Mecitözülüdür. Amasya’da tahsîl-i ulûm ederek Hazret-i Pîr İlyâs Halvetî ve ba’dehû halîfesi Pîr Aburrahman Halvetî sohbetlerinde tefeyyüz etdi. Bir müddet Amasya’da kaldıktan sonra Mecitözü kasabasına avdet eyledi.
Orada halkın tehzîb-i ahlâkına va’z u nasîhatlerle zühd ü riyâzâtlarla hizmet ederek fevkalâde iştihâr etdi. Kendisine Mecitözü Emîri el-Hâc Türkâd Bey’e intisâb edib güzel bir zâviye yaptırdı. Zâviyenin mesâlihine emlâkini 836’da vakf etdi.
Bâlî Dede bundan sonra vefât eyledi. Hacı Türkâd Bey’in vakfiyesi Mecitözü’nde görüldü. Âlim, âbid, kâmil, zâhid, müttakî olduğu ve tercemesi bu vakfiyeden anlaşıldı. Mecitözü civârında basit bir türbesi vardır. [427] Halkın ziyâretgâhıdır. Halk arasında Balım Sultân demekle meşhûrdur.
Balım Sultân’ın halîfesi Şeyh Abdül Baba olup irtihâlinde Hacı Türkâd Tekkesi şeyhi olmuşdu. Mahdûmu da Îsâ Çelebi’dir. Bunun mahdûmu Yahyâ Çelebi bin Îsâ Çelebi bin eş-Şeyh Bâlî Dede 910’da meşhûr idi.
In Modern English
He was from Mecitözü. Having studied the sciences in Amasya, he drew spiritual benefit from the conversations of the Blessed Pîr İlyâs-ı Halvetî and then of his successor Pîr Abdurrahman Halvetî. After staying in Amasya for a time, he returned to the town of Mecitözü.
There he strove to improve the morals of the people and served with sermons and counsel, with abstinence and discipline, and won great fame. El-Hâc Türkâd Bey, the Emir of Mecitözü, attached himself to him and had a fine zawiya built for him. For the needs of the zawiya he endowed his property as a waqf in 836 [1432-33].
Bâlî Dede died after this. The waqf deed of Hacı Türkâd Bey was seen in Mecitözü. It is stated that he was a scholar, devout, mature, ascetic and God-fearing, and that his biography was understood from this deed. Near Mecitözü he has a plain tomb. It is a place of visit for the people. Among the people he is famous as Balım Sultan.
Balım Sultan's successor was Şeyh Abdül Baba, who at his death had become sheikh of the Hacı Türkâd Lodge. His son is Îsâ Çelebi. The son of the latter, Yahyâ Çelebi, that is the son of Îsâ Çelebi and the grandson of Şeyh Bâlî Dede, was well known in 910 [1504-05].
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- tahsîl-i ulûm: acquiring learning
- tefeyyüz etmek: to draw spiritual benefit, to profit
- halîfe: a person a sheikh trains and leaves in his place
- avdet: return
- tehzîb-i ahlâk: refining and disciplining morals
- va'z u nasîhat: sermon and counsel
- zühd ü riyâzât: keeping away from worldly pleasures and the hardships undertaken to discipline the self
- intisâb: attaching oneself to a sheikh or another person
- zâviye: a small lodge where dervishes gather
- mesâlih: affairs, expenses
- vakfiye: waqf deed
- müttakî: God-fearing, pious
- irtihâl: death
- mahdûm: son
The Zawiya and Tomb in Mecitözü
Murat Alandağlı's study of the Mecitözü district, relying on Hüsameddin, reports that the lodge and tomb of "Şeyh Şehâbeddin Bâlî Baba, known as Balım Sultan" were built in 836 [1432] by the Emir of Mecitözü, "Cibrîl-zâde el-Hâc Türkâd Bey". The same study also reports from Hüsameddin that the area was the estate of the Anatolian judge Abdülmecîd-i Herevî in the Danishmend period and that the name Mecitözü is derived from his name.
The later condition of the zawiya can be followed in the survey register of 1485. According to this record, all the revenues of the landlord and state shares of the village of Balım and of three farms belonging to the zawiya had been left to the zawiya; twenty-one people served the zawiya and were exempt from taxes. That the village took its name from the zawiya is regarded as certain. By imperial order the whole of the state and landlord shares of the village of Balım, and by order of the judge of Amasya the landlord shares of the village of Çiminto, had been assigned to the zawiya. In the same record it is not known who the zawiya's warden was at that date.
Which Balım Sultan
Alandağlı writes that it is clear this Balım Sultan is not the Balım Sultan, regarded as the second pîr after Hacı Bektâş-ı Velî, whose tomb is at Hacıbektaş. In his view the zawiya was either founded by another saint of the same name or began to be called after the pîr-i sânî Balım Sultan, who organised Bektashism in the early sixteenth century. If the date 836 [1432-33] given by Hüsameddin is correct, the waqf goes back to before the sixteenth century in which the Bektashi pîr-i sânî was active. This is an inference; the author himself calls the origin of the name a "riddle".
Points That Could Not Be Verified
Bâlî Dede's relationship with Pîr İlyâs and Pîr Abdurrahman Halvetî, his successor Şeyh Abdül Baba, and the descendants Îsâ Çelebi and Yahyâ Çelebi could not be verified in the sources read. Hüsameddin states that he drew Bâlî Dede's condition and biography from the waqf deed of Hacı Türkâd Bey which he saw in Mecitözü; that is, the qualities given come from the language of the deed. The deed itself could not be found in the sources.
Bibliography