2015-09_Turcica40_03_Bayram 02-07-2009 09:07 Pagina 7 Fatih BAYRAM 7 A SUFI SAINT AS CITY FOUNDER∞∞: AN ANALYSIS OF MAKÂLÂT-I SEYYID HÂRÛN T hroughout the ages historians have been curious about the rise and development of towns and cities.1 Material aspects apart, cities have been examined also in terms of their religious and more generally, sym- bolic aspects. A river or a castle might function as an urban icon, or else a saint or shrine might become the symbol of a given city throughout the ages. In this context we will examine a medieval Sufi saint named Seyyid Hârûn (d. 1320)∞; this personage is believed to have arrived in today’s Seydi≥ehir, a town in Anatolia, at the beginning of the fourteenth century. One of his descendants wrote a hagiographical work about him, called Makâlât-i Seyyid Hârûn, and the familial relationship between subject and author is very important for our interpretation of this work. At that time the Ottoman authorities responded to Safavid propaganda by putting pressure on Sufis under their authority, especially those active in central and eastern Anatolia. Thus the author of the Makâlât, Abdülk- Fatih BAYRAM received his Ph. D. in history under the direction of Prof. Dr. Halil INALCIK at Bilkent University, Turkey. e-mail∞:
[email protected] 1 For an overview of the literature on the history of Turkish cities, see Yunus UGUR, “∞≤ehir Tarihi ve Türkiye’de ≤ehir Tarihçiligi∞: Yakla≥ımlar, Konular ve Kaynaklar∞”, Türkiye Ara≥tırmaları Literatür Dergisi, vol. 3, no. 6 (2005), 9-26∞; for Anatolian towns in the Ottoman classical period, see Mehmet ÖZ, “∞Osmanlı Klasik Döneminde Anadolu Kentleri∞”, Türkiye Ara≥tırmaları Literatür Dergisi, vol.