For years two babas had been squabbling over the Pîrî Baba lodge in Merzifon, and the quarrel ended in 1195 (1781) with the arrival of an outsider sent from the Hacı Bektaş hearth. Âşık Süleyman Baba, a Bektashi sheikh and poet from Kırşehir, served the lodge as its "baba" for twenty-eight years and died in 1223 (1808). In Hüsameddin's words he was "a poet, handsome and dignified"; the epithet "Âşık" in his name also suggests that he was known as a man of song and verse. The two deputies he trained in Merzifon, one by founding a Bektashi lodge in Amasya, the other by rising to the headship of the Hacı Bektaş mother lodge, gave direction to the Bektashi milieu of the region at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Hüsameddin's Entry

Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar remembers Süleyman Baba in these lines in the tenth volume of Amasya Tarihi:

Süleyman Baba-Âşık Kırşehirlidir. Hacı Bektaş-ı Velî Ocağında ta'lîm u terbiyye görüp erbâb-ı me'âriften oldu. Merzifon'da Pîrî Baba tekkesi meşîhati Dervîş Mehmed ve İbrâhim Babaların mel'abesi olduğundan 1195'de her ikisinin def'iyle mezkûr tekke şeyhi olarak ocaktan geldi. Yirmi sekiz yıl kadar icrâ-yı meşîhat, meslek-i sûfiyâna yaraşır bir tarîkat ta'kîb ederek âkilâne hareket edib herkesin hüsn-i nazarını kazandı. 1223'de âlem-i bekâya intikâl ederek hulefâsından meşhûr Merzifonî İbrâhim Baba yerine geçti. Şâ'ir, müşekkel, vakûr, me'ârife müntesib idi.

Put into plain English: A Kırşehir man. Educated and trained at the hearth of Hacı Bektaş-ı Velî, he became one of the people of spiritual knowledge. Because the sheikhship of the Pîrî Baba lodge in Merzifon had become the plaything of Derviş Mehmed and İbrâhim Babas, both were removed in 1195 and he came from the hearth as sheikh of that lodge. He held the sheikhship for some twenty-eight years; following a path befitting the Sufi calling and acting wisely, he won everyone's good opinion. In 1223 he passed to the world of eternity, and Merzifonî İbrâhim Baba, the best known of his deputies, succeeded him. He was a poet, handsome and well built, dignified, and belonged to the circle of spiritual learning.

Twenty-Eight Years at the Pîrî Baba Lodge

The lodge Süleyman Baba came to had grown up around the tomb of Pîrî Baba, a Qalandari dervish who lived in Merzifon in the fifteenth century. Evliya Çelebi saw it in 1647 as a Bektashi lodge, and Suraiya Faroqhi has noted that the lodge was under Bektashi control in the seventeenth century but that it cannot be said to have been founded as a Bektashi lodge. Hüsameddin's entry on Pîrî Baba in the seventh volume lists, year by year, how the lodge passed into the hands of Bektashi dervishes after 1008 and changed hands again and again during the eighteenth century among babas descended from Pîrî Baba.

The last years before Süleyman Baba's arrival were the most confused period of this struggle. According to Hüsameddin, Seyyid İbrâhim Baba became sheikh in 1190; in 1191 he was dismissed and replaced by Derviş Mehmed Baba, son of Hasan Baba; a few months later İbrâhim Baba returned, and in 1192 Derviş Mehmed Baba came back once more. The author writes that these two babas "gained nothing but bickering with each other". In 1195 both were removed, and both the sheikhship and the trusteeship of the lodge were given to Süleyman Baba, an outsider to the family sent directly from the Hacı Bektaş hearth. Hüsameddin's phrase "he came from the hearth" shows that the appointment was made from the centre of the order and was not left to the choice of local families.

Compared with the short and quarrelsome tenures before it, the twenty-eight-year sheikhship was a period of stability for the lodge. Hüsameddin attributes the character of these years to Süleyman Baba's "wise" conduct and to his winning everyone's "good opinion". In the author's words in the Pîrî Baba entry, Süleyman Baba "served the Bektashis as baba for a full twenty-eight years". The Pîrî Baba Tomb, the centre of the lodge, still stands today in the Tekke quarter of Merzifon.

His Deputies

Süleyman Baba's influence in Merzifon is seen most clearly in the two men he trained. The first is Seyyid İbrâhim Baba, who succeeded him. The son of a Bektashi family claimed to descend from Pîrî Baba, İbrâhim Baba was raised under Süleyman Baba's guidance, became sheikh of the lodge in 1223, was expelled from Merzifon in 1243 (according to the Pîrî Baba entry, in Receb 1244) when the lodge was turned into a Naqshbandi lodge, and in 1250 became sheikh of the Hacı Bektaş-ı Velî mother lodge and leader of all Bektashis. Hüsameddin counts İbrâhim Baba as "the most outstanding of the Bektashi dervishes".

The second deputy is Arslan Ali Baba of Amasya. The son of the janissary Çırçırlıoğlu Mehmed Ağa, Arslan Ali Baba attached himself to Süleyman Baba in Merzifon, received his authorisation from him, and in 1230 (1814-15) became sheikh of the Bektashi lodge he founded at the Çırçır site near the Gökmedrese in Amasya. After twelve years in which he was regarded as the leader of the janissaries, he lost his influence when the Janissary Corps was abolished, was removed from Amasya in 1243, returned later and died in 1257 (1841-42). Those whom Süleyman Baba trained thus became the most influential names of the Bektashi milieu in both Merzifon and Amasya in the twenty years after his death.

Ties to Amasya

Süleyman Baba was from Kırşehir; he came on duty to Merzifon, which belonged to the sanjak of Amasya, and spent the last twenty-eight years of his life there. This sheikhship is the reason Hüsameddin counts him among the figures of Amasya. The place of his death is not stated explicitly, but since his office passed to his deputy on his death, he must have remained at the head of the Pîrî Baba lodge until he died.

Poetry

Süleyman Baba's poems have not reached us. The by-name "Âşık" brings to mind a Bektashi baba who sang hymns and songs, and "poet" is the first of the qualities Hüsameddin ascribes to him. Even so, the author records not a single line by him. A search of the sources turned up no hymn or song that could be attributed to Süleyman Baba of Merzifon.

Chronology

1190-1192 (1776-1778): The sheikhship of the Pîrî Baba lodge passes back and forth between Seyyid İbrâhim Baba and Derviş Mehmed Baba.

1195 (1781): The two babas are removed; Süleyman Baba arrives from the Hacı Bektaş hearth as sheikh and trustee of the lodge.

1223 (1808): He dies; his deputy İbrâhim Baba of Merzifon succeeds him.

1230 (1814-15): His deputy Arslan Ali Baba becomes sheikh of the Bektashi lodge at Çırçır in Amasya.

1250 (1834-35): His deputy İbrâhim Baba becomes sheikh of the Hacı Bektaş-ı Velî mother lodge.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources