A Digital Atlas of Sacred Geography

Saints

1113 records · Page 32/47

Remembered in Jumada al-Awwal

Saints whose death anniversary falls this Hijri month (sourced).

Sultan Bayezid II

An Ottoman sultan; he is called Bâyezîd the Saint for his piety and his turning to works of charity. He was born in 1448 at Didymoteicho. His mother was Gülbahar Hatun. Experienced statesmen such as Çandarlı İbrâhim and Yahyâ Pasha acted as his tutors; he took his lessons in calligraphy from Shaykh Hamdullah . He came to the throne upon the death of his father Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror on 3 May 1481; he settled the struggle with his brother Cem Sultan by the battle of Yenişehir on 22 June 1481. Cem Sultan afterwards took refuge with the knights of Rhodes. Kili and Akkerman were conquered in 1484. The war with the Mamluks, which began in 1485, lasted six years and ended in 1491. The wars with Venice resulted in the conquest of Modon and Coron. In his reign some of the Jews fleeing the cruelty of the Inquisition in Spain took refuge in Ottoman lands and were settled in various cities. The earthquake of Istanbul which began on 11 September 1509 and lasted forty-five days, called the little apocalypse , caused great destruction. In his last years the revolt of Şahkulu (1511) and the struggle among his sons for the throne grew severe; on 24 April 1512 he left the throne to his son Sultan Selim I and withdrew. He died near Çorlu on 10 June 1512. His Circle of Influence — He gave his protection to scholars and artists; he supported poets such as Necâtî and had Ottoman histories written in Turkish and Persian. He founded the school of the Galata Palace and established a second office of the treasury. He corresponded with Leonardo da Vinci about designs for bridges. His Poetry and Sufi Line — In his poems he used the pen name 'Adlî ; his collected poems, most of them ghazals, contain some 125 pieces and were printed at Istanbul in 1308. He was called a saint because in his reign he turned to worship and to works of charity. His Tomb and Complex — He built great complexes at Istanbul, Edirne and Amasya. He was buried beside the mosque he had built in the square that bears his name, Beyazıt Square; a tomb was afterwards raised over his grave.

İstanbulDied 918 AHView

Saint

Ahmad ibn Ajiba

A Darqâwî-Shâdhilî shaykh, an exegete, and the author of the al-Bahr al-madîd . His full name was Abu'l-'Abbâs Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Mahdî al-Hasanî al-Shâdhilî ; his descent is traced to Hasan. He was born in 1161 (1748) in the village of Khamîs, between Tangier and Tetouan in Morocco. He received a long education at Tangier, Tetouan and Fez: he studied jurisprudence, theology and exegesis under Muhammad al-Sûsî al-Simlâlî and the scholars of Tetouan, and in 1786 attended the lessons of Muhammad al-Tâwudî Ibn Sûda at Fez. In 1209 (1794) he met Sîdî Muhammad al-Bûzîdî , entered the Darqâwî-Shâdhilî way and completed his spiritual course. After his affiliation he returned to Tetouan and began to teach the religious sciences; he carried on teaching and the spiritual path together. He held that the realities of Sufism are reached by way of the outward sciences, and stressed that the fruit of knowledge is action . At one point he was accused of innovation and imprisoned together with his disciples; the source records that this event, contrary to what might be expected, increased the number of his followers. He died on 7 Shawwâl of the year 1224 (15 November 1809) at Ghumâra near Tetouan, in an outbreak of plague. His Works — In his autobiography, the al-Fahrasa , he counts 38 of his books; he has other works besides that list. The chief of them are his commentary in four volumes, the al-Bahr al-madîd fî tafsîr al-Qur'ân al-majîd ; the Îqâz al-himam , his commentary on the al-Hikam of Ibn 'Atâ'illâh al-Iskandarî; the Mi'râj al-tashawwuf on the technical terms of Sufism; the al-Futûhât al-ilâhiyya ; and the al-Futûhât al-qudsiyya . The al-Fahrasa recounts his family and lineage, his upbringing, his education and his work of guidance, together with the scholarly and Sufi movements of his time. His Tomb and Complex — His grave is at Ghumâra near Tetouan, where he died, and it is visited every year by members of the Darqâwiyya.

TetvanDied 1224 AHView

Saint

Ahmad al-Tijani

The founder of the Tijâniyya order. His full name was Abu'l-'Abbâs Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Mukhtâr b. Sâlim al-Tijânî . He was born in 1150 (1737) in the town of 'Ayn Mâdî in the region of Tlemcen in Algeria; his descent is traced to Hasan. He studied the Qur'an, hadith, Mâlikî jurisprudence and the literary sciences at Tlemcen. In Morocco he took part in the circles of remembrance of the Qâdirî, Shâdhilî and Nâsirî orders. In 1782, at Sîdî Abî Samghûn, he announced that he had attained a spiritual unveiling and that authority to guide had been given him by the Prophet, and he founded the Tijâniyya . At the centre of the order stand two short prayers believed to have been taught directly by the Prophet: the Salât al-fâtih and the Jawharat al-kamâl . He settled at Fez in 1789; Sultan Mawlây Sulaymân supported him. He died at Fez in 1230 (1815). His Circle of Influence — His teaching reached later generations through the texts compiled by his successor 'Alî Harâzim and through the written rules of the order. The order's chief growth came in West Africa: the army of al-Hâjj 'Umar, of 30.000 men, began in 1852 a jihad against French colonial rule. The Tijâniyya today has a wide following in the countries of West Africa, above all in Senegal, Mauritania, Niger and Nigeria. His Works — His sayings and teaching were set down in the Jawâhir al-ma'ânî , compiled by his successor 'Alî Harâzim. His Tomb and Complex — He died at Fez and was buried there.

FesDied 1230 AHView

Saint

Abu al-Abbas al-Sabti

The shaykh and scholar who founded the Sabtiyya branch of the Madyaniyya; one of the seven saints of Marrakesh. His full name was Abu'l-'Abbâs Ahmad b. Ja'far al-Khazrajî al-Sabtî ; he belonged to the Khazraj of the Ansâr. He was born in 524 (1130) in the city of Ceuta in Morocco. He lost his father at the age of ten. From Shaykh Abû 'Abdillâh al-Fakhkhâr he received the memorisation of the Qur'an, the Arabic language and Sufi training. In 540 (1145-1146) he went to Marrakesh and dwelt on the mountain of Igilliz for close on forty years, profiting from various scholars. At the centre of his teaching stands generosity : he understood the trust in the verse which tells that it was offered to the heavens, the earth and the mountains as sustenance , and taught that helping those in need is obligatory. He died at Marrakesh on 3 Jumâdâ al-âkhira of the year 601 (26 January 1205). His Circle of Influence — The Sabtiyya branch he founded within the Madyaniyya continued through his successor Ibn al-Hakîm. The Almohad sultan Abû Yûsuf al-Mansûr had a madrasa and a lodge built in his name at Marrakesh in 580 (1184-1185). In the tradition of visitation that recounts the seven renowned figures buried at Marrakesh (the sab'atu rijâl ) his name appears as one of those seven. His Tomb and Complex — He was buried at Marrakesh near the gate of Taghzût.

MarakeşDied 601 AHView

Scholar

Ebussuud Efendi

Shaykh al-Islam of the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent, jurist and Qur'an commentator. He is known by the titles "Mufti of mankind, sultan of the commentators, seal of the commentators, the second teacher, Hoca Çelebi, the second Abu Hanifa". Since in the preface of his commentary he calls himself Ebüssuûd Mehmed , his actual name was Mehmed ; Ebüssuûd is a kunya or title. According to the common view he was born on 17 Safar 896 (30 December 1490) in the village of Metris (Metris-Müderris) near Istanbul. His father, Muhyiddin Muhammad, known as Shaykh Yavsi and a nephew of Ali Qushji, had been born in the village of İmad (Direklibel) near İskilip; he had won the friendship of Prince Bayezid during his governorship of the sanjak of Amasya, and when Bayezid became sultan he was invited to Istanbul and a lodge was built for him near Sultanselim (later known as the Sivasi Tekke). Because of his closeness to Bayezid II he was also called the "sultan's shaykh". Ebüssuûd received his first education from his father, reading with him works of al-Sayyid al-Sharif al-Jurjani on theology and rhetoric as well as various commentaries. He then studied with Müeyyedzade Abdurrahman Efendi, Mevlana Seydi-i Karamani and, according to some sources, Kemalpaşazade. He married Zeyneb Hanım, daughter of his teacher Seydi-i Karamani. Under Selim I he was appointed in 922 (1516) to the Çankırı madrasa and, when he hesitated to go there, to the İshak Paşa madrasa at İnegöl. When his term there ended in 926 (1520), he taught the following year at the Davud Paşa madrasa, a year later at the Mahmud Paşa madrasa, and then at the madrasa of the vizier Çoban Mustafa Paşa at Gebze (931/1525). After the rank of Bursa Sultaniye he became in 934 (1528) professor at the madrasa of the Sahn-ı Seman known as the "Mufti Madrasa". Five years later he became judge first of Bursa and then, in Rabi al-Akhir 940 (November 1533), of Istanbul. In Rabi al-Awwal 944 (August 1537) he became chief military judge of Rumelia and at once joined the campaign; he was with the sultan on the Moldavian, Esztergom and Buda campaigns and led the first Friday prayer in Buda after its conquest. After eight years as military judge he became Shaykh al-Islam in Sha'ban 952 (October 1545). As military judge and Shaykh al-Islam he sought to bring the scholarly ranks and grades into a systematic order: he fixed the number of candidates ( mülazım ) that scholars of each rank might nominate and made a seven-yearly mülazemet procedure law. In his time the office of Shaykh al-Islam rose above all other scholarly institutions: the daily salary of 200 akçe was raised by 300 akçe to 500 akçe when he presented part of his commentary to Süleyman, and by a further 100 akçe to 600 akçe when he completed it; the power to appoint senior professors and judges of the major cities was given to the Shaykh al-Islams. The İlmiye Kanunnamesi was probably also drafted by him. The source notes that the first signs of decline in the scholarly profession likewise began to appear during his tenure. The sources describe him as tall, cheerful of face and dignified; it is related that as a professor he never neglected his lesson except in the festival holidays, and that as mufti he issued hundreds of fatwas every day. Süleyman held him in great respect and had him lay the foundation of the Süleymaniye Mosque for blessing; his opening a letter from the Szigetvár campaign with "my companion in state, my peer in years, my brother in the hereafter" shows this esteem. His saying, in response to a decree issued in favour of the tenants of the Hagia Sophia endowments, "No! By the sultan's command what is unlawful does not become lawful; what is forbidden cannot become permitted" is, according to the source, proof that he upheld the dignity of his learning. He made his weight felt in certain political events and supported the opening of the Cyprus campaign with his fatwa. After 28 years and 11 months as Shaykh al-Islam he died on 5 Jumada al-Ula 982 (23 August 1574). His funeral prayer was led in the Fatih Mosque by Muhashshi Sinan Efendi, and he was buried in the enclosure of the primary school he had built near the Eyüp Mosque. Funeral prayers in absentia were also held for him in the Two Holy Sanctuaries, and many elegies and chronograms were composed on his death. He had three sons, Ahmed, Mehmed and Mustafa, and three daughters, Hatice, Rahime and Kerime. Ahmed Efendi, professor at the Şehzade madrasa, died in 970 (1562-63) aged twenty-six and was buried in the enclosure where his father was later buried; Mehmed Çelebi (d. 971/1563-64) rose to be judge of Aleppo and Damascus, and the youngest, Mustafa Çelebi (d. 1008/1599), became military judge of Anatolia and Rumelia. His line continued through Mustafa Çelebi for ten generations until the middle of the XIX century; the most important documents on this are two Arabic endowment deeds dated 973 (1565) and 977 (1569) held by his descendants. His Circle of Influence — He was the teacher of many scholars who served as Shaykh al-Islam, military judge and in other scholarly posts under Süleyman, Selim II, Murad III and Mehmed III. Among his students are counted the Shaykh al-Islams Kadızade Ahmed Şemseddin, Malulzade Mehmed, Abdülkadir Şeyhi, Hoca Sadeddin, Bostanzade Mehmed, Ebülmeyamin Mustafa and Sunullah Efendi, together with Zenbillizade Fudayl Çelebi, Cenabi Mustafa Efendi, the poet Baki, the biographer Aşık Çelebi and Kınalızade Hasan Çelebi. His Poetry and Sufi Line — Ebüssuûd's line is scholarly and juristic. According to the source his fatwa collections show an understanding of law of practical rather than doctrinal value, able to produce different solutions as conditions changed; he tried to solve problems by preference ( tarjih ) and derivation ( takhrij ) among the differing views within the Hanafi school. The source links his insistence that courts follow the established Hanafi views to the aim of judicial unity and equality before the law. He adopted the view that a girl who has reached puberty may marry only with her guardian's consent, and issued fatwas permitting coffee-drinking and the shadow play on condition that it be watched for edification. He objected to a sultanic permission concerning the testimony of müstemin s with the words "There is no sultanic command for what is unlawful" . His systematizing of the principles of the miri land regime and casting them as fatwas made him stand out as the architect of that regime; eight of the nine fatwas in the preamble of the kanun-ı cedid are his. In exegesis he stands at the head of the Ottoman scholars who commented on the whole Qur'an. He was the son of a Bayrami shaykh who wrote a commentary on Shaykh Bedreddin's Varidat ; according to the source he always showed respect for Sufism in conformity with the rulings of the Sharia and for Sufis who stayed within its bounds, believed that extraordinary states such as tayy al-makan appeared in great Sufis, and accepted that such states had been seen in his own father; for him what the shaykhs call tariqa and haqiqa is the essence and quintessence of the Sharia. He wrote poems in Turkish and Arabic, but the source says it is hard to attribute artistic talent to him; the best known of his Arabic poems is al-Qasida al-mimiyya , written in emulation of Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri. His Works — ① Irshad al-aql al-salim ila mazaya al-Kitab al-Karim : his famous commentary, begun after he became Shaykh al-Islam and completed in about twenty years (probably 953-973/1546-1566), and presented to Süleyman. Some rank it above the commentaries of al-Zamakhshari and al-Baydawi; the author himself drew extensively on these two and on the commentaries of al-Razi and al-Nasafi. A critical edition based on the author's copy was published by İSAM in nine volumes (Istanbul 2021). ② Fetava-yı Ebüssuûd Efendi : collections of fatwas attributed to him; M. Ertuğrul Düzdağ arranged and published two of them (Istanbul 1972, 1983). ③ Ma'ruzat : fatwas submitted to Süleyman which, carrying the sultan's will, bound the judges. ④ Laws and Fatwas on Kharaji and Ushri Lands . ⑤ Risala fi waqf al-manqul wa-l-nuqud : on cash endowments. ⑥ Bida'at al-qadi : a collection of deed formulas on the procedure judges were to follow. ⑦ A treatise on the tithe. ⑧ Galatat-ı Ebüssuûd : on words commonly misused among the people. ⑨ al-Qasida al-mimiyya and his Arabic odes, his Turkish elegy for Süleyman and his Münşeat . He also wrote glosses on al-Hidaya , commentaries on individual suras and treatises on legal theory. His Tomb and Complex — In his complex at Eyüp Sultan, consisting of a lodge ( zaviye ), a primary school and a fountain-house, lies the family enclosure that also contains his own grave; his son Ahmed Efendi was buried there as well. Besides this he built in Istanbul a fountain and a bath bearing his name in the Macuncu Odabaşı quarter; in İskilip, next to his father's tomb, a mosque, a soup kitchen and a school (its Arabic endowment deed dated 977 is registered with the Istanbul Evkaf Administration); a mosque in Kefe, a masjid in Lepanto (İnebahtı) and a primary school in Şehremini.

İstanbulDied 982 AHView

Companion

Abu Shayba al-Khudri

Abu Shayba al-Khudri, a Companion whom early sources record as having died before the walls of Constantinople; per Dr. Mehmet Efendioğlu, one of only two Istanbul Companion graves with a genuine historical basis. A maqam attributed to him stands in the Toklu Dede and Companions cemetery in Ayvansaray; the physical presence of his body is uncertain (maqam). (Sources: İstanbul Ansiklopedisi; Kültür Envanteri.)

İstanbulDied 49 AHView

Saint

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.

İstanbulDied 1041 AHView

Saint

Murad Molla

One of the foremost reciters of the Mesnevî in Istanbul; the third postnishin of the Murad Molla Nakşibendî lodge and Friday preacher at the Sultanahmet Mosque. 🔴 This record rests on an indirect source : the figure has no independent encyclopaedia article; what follows is the information given by the article on the Mesnevîhâne lodge that he founded. The Mesnevîhâne lodge was established by him. The construction of the lodge was completed in 1260 (1844), and it was opened on Friday 9 Muharram 1261 (18 January 1845) at a ceremony attended by Sultan Abdülmecid. He died on 27 Shawwâl 1264 (26 September 1848). His Circle of Influence — At the opening ceremony of the lodge he gave Cevdet Paşa a licence to recite the Mesnevî. He endowed his books to the library of the Murad Molla lodge, thus leaving to the circle he had trained a foundation of books as well. His Tomb and Complex — A tomb was built over his grave.

İstanbulDied 1264 AHView

Saint

Ibrahim Ummi Sinan

Ibrahim Ummi Sinan, pir of the Sinaniyye branch of the Halvetiyye order, a leading Sufi and poet of 16th-century Istanbul. He died in 976 (1568) and was buried in the tomb of the Ummi Sinan Lodge in Düğmeciler, Eyüp. (Sources: TDV 'Ümmî Sinan Tekkesi'; 'Sinâniyye'.)

İstanbulDied 976 AHView

Saint

Mehmed the Conqueror

Ottoman sultan; the conqueror of Istanbul, founder of the Fatih Complex and a ruler remembered by the title Abu al-Fath . He is also known for his closeness to the scholars, for the influence the Bayrami shaykh Akshamsaddin had over him, and for the poems he wrote under the pen-name Avni . He was born in Edirne on 27 Rajab 835 (30 March 1432) , the fourth son of Murad II. In the spring of 1443 he was sent from Edirne to Manisa as governor with his two tutors; late that year, on the death of his elder brother Alaeddin Ali Çelebi, he became the sole heir to the throne. His father, contemplating abdication, summoned him to his side towards the spring of 847 (1444) and in August of that year left the throne to a son who was only twelve. This first reign led to crises at home and abroad; in August 1446 Murad II regained the throne with the help of the Janissaries and Mehmed was sent to Manisa. The five years he spent in Manisa matured him. Specialists were appointed as his tutors so that he might study the various sciences; they came at a set hour each day to teach him. Hocazade Muslihuddin, Molla Gürani, Molla İlyas, Siraceddin Halebi, Molla Abdülkadir, Hasan Samsuni and Molla Hayreddin were among his teachers; in the source's words, “at the beginning Akshamsaddin too had a great influence over him.” He knew Turkish, Greek and Slavic; there is no doubt that he commanded Arabic and Persian. He was familiar with the questions of the philosophy of religion and took a special interest in geography, mathematics and astronomy. News of his father's death reached him on 8 Muharram 855 (10 February 1451); on 16 Muharram 855 (18 February 1451) , aged nineteen, he ascended the Ottoman throne for the second time. At a great consultative assembly he gathered in Edirne he set out the conquest of Istanbul in terms of the tradition of ghaza and the security of the state. At the end of a siege of fifty-four days, between 26 Rabi' I and 20 Jumada I 857 (6 April – 29 May 1453), the city was conquered; the source judges the conquest to be the fundamental event that prepared the definitive foundation of the Ottoman state. His reign after the conquest was spent in continual campaigns in the Balkans, Anatolia and the Black Sea; long wars with Venice and Hungary and the struggle with the Karamanids and the Aqquyunlu ruler Uzun Hasan are the chief themes of the period. He established a centralised and absolute rule; the confiscation of waqf and freehold lands for the treasury affected the scholars, the shaykhs and the old bey families, and Bayezid II restored these properties and endowments to their owners as soon as he came to the throne. At the centre of his religious and Sufi circle in the years of the conquest stood Akshamsaddin , the successor of Hacı Bayram-ı Veli. According to the AKŞEMSEDDİN article, the shaykh had almost always accompanied Hacı Bayram in his dealings with Murad II and so knew Mehmed from his years as a prince, and continued to meet him after his accession; before the conquest he went twice to Edirne, on the first occasion treating the kazasker Çandarlıoğlu Süleyman Çelebi and on the second one of the sultan's daughters. When the army set out from Edirne in the spring of 1453, Akshamsaddin, Akbıyık Sultan and the other well-known shaykhs of the age joined the campaign with hundreds of their disciples; it is stated that in the most difficult moments of the siege Akshamsaddin's letters announcing that victory was near had a great effect on the achievement of the conquest. After the conquest Akshamsaddin delivered the sermon at the first Friday prayer held in Hagia Sophia, and at the sultan's request it was he who discovered the grave of the Companion Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. According to the same source, after the conquest the sultan wished to leave crown and throne, to bind himself wholly to the shaykh and to learn from him the rules of the path; Akshamsaddin with great wisdom tried to prevent this desire, and when he saw he could not succeed he returned to Göynük, refused the gifts sent after him and, declining the mosque and lodge the sultan wished to build at Göynük, consented only to a fountain. Two letters written by Akshamsaddin to the sultan are known. Not wishing the city to remain empty after the conquest, the sultan allowed the Greeks who paid their ransom or returned within a set period to settle, established the captives who fell to his own share along the Golden Horn, and re-founded the Orthodox patriarchate in the person of Gennadios; he also settled the Armenian patriarch and the Jewish chief rabbi in his capital. He turned eight churches (among them Zeyrek) into madrasas, opened the Hagia Sophia madrasa and in 875 (1470) built the famous Semaniye madrasas around his own mosque. He inspected the madrasas in person, listened to the lessons and gave rewards; he had scholarly debates held at the palace, on campaign and at festivities. His having Hocazade and Ali al-Tusi examine the great dispute between Ibn Rushd and al-Ghazali, and his reviving the controversy between al-Sayyid al-Sharif al-Jurjani and al-Taftazani, are examples of this interest; in the philosophy of religion he himself inclined towards al-Sayyid al-Sharif. Having crossed to Üsküdar for a new campaign, he died between Üsküdar and Gebze at the place called Hünkârçayırı (near Maltepe) on 4 Rabi' I 886 (3 May 1481) . The cause of death is attributed to gout. His body was brought to Istanbul and buried in his tomb in the graveyard before the qibla wall of the Fatih Mosque. After his death the struggle between his sons Cem and Bayezid ended in Bayezid's favour; another son, Mustafa, had died before him in 879 (1474). His two daughters known by name are Ayşe and Gevherhan; Gevherhan Sultan was married to Uğurlu Mehmed Bey, son of Uzun Hasan, and Göde Ahmed, who ascended the Aqquyunlu throne, was his grandson through this daughter. His Circle of Influence — Contemporary Arab sources remember him for showing closeness to the scholars, attaching importance to meeting them and receiving with honour those who came to him. The greatest scholars of his age were Molla Hüsrev, Molla Gürani, Molla Yegan, Hızır Bey and Hocazade Muslihuddin; most of the distinguished men of learning and administration of the next generation were their students. Molla Hüsrev in jurisprudence, Molla Gürani in exegesis and Hocazade in theology wrote works accepted throughout the Islamic world. The great minds of the age representing East and West, such as Amiroutzes, Ali Kuşçu, Georgios Trapezuntios and Hocazade, came together in his presence; Kritovoulos calls him “one of the keenest-minded philosophers.” Patriarch Gennadios wrote his Confession of Faith for him. From 1461 he asked Italy for a painter, and the Venetian Gentile Bellini stayed in Istanbul (September 1479 – January 1481). The source records that in his reign Ottoman culture came into free contact with Western culture and that this was not continued in the following period. His Poetry and Sufi Line — He wrote poems under the pen-name Avni . His clear and fluent style, which succeeded in kneading the poetic language of his age with fine images, is counted among the fine examples of a Turkish poetry not yet drowned in artifice; he preferred Turkish expressions to Arabic-Persian compounds. Love, social life, Sufism and religious inclinations, parables, legends and historical tales are the themes reflected in his poems. The only manuscript containing his poems is in the Millet Library in Istanbul (Ali Emiri Efendi, no. 305); this small work of twenty-two folios, which may count as a divançe, contains seventy ghazals, one muhammes and one kıta, and ends with the parallel poems that twenty-nine poets composed on one of his single verses. His Works — The divançe collecting his poems (Millet Library, Ali Emiri Efendi, no. 305) has been published in ever-widening collections and has been the subject of scholarly study. His Arabic and Turkish endowment deeds , drawn up for his charitable foundations in Istanbul, were published by Tahsin Öz (1935), the General Directorate of Foundations (1938) and Osman Nuri Ergin (1945). The bibliography of the article also records the Kanunname-i Al-i Osman attributed to him. His Tomb and Complex — For the complex the site of the Church of the Holy Apostles, greatly valued by Byzantium, was chosen in the middle of the city on a hill; in 1455 the patriarch, unable to shelter in the ruined church, was granted another church and the land was assigned to the complex. Construction began in Jumada II 867 (March 1463) and lasted until Rajab 875 (December 1470); its architect was Atik Sinan. The buildings, laid out in perfect symmetry — on either side of the mosque the Sahn-ı Seman madrasas and the Tetimme preparatory madrasas, on one side the hospice, on the other the hospital, the first of Istanbul's Turkish period, and further on a market and a bath — formed the most important religious and cultural centre of the city. The mosque, badly damaged in the earthquake of 1509 (the “little doomsday”), was repaired after the earthquakes of 1557 and 1754, but in the earthquake of 1766 its great dome collapsed. Mustafa III first had the tomb and the buildings of the complex rebuilt; the mosque was begun to a new plan on 4 Rabi' I 1181 (31 July 1767) and opened for worship in Muharram 1185 (April 1771). The tomb stands in the graveyard that extends before the qibla wall of the mosque; whether it was built before or after the sultan's death is not known for certain. Ruined in the earthquake of 1766, it was soon repaired; in the Cibali fire of 1782 its interior burned with all its furnishings and the cenotaph, and Abdülhamid I had it repaired, placed an inscription dated 1199 (1784-85) over the renewed door jambs, and the new cenotaph was covered with a Kaaba cloth. Sultan Abdülaziz refurnished the tomb in 1282 (1865-66); the last repairs were carried out in the reign of Mehmed Reşad (1909-1918) and in 1952-1953. The tomb, octagonal in plan and covered by a single dome, has at its entrance a porch on two columns; the square piers supporting the corners and the stepped mouldings are traces of the baroque style. Inside there is no cenotaph other than that of Mehmed the Conqueror; a little further on stands the separate tomb of his wife Gülbahar Hatun. The tomb entered Turkish literature through the passage “Sıfat-ı Mezar-ı Sultan Mehemmed” in the Hevesname written by Tacizade Cafer Çelebi in 1493 and through Abdülhak Hamid's poem “Merkad-i Fatih'i Ziyaret” (A Visit to the Conqueror's Grave), written towards 1877 and published in 1909; a panel of this poem, written out by a calligrapher, was placed in the tomb with ceremony during the First World War.

İstanbulDied 886 AHView

Scholar

Elmalili Muhammed Hamdi Yazir

One of the religious scholars of the late period, known for his Qur'an commentary Hak Dini Kur'an Dili (1878-1942); exegete, jurist, thinker and calligrapher. He signed his writings Küçük Hamdi ("Hamdi the Younger"); with the Surname Law he took the surname Yazır, but he became better known as Elmalılı , after his birthplace. He was born in the district of Elmalı in Antalya. His father Numan Efendi, originally from the village of Yazır in the Gölhisar district of Burdur, was chief clerk of the Sharia court of Elmalı; his forefathers Mehmed, Bekir, Hasan and Bedreddin Efendi belonged to the learned class. His mother Fatma Hanım was the daughter of Sarlarlı Mehmed Efendi. He completed his primary and secondary education and his memorization of the Qur'an at Elmalı, then went to Istanbul with his maternal uncle Mustafa Efendi to continue his studies and settled in the Küçük Ayasofya madrasa (1895). He received his licence from Mahmud Hamdi Efendi of Kayseri , whose lessons he followed at the Beyazıt Mosque; thereafter his teacher was called "Hamdi the Elder" and he "Hamdi the Younger". During his studies he also attended the calligraphy lessons of Bakkal Arif Efendi and Sami Efendi and received licences from them. In 1904 he passed the ruus examination, and he graduated first from the Mekteb-i Nüvvab, which he was attending. By his own efforts he learned literature, philosophy and music. In the hope that it would bring the country to the level of modern science and civilization, he championed constitutional government; he joined the learned section of the Committee of Union and Progress and worked to develop a model of constitutional government in accordance with the Sharia rather than one on the European pattern. After two years as a lecturer at the Beyazıt madrasa he entered the first parliament of the Second Constitutional Period as deputy for Antalya. He played an effective part in the deposition of Abdülhamid II by persuading the fatwa officer Nuri Efendi, who had refused his consent, and by writing the draft of the fatwa. He served in the Correspondence Office of the Şeyhülislam, and taught jurisprudence at the Mekteb-i Nüvvab and the Mekteb-i Kudat, legal theory at the Medresetü'l-mütehassısin, logic at the Süleymaniye madrasa and waqf law at the Mülkiye school. In 1915-1917 he took part in the Ramadan huzur lessons as a respondent. He became a member, and after a while president, of the Darü'l-hikmeti'l-İslamiyye founded in 1918. He served as minister of pious foundations in the first and second governments of Damad Ferid Pasha; on 15 September 1919 he was appointed to the Senate and his scholarly rank was raised to that of professor at the Süleymaniye madrasa. With the proclamation of the Republic the institutions in which he had served were abolished and he was left without office. Because he had served in the Istanbul governments during the National Struggle, the Independence Tribunal sentenced him to death in absentia; he was taken from his house in Fatih to Ankara and held for forty days. At the end of the trial he was found not guilty — according to the source probably because of his membership of the Committee of Union and Progress — and released. After returning to Istanbul he never left his house except to go to the mosque; in this period of financial hardship, having no income, he completed his translation Metalib ve Mezahib . When the Grand National Assembly decided to have a Turkish commentary on the Qur'an prepared, the Presidency of Religious Affairs offered him the task; he accepted, wrote Hak Dini Kur'an Dili , and succeeded in completing it before his death. He died on 27 May 1942 of the heart failure from which he had long suffered, in his son-in-law's house at Erenköy, and was buried in the Sahrayıcedid Cemetery . His Circle of Influence — The source regards him as a scholar who, by thinking independently of other thinkers and scholars and at times criticizing them to put forward different views, contributed to the revival of Muslim intellectual life. His commentary was first published by the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Istanbul 1935-1938) and has since gone through many editions. At a symposium held in Elmalı on 4-6 September 1991 he was presented in all his aspects, and the papers were published as Elmalılı M. Hamdi Yazır Sempozyumu (Ankara 1993). Doctoral theses on his commentary and his exegesis have been written by İsmet Ersöz and Fahri Gökcan. His Poetry and Sufi Line — He wrote poems in Turkish, Arabic and Persian, but his literary side remained little known. In his writings he generally preferred plain Turkish words, while on scholarly and religious subjects he used a heavy, ornate style, at times rhymed, building long sentences of sound logical structure. His artistic personality shows above all in his calligraphy: he wrote panels in thuluth , naskh , ta'liq and jali , was also regarded as accomplished in riq'a and in the licence script, and is counted among the distinguished calligraphers of the late period. He was also concerned with Sufism: the source takes his abundant quotations from Ibn 'Arabi, whom he at times criticized on wahdat al-wujud , and his occasional Sufi-minded style as signs of his Sufi inclination. For him asceticism and piety mean not tormenting the self but drawing it to the line of moderation; to say "every existent is God" is polytheism, but there is no objection to understanding wahdat al-wujud as God being the sole necessary existent and all else contingent beings dependent on Him. In his scholarly line he held that one should benefit from the West's science, not its values; in exegesis he combined the methods of transmission and of reasoned interpretation, drew widely on al-Tabari, al-Zamakhshari, al-Raghib al-Isfahani, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Abu Hayyan and al-Alusi, confined himself on legal matters to Hanafi sources, and regarded forced interpretations as a distortion of the Qur'an. He criticized positivism, materialism and the theory of evolution; in theology he was attached to the Sunni school, generally in a Maturidi line, and on the scriptural attributes was seen to have a Salafi inclination. His Works — ① Hak Dini Kur'an Dili : his commentary on the Qur'an, begun at the age of forty-eight and completed at sixty, his most famous work. ② Irshad al-akhlaf fi ahkam al-awqaf : a textbook he prepared for teaching at the Mülkiye school (Istanbul 1330 r./1914). ③ Hz. Muhammed'in Dini İslam : a treatise consisting of the answers he gave on behalf of the Şeyhülislam's office to the questions of the Anglican Church. ④ Metalib ve Mezahib (Istanbul 1341): a translation of Paul Janet and Gabriel Séailles' Histoire de la philosophie ; the introduction and the extensive analytical and critical footnotes he wrote are of great philosophical value. ⑤ İstintaci ve İstikrai Mantık : a translation, from the French version, of a work by Alexander Bain, which he gave to students at the Süleymaniye madrasa as lecture notes. Besides these he has more than twenty articles published in the journals Beyanülhak and Sebilürreşad under the signatures "Küçük Hamdi" or "Elmalılı Küçük Hamdi".

İstanbulDied 1361 AHView

Scholar

Zenbilli Ali Cemali Efendi

Ottoman mufti and scholar; he held the office of mufti of Istanbul for twenty-four years under Bayezid II, Selim I and Süleyman the Magnificent. He is also known as Ali Cemali Efendi : he was the son of Ahmed Çelebi, grandson of Cemaleddin Aksarayi, who descended from Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, and he bears the nisba Cemali from this lineage. He became known among the people as “the mufti with the basket, Zenbilli Ali Efendi” because, in order to settle the affairs of those who came for fatwas quickly, he let down a basket from the window of his house, took the questions in it and handed back the answers in the same basket. There is no firm information on the date and place of his birth (see Multiple Perspectives). He received his first education from Mevlana Hamza of Larende, the maternal grandfather of Piri Mehmed Paşa; he then went to Istanbul and attended the lessons of Molla Hüsrev. When Molla Hüsrev was appointed mufti he went to Bursa and studied under Hüsamzade Mustafa Efendi, professor at the Sultaniye; when he completed his studies his teacher made him his assistant (muid) and gave him his daughter in marriage. Under Mehmed the Conqueror he was appointed professor at the Ali Bey (according to Hoca Sadeddin, Taşlık) Madrasa in Edirne; the sultan sent him 5000 akçe together with robes. When Karamani Mehmed Paşa became grand vizier, he exiled him, because of his closeness to his political rival Sinan Paşa, first to the Beylerbeyi and then to the Siraciye madrasa, and reduced his stipend. Ali Cemali thereupon resigned and entered the service of the Khalwati shaykh Mesud-i Edirnevi; later he moved to Istanbul, frequented the lodge of the Konya-born Shaykh İbnü'l-Vefa Muslihuddin Mustafa and met him often. Under Bayezid II he returned to teaching; he served as mufti of Amasya, at the Hüdavendigar and Sultaniye (Yeşilcami) madrasas in Bursa, and at the Bayezid Madrasa of Amasya, completed in 1486. When Prince Ahmed, at the circumcision feast of his sons in 896 (1491), placed his tutor Birgivizade Mustafa Efendi above the local ulema, he left his post and returned to Istanbul; after waiting for a while he was appointed to the Sultan (Bayezid) Madrasa in Istanbul and then to the Sahn-ı Seman. While in this post he went on pilgrimage with his cousin Çelebi Halife; because of disturbances in Mecca he had to wait a year in Egypt and could perform the pilgrimage only the following year. While he was in Egypt the mufti of Istanbul, Efdalzade Hamidüddin Efendi, died (908/1503) and the office of mufti was given to him. Probably around the middle of 910 (1504) he came to Istanbul and took up the seat of the fatwa. Bayezid II also gave him the professorship of the madrasa he had built in 911 (1505-1506), and in 912 (1506-1507) appointed him supervisor of the waqfs of his charitable foundations throughout the country; thereafter it became customary to give this professorship and supervision to the muftis of Istanbul, whose office would become that of the şeyhülislam. Selim I kept him as mufti throughout his reign; under Süleyman he remained in office until his death. He was present at the conquest of Rhodes and led the first Friday prayer in the Cathedral of Saint John, converted into a mosque. When in 929 (1523) he fell too ill to work he appointed, at Süleyman's request, Shaykh Bahaeddinzade Muhyiddin Mehmed as his deputy; this continued until his death, and his tenure as mufti reached twenty-four years. He also had a Sufi side; for this reason some works record him with the nisba “Sufi” and describe him as “one of the people of spiritual states, a possessor of wonders”. Although he had close relatives among Khalwati shaykhs such as Çelebi Halife and İshak Karamani, he was affiliated to Shaykh Muslihuddin Mustafa of the Zayniyya order. His death is estimated to have occurred shortly before Sha'ban 932 (May-June 1526); the heading of the entry gives his death as 932/1526. Of his sons, Muhyiddin Mehmed Şah Efendi (Molla Çelebi) was the author of a Tarih-i Al-i Osman and Ruhi Çelebi of another Tevarih-i Al-i Osman ; Fudayl Çelebi was a scholar with various works in verse and prose, and Cemaleddin Mehmed (Cemal Çelebi) a statesman who served as judge and governor. His daughter Sitti Şah Hatun built a masjid and a madrasa in Istanbul. His Circle of Influence — The sources describe him as a dignified scholar with authority in jurisprudence, legal theory, literature, lexicography, grammar, exegesis and hadith; though he long held the seat of the fatwa, he never gave up his humility to the end of his life and took pleasure in easing people's affairs. It is related that he made no concessions in scholarly matters and told the sultan without hesitation that officials could be punished only within the rules of the law, and that execution was possible only by the mufti's fatwa following a court ruling. According to the source, the first important steps towards the office of mufti of Istanbul taking on a form like that of the grand vizierate, so as to exercise religious oversight, were taken during his tenure. His Works — It is said that he followed scholarly developments and constantly renewed himself, and that he was very fond of books and had works brought from various places. His principal works are: the Mukhtarat min al-Fatawa ( Fetava-yı Ali Efendi ) on Hanafi jurisprudence; the Mukhtasar al-Hidaya , on jurisprudence; and the Risala fi Haqq al-Dawran , which states that Sufi dance performed for the purpose of dhikr is not forbidden, and of which two versions exist, one in prose and one in verse. The Adab al-Awsiya' attributed to him has been established as the work of his son Fudayl Çelebi. His Tomb and Complex — His grave lies in the graveyard of the masjid and school he built at Zeyrek. Known for his charity, he had mosques, masjids and schools built in various parts of Istanbul: the Alaca Masjid on Tersane Street in Galata was demolished in 1957 when Azapkapı Street was opened; the Müftü Ali (Zenbilli Ali) Efendi Mosque in the Küçük Mustafa Paşa quarter was built as a masjid and turned into a mosque in 932 (1525-26); the single-domed, square-planned Ali Cemali Efendi School was built on the Zeyrek slope between 1523-1525. The Müftü Bath near the Müftü Ali Mosque at Fatih Kadı Çeşmesi was removed in 1960; the bath's revenue had been endowed to this mosque, masjid and school.

İstanbulDied 932 AHView

Saint

Abdallah al-Ghazwani

A Jazuliyya-Shadhiliyya Sufi known as 'Moul al-Ksour', a successor of al-Tebaa. One of the Seven Saints; buried in his zawiya in the Marrakech medina (Houmt el-Ksour). (Sources: TDV; Wikipedia; Wikidata Q4664682.)

MarakeşDied 935 AHView

Saint

Yusuf ibn Ali al-Sanhaji

A Sufi regarded as the first stop of the Seven Saints pilgrimage; afflicted with leprosy, he lived in seclusion in a cave outside Bab Aghmat and is remembered for his patience. His tomb lies outside Bab Aghmat. (Sources: TDV; Wikipedia.)

MarakeşDied 593 AHView

Saint

Sheikh Galib Dede

One of the great poets of the final period of classical Turkish poetry, a Mevlevi shaykh and head of the Galata Mevlevihane; known for his mystical-symbolic masnavi Hüsn ü Aşk (Beauty and Love). He was born in 1171 (1757) in Istanbul, in a house near the Yenikapı Mevlevihane. On the recommendation of the lodge's shaykh Küçek Mehmed Dede and his successor Seyyid Ebubekir Dede he was named Mehmed Esad . His grandfather was a Mevlevi, and his father Mustafa Reşid Efendi had taken the inabe from Peçuylu Arif Ahmed Dede; his mother was Emine Hatun. He received his first education from his father; he benefited from Hüseyin Efendi, who became shaykh of the Galata Mevlevihane in 1780, and learned Arabic from Hamdi Efendi and Persian from Hoca Neş'et. Neş'et Efendi gave him the pen name "Esad", but so as not to be confused with the poets of the day named Esad he later adopted the pen name "Galib". After working for a time in the Divan-ı Hümayun chancery, he went to Konya in 1198 (1784) — though his family did not much approve — entered the retreat ( çile ) at the lodge of Mevlana and attended the gatherings of Çelebi Seyyid Ebubekir Efendi. When his father, unable to bear his son's absence, appealed to the Çelebi, the Çelebi judged it fitting that the retreat be completed at the Yenikapı lodge and sent the young dervish back to Istanbul. Galib completed his retreat in 1201 (1787) at the Yenikapı Mevlevihane and became a "dede"; he benefited from Ali Nutki Efendi and the head cook Şerif Ahmed Dede, and later received his authorization ( hilafet ) from Ali Nutki Efendi . On 5 Rajab 1204 (21 March 1790) he settled in a house he had bought beside the tomb of Yusuf Sineçak Dede in Sütlüce. When the shaykh of the Galata Mevlevihane, Halil Numan Dede, was dismissed and his appointed successor Şemsi Dede died at Kütahya on his way to Istanbul, the shaykhship of the Galata Mevlevihane was given to Galib Dede on 9 Shawwal 1205 (11 June 1791) by order of Mehmed Emin Çelebi, shaykh of the Mevlevi Asitane in Konya. With this appointment his friendship with Selim III grew: the sultan — a composer, a poet with the pen name "İlhami" and a calligrapher — had the lodge repaired after a qasida Galib presented to him (1792); he had a fountain built for the lodge in 1793 and a royal gallery in the semahane in 1794, and had the semahane repaired again in 1795. The office of Masnavi reader at the Yenicami of the Humbarahane-i Cedid was also given to him. In 1793 the sultan, together with his sister Beyhan Sultan, spent 300 gold pieces to have his divan bound and illuminated; and by a decree dated 10 Safar 1209 (6 September 1794) the nomination of Masnavi readers was also entrusted to Şeyh Galib. The source notes that archival records show that, while an opposition to the Nizam-ı Cedid initiative was being led under the guidance of Mehmed Çelebi, shaykh of the Mevlana lodge in Konya, Şeyh Galib supported the initiative. The deaths of his mother Emine Hatun in 1209 (1794) and of his disciple and "companion of the cave" Esrar Dede in 1211 (1796) grieved him deeply; he wrote an elegy for Esrar Dede. A year later he fell ill. His last poem, a response ( nazire ) to a Persian ghazal with the refrain "henüz" given to him by Hamdullah Efendi, contains couplets hinting that his death was near. He died on 27 Rajab 1213 (4 January 1799) . Ali Enver relates that as the body was being washed his father Mustafa Reşid Efendi wept and said, "Ah, my son! That black beard does not befit this board." He had married a shaykh's daughter named Şerife Aişe, and from this marriage had a daughter, Zübeyde, and two sons, Ahmed and Mehmed; upon his death the sultan by decree assigned his children a stipend of 30 akçe each from the Customs revenue. His Circle of Influence — According to the source, Şeyh Galib never fell from view because of the novelty and distinctiveness of his poetry, and has deeply influenced a great many poets from his contemporaries down to the present. The images in his terci-bend s, terkib-bend s, müseddes es and tardiyye s, and his compounds drawing abstract and concrete notions together, herald the poets of the Edebiyat-ı Cedide who would try them a century later. It is said that the strongest critique of the old poetry came from him long before Namık Kemal and Ziya Paşa. His Poetry and Sufi Line — Nearly all critics agree that Şeyh Galib, who grew up at a time when classical poetry had fallen into repetition and imitation, was the last great poet of divan poetry. He was influenced by Hayali Bey, Nef'i, Fehim-i Kadim, Neşati and Fasih Ahmed Dede, and while using the classical conceits he consciously sought innovation. In this effort the influence of the sabk-i Hindi (Indian style), and above all of Shawkat Bukhari, was important; Galib felt a spiritual attachment to this Persian poet to the end of his life. In the "Fahriyye-i Şairane" at the end of Hüsn ü Aşk he sets out the basic principles of his poetics: the claim that nothing new remains to be said is false, for the bounty of God, who grants His servants the gift of speech, is endless; pure poetry is a kind of revelation and demands a fresh voice. Tanpınar described his poetry as "full of colour and light, like a chandelier". His Works — ① Divan : he compiled it in 1781 when he was only twenty-four, and with later poems raised it to 5500 couplets; the divan printed in ta'lik script in 1252 (1836) contains 372 ghazals. ② Hüsn ü Aşk : a mystical, fantastic and symbolic masnavi written in 1783 in the short span of about six months, consisting of 2041 couplets and four tardiyye s; it narrates the spiritual journey of a seeker on the Sufi path. ③ Şerh-i Cezire-i Mesnevi : a commentary written in 1790 for beginners on the 366 couplets Yusuf Sineçak selected from the Masnavi ; it is the author's only Turkish prose work. ④ al-Suhba al-safiya : Arabic glosses written in 1789 on the Arabic treatise al-Tuhfa al-bahiyya on Mevlevi manners and rites by Köseç Ahmed Dede of Trabzon. He also compiled the poems in Esrar Dede's Tezkire-i Şuara-yı Mevleviyye . His Tomb and Complex — His grave lies in the garden of the Galata Mevlevihane in Beyoğlu, which today serves as the Museum of Divan Literature, in the Tomb of İsmail Ankaravi , which also contains four other cenotaphs. The eighteen-couplet chronogram he wrote for the first mukabele held after the repair, on 4 August 1792, was inscribed on the gate of the lodge, and his nine-couplet chronogram for the semahane was inscribed on that building's door.

İstanbulDied 1213 AHView

Saint

Mahmud Baba (Qadiri)

Mahmud Baba, a Qadiri Sufi who lived in Kadıköy under Sultan Abdülmecid. He long served as administrator of the Osmanağa Mosque and later guided disciples at a lodge built for him by the Sultan. He died around 1850; his tomb in Hasanpaşa, Kadıköy, near the old Kuşdili Meadow, is still visited. (Sources: Kültür Envanteri; Gazete Kadıköy.)

İstanbulDied 1266 AHView

Martyr

Hayreddin Barbarossa

Celebrated Ottoman seaman and grand admiral (kapudan-ı derya). His original name was Hızır ; he is known as Barbaros after the name Barbarossa , which Europeans first gave to his elder brother Oruç because of his carrot-red beard, and as Hayreddin (Khayr al-Din), a title given him by Sultan Selim I. He was the son of a sipahi named Yakub who came from Vardar Yenicesi and settled on Lesbos (Midilli) after its conquest; he is estimated to have been born around 1478. According to his own account in the Gazavat-ı Hayreddin Paşa , he was the third of four brothers. In his youth he began trading between Lesbos, Salonica and Euboea with a ship he had built. When the flight of Muslims forced to leave Andalusia under Spanish pressure upset the balance of the region, he turned with his brother Oruç to the western Mediterranean; the two brothers began to appear on the North African coast after 1504. When Oruç Reis fell as a martyr in the battle of Tlemcen in 1518, Hızır, now alone, turned to the Ottoman sultan with the petition of the people of Algiers dated October 1519. Sultan Selim I sent a noble rescript recognising him as ruler of Algiers, saying “Hızır Reis is the victory of the faith (nasr al-din), the good of the faith (khayr al-din).” Algiers, where the Friday sermon was now read in the sultan's name, thus joined the Ottoman lands, and Hızır came to be called Hayreddin Pasha . The Muslims of Granada , subjected to many kinds of pressure and oppression, found great support in him: these Muslims forced to leave their homes (the Moriscos) were carried on Turkish ships to the African coast, and the number of Andalusian Muslims brought to Algiers reached 70.000. In the inscription of the mosque he built in Algiers (April 1520) his title is given as “al-Sultan al-mujahid mawlana Khayr al-Din ibn al-amir al-shahir al-mujahid Abi Yusuf Ya'qub al-Turki.” Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent summoned him to Istanbul to command the fleet; he was received by the sultan on 11 Jumada al-Akhira 940 (28 December 1533) and appointed grand admiral with the rank of beylerbeyi of the Aegean Islands (Cezayir-i Bahr-i Sefid) (6 April 1534). The office of grand admiral was thereby raised to the rank of beylerbeyi. In 1538, off Preveza, he routed the allied Crusader fleet under Andrea Doria; with this victory Turkish supremacy was established in the central Mediterranean after the eastern. His last great campaign was the Nice expedition of 1543, undertaken after a decision for joint action with France. Thereafter he was occupied mostly with the affairs of the arsenal. He died after a short illness on 6 Jumada al-Ula 953 (5 July 1546) and was buried in his tomb beside the madrasa he had built during his lifetime in Beşiktaş . The chronogram “Mata ra'is al-bahr” (The chief of the sea has died) was composed for his death; its abjad value is 953. His son Hasan also served as beylerbeyi of Algiers. According to contemporary sources he was of large build with a tawny complexion; having spent his life at sea he knew the Mediterranean languages well — Greek, Arabic, Spanish, Italian and French — and he also loved music. His Circle of Influence — In his time Ottoman naval power reached its peak, and thanks to the able seamen trained in his school and the organised arsenal this power endured for some time longer. At Preveza he had given the right wing to Turgut Reis and the left to Salih Reis; returning from the Nice expedition he freed Turgut Reis, then a captive in Genoa. In later periods it became a tradition for the fleet setting out for the Aegean to anchor at the Hayreddin Pier in Beşiktaş. His Works — During his lifetime he dictated his memoirs to Seyyid Muradi. These memoirs, entitled Gazavat-ı Hayreddin Paşa , were composed in two forms, one in prose and one in verse; the prose version was translated into French, Italian and partly into Arabic, and has also been published in simplified form. His Tomb and Complex — The tomb in Beşiktaş, opposite the Sinan Pasha Mosque and next to the Naval Museum, is a work of Mimar Sinan ; according to its inscription it was built in 948 (1541-42), near the waterside mansion where Barbaros lived in his last years; the mansion later disappeared. The inscription over the entrance reads “This is the tomb of the conqueror of Algiers and Tunis, the late gazi kapudan Hayreddin Pasha, God's mercy be upon him — year 948” ; in the arch above it, in monumental thuluth, is the phrase “Allahumma'ftah lahu abwaba rahmatik” (O Lord, open to him the gates of Your mercy). The tomb is octagonal in the classical manner and built of cut stone; before the door is a portico resting on two columns. In the centre of the dome, in a medallion, verse 89 of Surat al-A'raf is written in gilt together with the basmala. In the four cenotaphs inside lie Cafer Pasha, Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha, Cezayirli Hasan Pasha and Barbaros's wife Bala Hatun. The tomb also holds a hair from the Prophet's beard (sakal-ı şerif), a wooden Qur'an case and a calligraphic panel signed by Seyyid İbrahim and dated 1816. Over time a large graveyard had formed around the tomb; when a Barbaros monument was decided upon here around 1944, the surroundings were cleared, the graveyard removed and the tomb restored.

İstanbulDied 953 AHView

Scholar

Ibn Kemal (Kemalpaşazade)

Ottoman şeyhülislam, historian and many-sided scholar; he is counted among the greatest representatives of Ottoman learning and culture in the first half of the XVI century. His real name was Şemseddin Ahmed ; he is known as Kemalpaşazade, Kemalpaşaoğlu or Ibn Kemal after his grandfather Kemal Paşa, tutor (lala) to Prince Bayezid (Bayezid II). He was born on 3 Dhu al-Qa'da 873 (15 May 1469); his birthplace is disputed (see Multiple Perspectives). His father was Süleyman Çelebi, who had taken part in the conquest of Istanbul and was appointed warden of Amasya in 879 (1474); his mother was the daughter of Küpelioğlu Muhyiddin Mehmed, one of the military judges of the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror. After becoming a hafiz of the Qur'an and studying Arabic language and literature, logic and Persian with the scholars of Amasya, he first entered the military profession and took part in Bayezid II's campaigns as a cavalryman of the six regiments. As Taşköprizade relates from him, at an assembly of the grand vizier Çandarlı İbrahim Paşa he saw Molla Lutfi, professor at Filibe, seated above the famous raider commander Evrenosoğlu Ahmed; concluding that the standing of the ulema was higher than that of the commanders, he resolved to join the learned profession. He attended the lessons of Molla Lutfi at Edirne and then of scholars such as Kestelî Muslihuddin Mustafa, Hatibzade Muhyiddin, Muarrifzade Sinaneddin Yusuf and Müeyyedzade Abdurrahman, completing his education. With Müeyyedzade's support he became professor at the Ali Bey (Taşlık) Madrasa in Edirne; meanwhile he was charged with writing an Ottoman history in Turkish. He taught at the İshak Paşa Madrasa in Skopje (911/1505), at the Halebiye and Üç Şerefeli madrasas in Edirne, at the Sahn-ı Seman in Istanbul (914/1508) and at the Sultan Bayezid Madrasa in Edirne (917/1511). Under Selim I his fame grew with an epistle he wrote against the Safavids; in 921 (1515) he was made judge of Edirne and on 14 Sha'ban 922 (12 September 1516) military judge of Anatolia. On the Egyptian campaign, in which he took part in this office, he won great favour with the sultan and served as assistant to Hayır Bey in the survey of Egypt. It is related that on the return from the campaign mud splashed from his horse's hoof soiled the sultan's kaftan, whereupon Selim I said that “the mud splashed from the feet of the ulema is a source of adornment and a cause of pride”, and willed that this kaftan be laid over his coffin after his death. In 924 (1518) he was charged with the survey of Karaman and the next year removed from the military judgeship; early in 926 (1520) he became professor at the Darülhadis of Edirne, in 928 (1522) at the Sultan Bayezid Madrasa, and in 930 (1524) moved to the Fatih Madrasa in Istanbul. Finally, in Sha'ban 932 (May 1526), he was appointed şeyhülislam in succession to Zenbilli Ali Efendi. He died in this office on 2 Shawwal 940 (16 April 1534) and was buried in the graveyard of the Mahmud Çelebi lodge outside Edirnekapı. In his testament he had asked that his funeral be conducted in dervish fashion and that no tomb be built over his grave, only a stone set up. The chronogram composed on his death, “Irtahala al-'ulum bi al-Kamal” (With Kemal the sciences, too, have died), expresses his scholarly stature. His Circle of Influence — Among the scholars he trained were Muhyiddin Mehmed b. Pir Mehmed, Sa'di Sadullah Efendi, Muslihuddin Mustafa, Celalzade Salih Çelebi and Şeyhülislam Ebussuud Efendi. Among the Ottoman ulema he was called “the first teacher” (al-mu'allim al-awwal) for his scholarly power, and his pupil Ebussuud Efendi “the second teacher”; for his skill in giving fatwas he received the epithet “mufti of the two worlds” (mufti al-thaqalayn). Taşköprizade says that he made the scholars before him forgotten; al-Tamimi likens him to al-Suyuti for the number of his works and judges him superior in grasp of questions, reasoning and disputation. His classification of jurists into seven ranks according to their competence in ijtihad (mujtahid in the law, mujtahid in the school, mujtahid in particular questions, ashab al-takhrij, ashab al-tarjih, ashab al-tamyiz and muqallid) influenced later Hanafi literature; Arab scholars such as Ibn Nujaym, al-Haskafi and Ibn 'Abidin also cited his views in their works. Through his efforts to bring the kanunnames into line with the sharia, his role in drafting the kanunname of Egypt and the first independent treatise that can be identified on the legitimacy of cash waqfs, he led the way in establishing many practices in Ottoman society. His Poetry and Sufi Line — According to the source he was not opposed to Sufism: he held that the Sufi path is sound, that one should believe in the states of the saints and hope for help from their spiritual presence, and he advised seeking their prayers. He made the soundness of Sufism conditional, however, on its not exceeding lawful bounds; he stated that saying “my shaykh said so” cannot count as Sufism, and issued severe fatwas on the whirling (devran), dance and audition in dhikr (see Multiple Perspectives). In the Arabic fatwa he wrote on Muhyi al-Din Ibn 'Arabi, which was inscribed on his tomb together with the fatwa of al-Firuzabadi, he used very respectful language towards him and defended the Fusus al-Hikam and al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya . This fatwa influenced Selim I, who on his return from Egypt built at Damascus a tomb over Ibn 'Arabi's grave, with a mosque and an imaret beside it. At the order of Süleyman the Magnificent he examined İbrahim Gülşeni's Ma'navi and reported that the people of the outward cannot grasp its meaning and that the work contains many divine secrets. His Works — He wrote in Turkish, Arabic and Persian in many fields; it is hard to give a firm figure for their number: Jamil al-'Azm ascribes to him 214 works, Brockelmann 179, Nihal Atsız 209, Şamil Öçal 226. His principal work in history is the Tevarih-i Al-i Osman : written at the wish of Bayezid II, whom he presented with a history in eight volumes reaching the events of 916 (1510), it was later continued at Süleyman's request to the end of the Mohács campaign, that is, to 933 (1527), becoming a work of ten books. His other principal works include the Divan , containing more than 400 ghazals; the mathnawi Yusuf u Zeliha in 7777 couplets; the Kaside-i Bürde Tercümesi , a translation of al-Busiri's ode; the Nigaristan , modelled on Sa'di's Gulistan ; the Afdaliyyat Muhammad 'ala Sa'ir al-Anbiya' ; the gloss he wrote on Hocazade's Tahafut ; and the Akaid-i İslam , dealing with the foundations of faith, worship and ethics. His fatwas, too, are important documents reflecting the religious, legal, political and social life of the Ottoman society of his day.

İstanbulDied 940 AHView

Scholar

Imam al-Suhayli

A scholar known for his commentary on the Prophet's biography, the al-Rawd al-unuf ; he is counted one of the seven saints of Marrakesh. His full name was Abu'l-Qâsim 'Abd al-Rahmân b. 'Abdillâh b. Ahmad al-Khath'amî al-Suhaylî al-Mâlaqî . He was born in 508 (1114) at Suhayl near Málaga, in the south of al-Andalus. Although it is reported that he lost his sight, notes in his own hand are found in copies of the al-Rawd al-unuf , which points either to his having kept part of his sight or to the blindness having come late in life. At Málaga, Cordoba and Seville he studied under scholars of Qur'anic recitation, grammar and jurisprudence; he took hadith, exegesis and legal theory from Ibn al-'Arabî. He distinguished himself in the Prophet's biography, in hadith, exegesis, jurisprudence, grammar and Arabic letters. He died at Marrakesh on 26 Sha'bân of the year 581 (22 November 1185). His Circle of Influence — In his scholarly person the learned traditions of al-Andalus and of the Maghrib come together. In the tradition of visitation that recounts the seven renowned figures buried at Marrakesh (the sab'atu rijâl ) his name appears as one of those seven. His Works — The al-Rawd al-unuf is the most comprehensive commentary written on the biography of Ibn Hishâm. The Natâ'ij al-fikar is on grammar; the al-Ta'rîf wa'l-i'lâm is the first separate work written on the unnamed persons of the Qur'an. His Tomb and Complex — He was buried in the cemetery of Jabbânat al-Shuyûkh at Marrakesh, and the place became an important site of visitation.

MarakeşDied 581 AHView

Scholar

Qadi Iyad

A Mâlikî jurist and scholar of hadith; he is counted one of the seven saints of Marrakesh. His full name was Abu'l-Fadl 'Iyâd b. Mûsâ b. 'Iyâd al-Yahsubî . He was born at Ceuta in the middle of Sha'bân of the year 476 (late December 1083). After completing his first studies in his own town he crossed to al-Andalus in the year 507; he studied hadith and jurisprudence at Cordoba and Murcia. He worked under Abû 'Alî al-Sadafî, Ibn Rushd and Ibn al-'Arabî. He was appointed judge of Ceuta in 515 (1121) and judge of Granada in 531 (1137). He defended Ceuta against the Almohads. He died on 9 Jumâdâ al-âkhira of the year 544 (14 October 1149). His Circle of Influence — He is reckoned among the important authorities of the science of hadith and among the distinguished scholars of the Mâlikî school. In the tradition of visitation that recounts the seven renowned figures buried at Marrakesh (the sab'atu rijâl ) his name appears as one of those seven. His Works — The chief of them are the al-Shifâ , the Tartîb al-madârik , the Mashâriq al-anwâr , the al-Ilmâ' and the Ikmâl al-Mu'lim . His Tomb and Complex — He was buried at Marrakesh at Bâb Aylân. The sab'atu rijâl is a place of visitation holding the graves of many scholars and Sufis.

MarakeşDied 544 AHView

Saint

Musa Topbas Efendi

Musa Topbas Efendi (1917-1999), born in Kadınhanı, Konya, a Naqshbandi-Halidi sheikh and a leader of the Erenköy community. He studied the Qur'an under Elmalili Hamdi Yazir and pioneered many charitable and publishing institutions including the Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi Foundation. He died in Istanbul in 1999 and was buried in the family plot at Sahrayicedid Cemetery, Kadıköy (no person-specific independent coords → unpinned). (Sources: TDV; İslam ve İhsan.)

İstanbulDied 1420 AHView

Prophet's Family

Moulay Idris I

The founder of the Idrîsid dynasty; in Morocco he is called Mawlây Idrîs . His full name was Idrîs b. 'Abdillâh b. al-Hasan b. al-Hasan b. 'Alî b. Abî Tâlib ; his descent reaches 'Alî by way of Hasan. He took part in the rising of Husayn b. 'Alî, known as Sâhib Fakhkh ; this rising was put down by the Abbasid army on 8 Dhu al-Hijja of the year 169 (11 June 786). With the help of his servant Râshid and of pilgrims from the Maghrib he crossed the Red Sea to Nubia, thence to Fustât, and at last reached the Maghrib. Coming to an agreement with Abû Laylâ Ishâq b. Muhammad, the chief of the Awraba tribe, he went to Walîla in the region of Zerhûn between Fez and Meknes, and on 4 Ramadân of the year 172 (5 February 789) received the pledge of the people of the town. Gathering the Berber tribes about him he conquered Tâdlâ, Salâ and Tâmasnâ; in Safar of the year 174 (July 790) he entered Tlemcen and brought the region under his control. He was poisoned by al-Shammâkh, sent by Hârûn al-Rashîd, and killed on 1 Rabî' al-âkhir of the year 177 (16 July 793). His Circle of Influence — The dynasty he founded was the beginning of a state that would last in the far Maghrib for close on three centuries. After his death his son Idrîs II , born of his pregnant concubine, carried the dynasty on. His Tomb and Complex — He was buried at Zerhûn; the town known today by his name, Moulay Idriss, grew up around this grave.

MeknesDied 175 AHView

Saint

Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Jazuli

The author of the Dalâ'il al-khayrât ; the founder of the Jazûliyya branch of the Shâdhiliyya and one of the seven saints of Marrakesh. His full name was Abû 'Abdillâh Muhammad b. Sulaymân al-Jazûlî . He was born in the village of Simlâl in the region of Jazûla in the valley of Sûs in southern Morocco; although he came of a Berber family of the Jazûla tribe, he is held to be a sharîf. He studied the religious sciences and Arabic at the Madrasat al-Saffârîn near the Qarawiyyîn mosque at Fez; it was probably there that he met the Shâdhilî shaykh Ahmad Zarrûq. When a quarrel within his tribe obliged him to leave his country he went to Tangier, and then to Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem; he returned to Morocco after forty years. He entered the Shâdhiliyya at the lodge of the Banû Amghâr at Azemmour at the hand of Shaykh Abû 'Abdullâh Muhammad al-Sharîf. In those years he composed his famous litany, the Dalâ'il al-khayrât ; thereafter he withdrew into seclusion for fourteen years. When he came out of his retreat and settled at Asfi, more than 10.000 disciples gathered about him. The governor of the region, alarmed at such a crowd, banished him to the village of Afûghâl in the district of Shiyâzima. He died on 6 November 1465, while in prostration. His Circle of Influence — The Jazûliyya he founded became the most widespread branch of the Shâdhiliyya in North Africa, and out of it arose the Tabbâ'iyya, 'Îsâwiyya, Wazzâniyya and Hansaliyya orders. In the hagiographic tradition that recounts the seven saints buried at Marrakesh (the sab'atu rijâl ) he is named as one of those seven. His Works — The Dalâ'il al-khayrât is a litany gathering together the blessings upon the Prophet, and it has been read very widely in every part of the Islamic world; the well known Turkish commentary known as Kara Dâvud was written upon this book. He also has the litanies Hizb al-falâh , Hizb al-Jazûlî and Hizb subhân al-dâ'im lâ yazâl . His Tomb and Complex — His body remained at first at Afûghâl; his disciple 'Umar b. Sulaymân al-Sayyâf carried it with him for a long time. When Abu'l-'Abbâs Ahmad al-A'raj entered Marrakesh seventy-seven years later, he transferred the body of al-Jazûlî, together with that of his own father who was buried in the same place, to a tomb at Marrakesh.

MarakeşDied 870 AHView

Saint

Abdelaziz al-Tebaa

Foremost disciple of al-Jazuli and founder of the first Jazuliyya zawiya in Marrakech. One of the Seven Saints; his tomb stands in the Marrakech medina. (Sources: TDV; Wikipedia; Archnet.)

MarakeşDied 914 AHView