülü, because of his close ties with Baba'i circles he appears, like his shaykh, as a Turkmen baba; Abdülbaki Gölpınarlı holds that he belonged to the ta'ifa-i abdalan . What is told of his family is adorned with hagiographic reports. It is related that one of his daughters married Yunus Emre, but this report appears neither in Yunus's divan nor in other contemporary sources. Another daughter named Bacı Sultan , whose grave is in the village of Emre Sultan near Nallıhan, is also reported. Gölpınarlı further draws attention to the possibility that Yunus Emre may have been Tapduk Emre's son. His exact date of death is not known. It is highly probable that the guide whose death Yunus Emre announces in one of his poems died at the end of the 13th century. His Circle of Influence — The sources indicate that he had many disciples, known as the Tapduklular . His best-known disciple is Yunus Emre , who served him for many years: he spread his views in Anatolia and Syria, spoke of him with reverence and praise, and like his shaykh embraced Qalandari-Malamati thought, expressing this in the verse "We scattered Tapduk's meaning among the people, praise be to God" . Two further disciples, Shaykh Ömer and Shaykh Ja'far, are named in the sources. Village names show that his influence reached the Balkans as well: a village of the central district of Aksaray, one of the Havsa district of Edirne and one attached to Varna bear the name Tapduk. The source notes that even if this does not prove he went to these regions, it matters for estimating the spread of his disciples. His Tomb and Complex — According to the source, the most reliable view is that his grave lies in the village of Emresultan in the Nallıhan district of Ankara; this is recorded in many sources as well as in the Afyonkarahisar Sharia Court Registers. In the tomb in the village there are the graves of many other persons said to belong to his family.
