Horasan eyâletinin merkezi olan Merv şehri havâlisinde kâin Mâhân karyesi ahâlîsinden Alî bin Ahmed mahdûmudur. İbtidâ Harezm ilinde eş-Şeyh Ebû Alî el-Bâğdâdî hulefâsından [416] ve Burhân Kâsânî telâmizesinden Tâceddîn Ebu’l-Vefa Mahmûd Harezmî¹⁸⁵ hizmetinde ulûm-i şer’iyye ve sûfiyyeyi ahz ü tefeyyüz edib hâdim ve tilmîz-i hâssı oldu.
Cengiz Hân’ın Horasan’a doğru ordusuyla yürüdüğünü gördüğünde şeyhinin ma’iyyetinde Bağdâd’a gelip orada bir müddet oturdu. Ba’dehû şeyhiyle beraber kalkıp Anadolu’ya geldi. Amasya’yı vatan ittihâz ederek şeyhi Mes’udiye Tekkesi şeyhi oldu.
625’de Taceddîn Ebu’l-Vefâ Sivaslıların da’veti üzerine Sivas’a gidip yerine Mes’ûdiye Hânkâhı Şeyhi olarak teayyün etdi. Gerek ilm ü fazîleti ve gerek zühd ü takvâsı ulemânın ve âmmenin muhabbetini ve hüsn-i i’tikadını kendisine celb etdiğinden fevkalâde iştihâr etdi.
Mes’ûdiye Tekkesi fevkalâde i’mâr edilerek evkâfı teksîr ve câmii tecdît edildi. Ta’âmiyesi mebzûl olduğundan gerek gurabâ ve gerek fukarâ bu imârethâne-i âlîden nevâle-çîn olup ümerâ, ulemâ, halk babanın mürîdânı oldu. Nüfûzu fevkalâde arttı. [417]
Baba İlyâs’ın bu kadar nüfûz-ı ikbâlini gören Baba İshâk Kefersûdî, bundan fevkalâde istifâde te’mîn edeceğini kestirip Mes’ûdiye Tekkesi’ne yerleşti. Baba’nın mürîd-i hâssı olup yedi yıl kadar hizmetinde cân ve bâş ile çalışdı.
Öteden beri meşâyih-i kirâm, muhibb-i âl-i âbâ tanıtmış olduğu cihetle Baba İshâk, işte bu muhabbet-i aleviyyeden istifâde ederek Baba İlyâs’ın fevkalâde i’timâdını kazanmışdı. Zaten köylülere kendisini evliyâ tanıtmış olması hasebiyle Baba İlyâs’ın bu i’timâdından istifâde etdi.
Baba İlyâs mezheben hanefi, i’tikâden Mâtürîdî meşreben ve tarîkaten Cüneydî idi. Baba İshâk’ın zâhiren tuttuğu meslek bu olmakla beraber bâtınen hulûl-i ittihâda mu’tekîd ibâha mesleğin mürevvic bir mülhid idi. Her halinde takiyye izhâr ederek mezhebini neşretmekteydi.
Nihâyet 636’da alem-i ifrâz-ı bâğî ve isyân olarak âlemi ıslâh etmeye me’mûr olduğunu der-meyân edib 637’de Amasya’yı istîlâ ve Resûlullâh olduğunu i’lân [418] etdiğinde Baba İlyâs Amasya civârında Çat mevki’inde kâin çiftliğine çekildi.
İki yıl zarfında Baba İshâk’ın avenesi perîşân olup kendisi de köpekler gibi asıldıktan sonra Mes’ûdiye Tekkesi tahrîb edilmişti. 644’de Tatar Beyleri’nin yardımıyla Tekke i’mâr edilip sâniyen şeyh olarak geldi. Çünkü mahdûmu Şemseddîn Mahmûd Çelebi Tatar Beyleri’ni elde etmişdi.
On üç yıl kadar da bu sefer icrâ-i meşîhat ve sa’âdet ve ikbâlini te’mîn etdikten sonra 657’de dâr-ı bekâya rihlet etdi. Medfeni Amasya civârında el-yevm İlyâs köyü demekle meşhûr çiftliğindedir. Sarılık Evliyâsı demekle meşhûr olan zâttır. Her yıl burası Hızır-İlyâs günü halk tarafından ziyâret olunur.
Mahdûmları Şemseddîn Mahmûd, Fahreddîn Ali, Ziyâeddîn Mes’ûd, Muhliseddîn Mûsâ Çelebiler’dir. Bunlar saltanât-ı İlhâniyye sâyesinde vüzerâ ve ümerâdan olmuşlardı. Hulefâsı da şunlardı: Behlûl Baba, İbik Baba, Lokman Baba, Tursan Baba, Dündar Baba, Osmân Baba’dır. [419]
Tarîkat-i Babâiyye’nin reîsi Baba İlyâs olduğu gibi nâşiri de hulefâsıdır. Lokman Baba’nın halîfesi Hacı Bektâş Baba’dır. Hacı Bektâşî Veli demekle iştihâr etdi. Osmân Baba’nın halîfesi de Süleyman Baba’dır. Evlâd-ı kirâmı şu’belere ayrılmışdır. Her biri bu tarihte yazılmışdır.
In Modern English
He was the son of Ahmed, son of Alî, of the people of the village of Mâhân near the city of Merv, the centre of the province of Khorasan. First, in the land of Khwarazm, he studied the religious sciences and Sufism in the service of Tâceddîn Ebu'l-Vefâ Mahmûd Harezmî, one of the caliphs of Sheikh Ebû Alî el-Bâğdâdî and a student of Burhân Kâsânî, and drew spiritual benefit from him; he became his servant and special disciple.
When he saw Genghis Khan marching with his army towards Khorasan, he came to Baghdad with his sheikh and stayed there for a time. Then he set out with his sheikh and came to Anatolia. Making Amasya his homeland, his sheikh became the sheikh of the Mes'ûdiye Tekke.
In 625 [1227-28], when Tâceddîn Ebu'l-Vefâ went to Sivas at the invitation of the people of Sivas, Baba İlyâs was appointed in his place as sheikh of the Mes'ûdiye Hankah. Because both his learning and virtue and his asceticism and piety drew the love and good belief of the scholars and the common people, he became extraordinarily famous.
The Mes'ûdiye Tekke was greatly improved, its waqfs were increased, and the mosque was renewed. Because the feeding there was abundant, both the destitute and the poor took their share of this exalted soup kitchen. Emirs, scholars and common people became the Baba's disciples. His influence grew extraordinarily.
Seeing that Baba İlyâs had gained so much influence and fortune, Baba İshâk Kefersûdî understood that he could draw great benefit from it and settled in the Mes'ûdiye Tekke. Becoming the Baba's special disciple, he worked heart and soul in his service for about seven years.
Because the great sheikhs had long presented themselves as friends of the Âl-i Abâ (the family of the Prophet), Baba İshâk made use of this love for Ali and had won Baba İlyâs's great trust. And since he had in any case presented himself to the villagers as a saint, he took advantage of this trust of Baba İlyâs as well.
Baba İlyâs was Hanafi in school of law, Maturidi in creed, and Cüneydî in temperament and order. This was also the way Baba İshâk outwardly followed; but inwardly he was one who believed in hulûl and ittihad (God's entering into man and uniting with him), who spread the way of ibâha (disregard of religious prohibitions), a man who had strayed from religion (a mülhid). In every circumstance he practised taqiyya (concealment of his belief) and spread his own creed.
At last, in 636 [1238-39], he raised the banner of rebellion, saying that he had been commissioned to set the world right, and in 637 [1239-40] he seized Amasya and proclaimed that he was the Messenger of God. At this, Baba İlyâs withdrew to his farm at the place called Çat near Amasya.
Within two years Baba İshâk's following had been scattered, and after he himself had been hanged like a dog, the Mes'ûdiye Tekke had been destroyed. In 644 [1246-47], when the tekke was repaired with the help of the Tatar Beys, Baba İlyâs came as sheikh for the second time, because his son Şemseddîn Mahmûd Çelebi had won the Tatar Beys over to his side.
This time, after holding the sheikhdom for about thirteen years and securing his happiness and good fortune, he passed to the hereafter in 657 [1258-59]. His grave is at his farm near Amasya, famous today as the village of İlyâs. He is the figure known as the Saint of Jaundice. Every year this place is visited by the people on the day of Hızır-İlyas.
His sons were Şemseddîn Mahmûd, Fahreddîn Alî, Ziyâeddîn Mes'ûd and Muhliseddîn Mûsâ, all Çelebis. Thanks to the Ilkhanid sultanate they had become viziers and emirs. His caliphs were these: Behlûl Baba, İbik Baba, Lokman Baba, Tursan Baba, Dündar Baba and Osmân Baba.
Just as the head of the Babâiyye Order was Baba İlyâs, so its propagators were his caliphs. The caliph of Lokman Baba is Hacı Bektâş Baba, who became famous as Hacı Bektâşî Veli. The caliph of Osmân Baba is Süleyman Baba. His descendants were divided into branches. Each of these is written in this history.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- mahdûm: son
- ahz ü tefeyyüz: learning and drawing spiritual benefit
- hâdim ve tilmîz-i hâss: servant and special disciple
- vatan ittihâz etmek: to make a place one's homeland
- hânkâh: a large tekke where members of an order gather and lodge
- zühd ü takvâ: renunciation of the world and fear of God
- evkâf: waqfs
- imârethâne: a charitable institution where food is given to the poor
- nevâle-çîn: one who takes a share of the table, of the hospitality
- mürîd-i hâss: the sheikh's special disciple
- muhibb-i âl-i abâ: lovers of the Prophet's family
- hulûl, ittihâd: the belief in God's entering into man and in the union of God and man
- ibâha: the view that disregards religious prohibitions and limits
- mülhid: one who has strayed from religion
- takiyye: concealing one's true belief
- avene: helpers, followers
- perîşân: scattered, in ruin
- tahrîb: destruction
- hulefâ: caliphs
- evlâd-ı kirâm: descendants
Who Was Baba İlyâs
According to Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, Baba İlyâs-ı Horasânî most probably migrated to Anatolia with Turkmens from the lands of the Khwarazmshahs, which collapsed in the Mongol invasion. Nothing is known about his life before he came to Anatolia; for this reason Hüsameddin's account, which gives the village of Mâhân near Merv and a training in Khwarazm, could not be verified in other sources. According to the Menâkıbü'l-kudsiyye, written in 1358-59 by his grandson Elvan Çelebi, after coming to Anatolia he settled in the village of Çat near Amasya, known today as İlyas village, opened a zaviye there, began to spread the Vefâiyye order, and gathered many disciples around him. This source presents him as a caliph of a Turkmen sheikh named Dede Garkın. Âşıkpaşazâde, for his part, states that Baba İlyâs belonged to the Vefâiyye founded by Seyyid Ebü'l-Vefâ Bağdâdî. Hüsameddin presents him as Hanafi, Maturidi and Cüneydî; these descriptions do not occur in the sources read.
The Mes'ûdiye Hankah
The existence of the Mes'ûdiye Hankah and the place of Tâceddîn Ebu'l-Vefâ el-Harezmî in it appear also in another study: it is recorded that to the hankah built in Amasya by the Anatolian Seljuk Sultan Mesud I, first Sirâceddîn Mahmûd b. Ali el-Hocendî and then, by Alâeddin Keykubad I, Tâceddîn Ebu'l-Vefâ el-Harezmî was appointed sheikh. Hüsameddin's statement that Baba İlyâs became sheikh of this hankah could not be verified in the sources read; Ocak describes Baba İlyâs as a Vefâî sheikh active in his own zaviye in the village of Çat.
In Hüsameddin's footnote the educational chain of Ebu'l-Vefâ Harezmî is also given: Tâceddîn Ebu'l-Vefâ Mahmûd Harezmî, son of Ahmed, studied the Arabic and religious sciences with Burhâneddîn Mehmed bin Hasan ed-Dihkân el-Kâsânî; he had learned from Necmeddîn Ömer bin Mehmed en-Nesefî, he from Sadrü'l-İslâm Ebu'l-Yüsr Mehmed bin Mehmed el-Bezdevî, and he from Ebû Yûsuf Ya'kûb es-Seyyârî.
The Rebellion: Where Hüsameddin and Present-Day Research Part Ways
The Babaî Rebellion broke out in 1240 (637), in the reign of Giyâseddin Keyhusrev II. According to Ocak, the rebellion was actually started by Baba İshâk; the Turkmens who rose at Kefersud first took Hısnımansûr, Gerger and Kâhta. Baba İlyâs, who had taken refuge in Amasya Castle, was cornered and captured by the forces of Mübârizüddin Armağanşah and executed. Baba İshâk, who came to Amasya but could not save his sheikh, was defeated by the Seljuk army on the plain of Malya near Kırşehir while marching on Konya, and was killed.
Hüsameddin's account differs markedly from this. According to him, Baba İshâk raised the rebellion, Baba İlyâs withdrew to his farm at Çat, İshâk was put to death, the Mes'ûdiye Tekke was destroyed, Baba İlyâs returned to the tekke in 644 [1246-47] and died a natural death in 657 [1258-59]. Ocak, however, writes that Baba İlyâs died in 1240. The difference is about twenty years; no support could be found for Hüsameddin's account of those years.
Another difference concerns who was responsible for the rebellion. Hüsameddin implies that Baba İlyâs, a pure sheikh, was deceived by Baba İshâk. Recent research, however, starting from the contradictory statements in İbn Bîbî and also using the work of Elvan Çelebi, has shown that the planner of the rebellion was Baba İlyâs, and that Baba İshâk was the caliph acting in his name. According to Ocak, Baba İlyâs presented himself as a mahdi (perhaps a prophet) who would deliver the Turkmens from the pressure of Seljuk rule; for this reason the sources also call him Baba Resûl. The claim to prophethood that Hüsameddin reports also agrees with the accounts of this circle; but his attaching the claim to Baba İshâk departs from this new assessment. A thesis by Ömer Çaycı examining his activities in Amasya stresses that Baba İlyâs's attempt to change Seljuk power failed when it was close to its goal, but caused a material and spiritual destruction that lasted for centuries in the life of the state and society.
It is also known that elsewhere in his book Hüsameddin writes, without citing a source, that Baba İshâk was a Greek convert from the Komnenos dynasty of Trebizond and aimed to found a Greek empire in Amasya. Ocak states that this claim cannot be supported by any evidence or source and can be regarded only as a possibility. The epithets "mülhid" and "takiyye" in this entry reflect the same negative view.
Was Babâilik an Order?
In the text Hüsameddin speaks of the "Tarîkat-i Babâiyye" and regards Baba İlyâs as the head of this order. Ocak names Hüsameddin among the researchers who accepted Babaîlik as the name of an order. The word "Babaî" was first used in İbn Bîbî, a source contemporary with the events, only for those who took part in the rebellion, and appeared as the name of an order only in the sixteenth century, in Taşköprizâde. Claude Cahen says that Baba İlyâs perhaps never founded such an order; Ocak, too, holds that he did not found an order in his own name but worked as sheikh of the Vefâiyye to which he belonged. The current called Babaîlik arose after the suppression of the rebellion, when the failed movement of the surviving disciples passed into the realm of ideas.
His Descent and Caliphs
Elvan Çelebi is among the grandsons of Baba İlyâs: the line runs Baba İlyâs, Muhlis Pasha, Âşık Pasha, Elvan Çelebi. Elvan Çelebi spent most of his life in his zaviye in the village that bears his name, today between Çorum and Mecitözü. Ocak writes that after Baba İlyâs's death the movement spread, particularly in Central and Western Anatolia, through his son Muhlis Pasha and his other caliphs. Among the sons Hüsameddin lists, Şemseddîn Mahmûd, Fahreddîn Alî, Ziyâeddîn Mes'ûd and Muhliseddîn Mûsâ, it may be thought that Muhliseddîn Mûsâ could be the same person as Muhlis Pasha, but this is an inference and could not be verified in the sources read.
The information that Hacı Bektâş was a caliph of Lokman Baba also could not be verified in the sources read. Ocak says that the Bektashi order and certain Kızılbaş groups, setting aside later Shi'i and Hurufi influences, are nothing but Babaîlik under a changed name; that is, the link between the two currents is known, but how this link is built at the level of a spiritual chain has not been confirmed in the form Hüsameddin gives.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 389–390. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
- Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, "Baba İlyas", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 4, İstanbul 1991, p. 368. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/baba-ilyas
- Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, "Baba İshak", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 4, İstanbul 1991, p. 368-369. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/baba-ishak
- Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, "Babaîlik", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 4, İstanbul 1991, p. 373-374. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/babailik
- Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, "Elvan Çelebi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 11, İstanbul 1995, p. 63-64. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/elvan-celebi
- Ömer Çaycı, Babaî İsyanı'nda Baba İlyâs-ı Horasânî'nin Amasya'da Yürüttüğü Faaliyetler, master's thesis, Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi, 2018. https://acikerisim.omu.edu.tr/entities/publication/cfb55c2a-dc29-4e96-b1e5-7d1c6373bf8f
Books
- Kadir Özköse, "Amasya'da Bulunan Halvetiyye Tekkeleri", Akademiar, no. 5, Ankara 2018, p. 91-118.