A Digital Atlas of Sacred Geography
1113 records · Page 29/47
Saints whose death anniversary falls this Hijri month (sourced).
Muhammad Bello, son and successor of Usman dan Fodio, was the second Sultan-Caliph of Sokoto as well as a scholar and author. Born in 1781, he died on 25 October 1837 (1253 AH). At his own insistence he was buried at Wurno, the ribat (frontier fort) he had founded. (Sources: Wikipedia 'Muhammed Bello' & 'Wurno'; Britannica 'Muhammad Bello')
Emir Nur ibn Mujahid was the ruler who built Harar's famous five-gated defensive wall (the Jugol) in the 1550s and is venerated locally as a saint. He died in 1567 (c. 974 AH) during a typhus epidemic that struck Harar. His tomb is a distinctive bright-green beehive-shaped mausoleum within Harar Jugol, the UNESCO-listed old city. (Sources: Wikipedia 'Nur ibn Mujahid'; Atlas Obscura 'Tomb of Emir Nur'; Encyclopaedia Africana)
The Al Nejashi Mosque in the village of Negash (Tigray) is associated with the First Hijra of the Prophet's Companions to Abyssinia (c. 614-615) and is among the earliest Muslim settlements in Africa; a 7th-century Muslim cemetery is archaeologically documented there. A tomb enclosure behind the prayer hall holds graves traditionally identified as 15 Companions who died in Ethiopia, and a grave venerated as the Negus Ashama ibn Abjar (the Najashi) who sheltered them. These identifications are traditional/devotional, not individually confirmed archaeologically. (Sources: Wikipedia 'Al Nejashi Mosque'; Madain Project 'Negash Amedin Mesgid')
Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn, known as Aw-Barkhadle ('Blessed Father'), is regarded as a pioneer of Islam in the Horn of Africa, traditionally credited with devising an Arabic-script reading system for Somali; he is placed in the 10th-12th centuries (no firm death year is recorded). His shrine in the town of Aw-Barkhadle, northeast of Hargeisa, was a major medieval pilgrimage and royal-burial center. (Sources: Wikipedia 'Aw-Barkhadle'; Sada Mire, 'Wagar, Fertility and Phallic Stelae... Aw-Barkhadle, Somaliland', ResearchGate)
An 11th-century Kara-Khanid Turkic linguist and philologist; his 'Diwan Lughat al-Turk', compiled in Baghdad in 1072-74, is the first comprehensive dictionary and ethnographic survey of the Turkic languages. Per TDV he taught for many years and died at an advanced age; his death date is genuinely disputed (TDV c. 1090, a manuscript gives AH 477 = 1084-85, other sources 1102/1105). He is traditionally said to be buried beside his madrasa in Opal (Upal) village near Kashgar — an attribution resting on local records and oral tradition rather than contemporary documentation (tomb reconstructed 1985). (Sources: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi 'Kâşgarlı Mahmud'; en.wikipedia.org 'Mahmud al-Kashgari')
Abdullahi dan Fodio, brother of Usman dan Fodio, was a leading scholar of the jihad movement and the first Emir of Gwandu. Born in 1766/67, he died in 1245 AH (1829; some sources give 1828). He is buried at Gwandu, Kebbi State, in the tomb known as Hubbare Abdullahi. (Sources: Wikipedia 'Abdullahi dan Fodio'; nigeriagalleria.com 'Abdullahi Fodio Tomb')
Sheikh Sulejman Axhiza Baba, born in 1537 in Shkodër into the Bushatli family, was a sheikh of the Saadiyye (Aciziyye branch); he founded the Saadi tekke in Gjakova (Yakova) in 1582 and later established a tekke and türbe in the Marash quarter of Prizren at the foot of the fortress hill. He is popularly known as 'Hisar Baba' after that fortress hill. His türbe in Marash, Prizren, adjoins the Maksut Pasha Mosque; the historic tekke was demolished after World War II and the wooden-domed türbe was later rebuilt. His exact year of death is not settled in the sources. (Sources: sq.wikipedia.org 'Sheh Sulejman Axhiza Baba'; TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi 'Prizren')
Sheikh Shefqet Shehu, born in 1900 in Gjakova (Yakova), was a Saadi sheikh who led the Big Tekke (Teqja e Madhe) — the city's oldest Saadi lodge — from 1929 to 1952; a descendant of the founder Sulejman Axhiza Baba (tekke founded 1582), he received his hilafetname in Damascus in 1928. He died on 11 March 1952. A türbe was built over his grave near the Llukac bridge in Gjakova and is recorded as the 'Şeyh Şefket Türbesi' in Raif Virmiça's inventory. (Sources: Raif Virmiça, 'Kosova Tekkeleri-Türbeleri ve Kitabeli Mezar Taşları', Istanbul 2010 — Hacı Bektaş Velî Journal review; sq.wikipedia.org 'Teqja e Madhe' / en.wikipedia.org 'Culture of Gjakova')
Sheikh Emin Efendi was the imam, kadi, sheikh and architect who founded the Sheikh Emin Tekke (Teqja e Shejh Eminit) of the Saadiyye order in Gjakova (Yakova) in 1730; he built the complex, which includes a semahane and a mausoleum. As founder he is buried in the tekke's türbe, recorded as the 'Şeyh Emin Efendi Tekkesi ve Türbesi' in Raif Virmiça's inventory. His exact date of death is not documented in the available sources. (Sources: Raif Virmiça, 'Kosova Tekkeleri-Türbeleri ve Kitabeli Mezar Taşları', Istanbul 2010; en.wikipedia.org 'Culture of Gjakova')
Abaz Hilmi Dede (1887-1947) was the 5th Dedebaba (Kryegjysh) of the Bektashi Order. He is among the dedebabas whose tyrbe (türbe) is at the World Headquarters of the Bektashi (Kryegjyshata) in Tirana. He lived through the period of Communist pressure and died in 1947. (Sources: Wikipedia 'Abaz Hilmi'; Wikipedia 'World Headquarters of the Bektashi')
Sersem Ali Baba was an Ottoman Bektashi dervish who arrived in Kalkandelen (Tetovo) around 1551 and is regarded as the founder of the Harabati Baba Bektashi tekke. Sources record his death around 1569, though some traditions hold that he died in Najaf, which would make the twelve-sided structure at Tetovo a commemorative shrine rather than an actual grave. The tekke that grew around his türbe is among the best-preserved Bektashi complexes in the Balkans. (Sources: TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi 'Harâbâtî Baba Tekkesi'; Wikipedia 'Arabati Baba Teḱe')
A Bektashi baba regarded as the second founder of the Harabati Baba Tekke in Kalkandelen (Tetovo) — one of the most important centres of Bektashism in Rumelia — and the man who gave the tekke its name. The source states plainly that there is not enough information about the tekke's first founder, Sersem Ali Baba, or its second founder, Harabati Baba; it says nothing of his birth, education or initiation. According to tradition he went to Rumelia with four companions to spread Bektashism. While in Kalkandelen he saw a burning lamp and, saying that it was the spirit of Sersem Ali Baba, had a tomb built for him there. Sersem Ali Baba is the man who first founded the tekke; he was probably trained at the Bektashi Asitane of Didymoteicho and came to Kalkandelen in 958 (1551). According to Ekrem Hakkı Ayverdi, the tekke, built towards the end of the 16th century, was enlarged by Receb Pasha in Harabati Baba's time. The lines of the Bektashi poet Turabi (d. 1285/1868-69), "Receb Pasha asks help from the heart / from Sersem Ali Baba in his lodge" , show that Receb Pasha visited the tekke and gave it help; various legends about this help are told among the people. He died in 1194 (1780). Eleven shaykhs served in the tekke after him; the tekke's endowment deed dated 1230 (1815) is in the Tetovo Archive. His Tomb and Complex — Harabati Baba's open tomb lies within a hall resting on wooden posts, east of the graveyard in the tekke courtyard. The wall surfaces of the hall beside the tomb, like the inner walls of the masjid and the harem building, are decorated with landscape paintings, geometric shapes and plant motifs. In the north-west of the courtyard, together with the masjid and the semahane, stands the tomb of Sersem Ali Baba, with a twelve-sided body covered by a twelve-segmented dome; in the graveyard before it are eleven graves belonging to Receb Pasha and to the shaykhs and dervishes of the tekke. The tekke functioned until the Balkan War (1912), then fell into ruin, and in 1967 it was restored and opened for tourism.
Sarı Saltuk was a semi-legendary alperen dervish who played a major role in the spread of Islam in the Balkans and died around 1297-1298. A teqe with a cave and shrine on Sarisalltik mountain near Krujë is attributed to him and is a major Bektashi pilgrimage site. However, according to the Saltukname multiple maqams are attributed to him (Babadag/Romania, Blagaj/Bosnia, Kaliakra/Bulgaria, İznik); the Krujë site is one of these and is regarded as a symbolic maqam rather than a confirmed grave, and its location is disputed. (Sources: Wikipedia 'Sarı Saltık'; Metin İzeti, 'The Beliefs and Rituals Rising Around the Mausoleum of Sarı Saltık in Krujë-Albania', Türk Kültürü ve Hacı Bektaş Velî Araştırma Dergisi)
Kıdemli Baba Sultan was an early Bektashi dervish-saint who gathered many disciples in Thrace; tradition links him to Hacı Bektaş and Ahmed Yesevi. His domed türbe on Ada Tepe above the village of Kalugerovo, about 15 km from Nova Zagora, is one of the earliest surviving Ottoman dervish monuments in Bulgaria, dated architecturally to c. 1413–1420. The remote site was recorded by Evliya Çelebi in the 17th century and studied in detail by Machiel Kiel in 1971; it served as a Bektashi tekke center until the order's suppression in 1826/1842. (Sources: Machiel Kiel, 'A Monument of Early Ottoman Architecture in Bulgaria: The Bektaşi Tekke of Kıdemli Baba Sultan', Belleten 35/137, 1971; Evliya Çelebi, Seyahatnâme.)
Elmali Baba was a major 16th-century Bektashi sheikh who led some 500 dervishes in the Eastern Rhodopes; a 1579 Ottoman document attests his dergâh's authority. The active complex (türbe, mosque, ritual hall) near the village of Bivolyane, Kardzhali Province, contains six unnamed graves, one believed to be his. An annual Alevi-Bektashi fair is held there each September; his death is recorded as 1585. (Sources: 'The Bektashī Order in Bulgaria: A 16th-Century Document on the Elmalı Baba Dargāh'; Guide-Bulgaria tourism database.)
Ahmet Myftar Dede (Ahmet Myftar Ahmataj, 1916-1980) was the 6th Dedebaba (Kryegjysh) of the Bektashi Order. He spent his final years in Krujë and Tirana under Sigurimi surveillance and died in 1980. His remains are interred in the tyrbe (türbe) at the World Headquarters of the Bektashi (Kryegjyshata) in Tirana. (Sources: Wikipedia 'Ahmet Myftar'; Wikipedia 'World Headquarters of the Bektashi')
Nasibi Tahir Baba was a local poet and mystic who founded the Bektashi tekke at Frashër (Gjirokastër County) in either 1815 or 1825 on returning from his travels in the Middle East. After his death in 1835 a tyrbe (türbe) was built in his honour, which became an important pilgrimage site. The tekke became one of the region's foremost religious and national centres in the 19th century. (Sources: Wikipedia 'Tekke of Frashër'; Wikidata Q16258645 — Teqe of Frashër)
Demir Baba ("Iron Father") is venerated as a 16th-century Alevi-Bektashi saint and healer. His heptagonal sandstone mausoleum, with a rectangular antechamber and a hemispherical dome, was built atop a likely ancient Thracian sacred site within the Sboryanovo reserve near Sveshtari, Razgrad Province. A cult complex with a holy spring grew around the türbe, which remains an active Alevi pilgrimage site and one of Bulgaria's 100 National Tourist Sites. (Sources: Wikipedia 'Demir Baba Teke'; Lyubomir Mikov, Cult Architecture and Art of Heterodox Muslims in Bulgaria 16th–20th c., Sofia 2007; Wikidata Q723505.)
The Durbali Sultan Tekke is a Bektashi (Alevi) dervish lodge in the village of Ano Asprogeia (Irini) near Farsala in Thessaly, traditionally founded by a dervish from Konya named Durbali. It became one of the most significant Bektashi centers in the Balkans, containing imagery of Imam Ali and Hacı Bektaş Veli. After Thessaly's annexation to Greece (1881) it continued functioning, passing to Albanian Bektashis from 1925 until the last baba died in 1973; it is now a protected monument. (Sources: Wikipedia 'Durbalı Sultan Tekke'; Municipality of Farsala official cultural site; World Bektashi Headquarters/Kryegjyshata; Wikidata Q16735650.)
Sheikh Pir Osman Baba was the founder of the Saraçhane Halveti Tekke in Prizren, established in 1712, which became the regional âsitâne of the Halvetiyye-Ramazaniyye branch in Rumelia. His death date is contested in the sources: cultural-heritage inventories give 1164 AH/1747 CE, while the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (Ramazaniyye) gives 1165 AH/1752 CE. His türbe stands in the courtyard of the tekke and also contains the graves of later Halveti sheikhs. (Sources: TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi 'Ramazaniyye'; kulturenvanteri.com 'Saraçhane Halveti Tekkesi, Prizren')
Sultan Murad I, the third Ottoman sultan known by the epithet Hüdâvendigâr, was killed on the battlefield following the Battle of Kosovo (First Battle of Kosovo) in 1389. His internal organs were buried on the Kosovo field at the village of Mazgit near Pristina, while the rest of his remains were taken to Bursa and interred in his tomb at the Hüdâvendigâr complex. The Mazgit mausoleum (Meşhed-i Hüdâvendigâr) was built by his son Bayezid I and is regarded as the first example of Ottoman architecture in Kosovo. (Sources: TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi 'Hudâvendigâr Meşhedi'; Wikipedia 'Tomb of Murad I')
Ajvaz Dede was a dervish who, according to tradition, arrived at Prusac (Akhisar) with the Ottoman conquest after 1463 and is remembered in the Islamization of Bosnia. By legend he prayed for forty days during a drought for water to reach Prusac, whereupon a rock split and a spring opened; this is commemorated annually in 'Ajvatovica', Europe's largest Muslim pilgrimage/commemoration. A türbe attributed to him stands in a small cemetery at Prusac; however the site is largely a symbolic MAQAM based on legend, and an actual burial is not historically verified. (Sources: Ajvatovica, Wikipedia; Federal Ministry of Culture, 'Pilgrimage to Ajvatovica', fmks.gov.ba; Sara Kuehn, 'Ajvatovica Pilgrimage', sarakuehn.com)
Mustafa Gaibi (17th century) was a dervish-shaykh of Ottoman Bosnia, venerated as a saint in Sufi circles. After his death he was buried at Stara Gradiška in Slavonia, where his grave became a Muslim site of pilgrimage; in 1825 Emperor Francis I of Austria ordered a small türbe built over it, renovated in 1868. The türbe was relocated around 1954 across the Sava river to Bosanska Gradiška (Bosnia and Herzegovina), where it now stands and holds national-monument status. (Sources: Mustafa Gaibi, Wikipedia (Wikidata Q61890337); 'Under the Gaibi's Tree', RAI 2020 academic paper, nomadit.co.uk)
Otman Baba (c. 1378–1478) was a heterodox Kalenderi-Bektashi dervish-saint who wandered the Ottoman lands and gained a large following in Bulgaria after c. 1445. His life is known chiefly from the hagiography Vilâyetname-i Otman Baba, written by his disciple Küçük Abdal; he was regarded as the kutb al-aktab of his era, with Akyazılı Baba as his successor. His domed ashlar türbe, now a museum, stands at Teketo village near Haskovo; note: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi places his tomb at his lodge in Varna (1506), but the surviving geolocated monument is at Teketo. (Sources: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi 'Otman Baba'; Wikipedia 'Otman Baba'; Wikidata Q30119394.)
