Glimpses of Turkish Saints 253
Chapter 20 Glimpses of Turkish Saints: Another Look at Lamiʿi and Ottoman Biographers
Introduction
It is generally acknowledged that mystical writing reached a peak of attainment in Anatolia in the thirteenth century, and great masters of mystical thought and poetry such as Yahya as-Suhrawardi al-Maktul (d. 1191), Nacm ad-Din Daya Razi (1177-1256),1 Baha’uddin Valad (d. 1231),2 Calal ad-Din Rumi and his mystical friend Shams-i Tabrizi,3 Muhyi ad-Din ibn al-ʿArabi,4 Sadr ad-Din Konawi (Konevi, d. 1274),5 and his pupil, the Sufi master Saʿd or Saʿid ad-Din Farghani,6 the visiting scientist Kutb ad-Din Shirazi (1236-1311),7 Fahr ad-Din ʿIraki (d. 1289),8 can be cited as outstanding exponents of this achievement of Persianate culture.9 Turkish culture, with vestiges of shamanism,10 was alive in the sheykhs Baba Ilyas
1 Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam, Chapel Hill, 1975, 257; J.T.P. de Bruijn, The Qalandariyāt in Persian Mystical Poetry, from Sanā’ī Onwards”, in L. Lewisohn (ed.), The Legacy of Medieval Persian Sufism, London/New York 1992, 80; M.I. Waley, “A Kubrawī Manual of Sufism: The Fusūs al-ādāb of Yaḥyā Bākharzī”, in Lewisohn, Legacy, 290-291. 2 Fritz Meier, Baha-i Walad. Grundzüge seines Lebens und seiner Mystik, Leiden 1989. 3 A. Schimmel, “Yusuf in Mawlana Rumi’s Poetry”, in Lewisohn, Legacy, 45-60; V. Holbrook, “Diverse Tastes in the Spiritual Life: Textual Play in the Diffusion of Rumi’s Order”, in Lewisohn, Legacy, 103. 4 William C. Chittick, Ibn al-ʿArabi’s Metaphysics of Imagination. The Sufi Path of Knowledge, New York, 1989. 5 Gudrun Schubert, Annäherungen. Der mystisch-philosophische Briefwechsel zwischen Ṣadr ud-Dīn-i Qōnawī und Naṣīr ud-Dīn-i Ṭūsī, 2nd ed. Beirut 2011. 6 Chittick, “Spectrums of Islamic Thought”, Legacy, 203-218; John T. Walbridge, “A Sufi Scientist of the Thirteenth Century: The Mystical Ideas and Practices of Qutb al-Din Shirazi”, Lewisohn, Legacy, 326-327. 7 Walbridge, “A Sufi Scientist”, Lewisohn, Legacy, 324 f. 8 W.C. Chittick and P.L. Wilson, Fakhruddin ʿIraqi: Divine Flashes, New York 1981; Chittick, “Spectrums of Islamic Thought”, Lewisohn, Legacy, 207. 9 A. Ateş, “Hicrî VI-VIII./XI-XIV. asırlarda Anadolu’da Farsça eserler”, TM VII-VIII (1945), 94ff; Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, 315; L. Lewisohn, “Iranian Islam and Persianate Sufism”, Lewisohn, Legacy, 25. 10 For a study of the Kalenders see Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda Marjinal Sûfîlik: Kalenderîler (XIV-XVII. Yüzyıllar), Ankara, 1992.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004355767_021 254 Chapter 20 and Baba Ishak, who were remembered in hagiography11. In the fourteenth cen- tury, as part of a broader advance in literary and religious standards, the writing of Arabic and Persian works continued. This is attested by Kadi Burhan ed-Din’s eminent prose works written in Arabic12, by the extensive works of the jurist and mystic Sheykh Bedr ed-Din of Samavna (executed as a rebel in 1416) including the Waridat; by the Persian prose written by Ahmad Ilahi,13 by the historian Karim ad-Din Aksarayi (d. after 1320) and the hagiographers, Faridun b. Ahmad Sipahsa lar,14 Shams ad-Din Ahmad Aflaki15 and ʿAziz b. Ardashir Astarabadi.16 Also included is the Persian poetry composed by Sufi poets, not only Sultan Veled,17 but also Sayf-i Farghani who composed a voluminous divan of mystical poetry containing two long reproachful kasides, called the “Tears of Anatolia”, addressed to the Ilkhan Ghazan.18 But in the course of the same century Turkish works, especially those concerned primarily with the aim of spiritual advice and exhorta tion, were increasingly compiled and circulated. Such works are: Sultan Veled’s Turkish verses, Yunus Emre’s ilahis and his Risale,19 the long mesnevis by Gülsheh- ri, ʿAshık Pasha (d. 1332) and his son Elvan Pasha (d. after 1358).20 Among Ahmad
11 Ismail E. Erünsal and A. Yaşar Ocak have edited Elvan Çelebi. Menâkibu’l-Kudsiyye fi Menâsibi’l Ünsiyye, Istanbul, 1984, a Turkish mesnevi dated 760/1358-9. 12 William C. Chittick, “Sultan Burhan al-Din’s Sufi Correspondence”, in WZKM 73 (1981), 33-45. 13 According to Kasım Kufralı, “Molla İlâhî ve Kendisinden Sonraki Nakşbendîye Muhiti”, TDED III (1948), 131, Ahmed Ilahi who wrote, in 1475/76, a Persian commentary of Sadr ad-Din Konawi’s Miftah al-ghaib at the request of Sultan Mehmed II, in a zawiye in the port Edremit in Western Anatolia, is not identical with ‘Abdullah Ilahi as suggested by Chittick, “Burhan al-Din’s Sufi Correspondence”, 37. 14 Faridun b. Ahmad Sipahsalar, Risala-yi Ahwal-i Mawlana, ed. Sa’id Nafisi, Tehran 1325/1946. V.R. Holbrook, “Diverse Tastes in the Spiritual Life”, 99, with more literature. 15 The author of the Manakib al-ʿArifin, edited by Tahsin Yazıcı, 1959-1961. John O’Kane (transl.), The Feats of the Knowers of God: Manāqeb al-ʿārifīn, Leiden, 2002. The work was begun in 718 and completed in the second redaction in 754/1353 (died in Konya in 761/1360). V.R. Hol- brook, “Diverse Tastes in the Spiritual Life”, Lewisohn, Legacy, 99 and 103-105. 16 Bazm u razm; summarized by H.H. Giesecke, Das Werk des Aziz Ibn Ardaşir Astarabadi. Eine Quelle zur Geschichte des Spätmittelalters in Kleinasien, Leipzig, 1940. 17 V.R. Holbrook, “Diverse Tastes in the Spiritual Life”, Lewisohn, Legacy, 103, with literature. 18 A. Ateş, “Anadolu’nun Unutulmuş Büyük Bir Şairi: Sayf al-Dīn Muhammed al-Farġānī”, Bel- leten XXII (1959), 415-456. 19 The most recent critical edition is Mustafa Tatçı, Yunus Emre Divanı I-III, Ankara, 1990, con- taining the divan and the Risaletü n-Nushiyye, accompanied by a full analysis. 20 For full information on Elvan Pasha (later entitled Chelebi) and his father see İ.E. Erünsal and A.Y. Ocak, Elvan Çelebi. Menâkıbu’l-Kudsiyye fî Menâsıbi’l-Ünsiyye, Istanbul, 1984, xxiii- lxix.