Bâyezîd Halîfe was a Halveti sheikh and poet who, in the time of Bayezid II, lived in a lodge built for him in Edirne and wrote a Turkish verse commentary on Ibn Arabî's Fusûsü'l-hikem. His name lives on through the matla beginning "Kendi hüsnün hûblar şeklinde peydâ eyledi", which sums up the idea of the unity of being (vahdet-i vücûd) in a single couplet. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar records him in his Amasya Tarihi under the heading "Bâyezîd Efendi-Şeyh İmâdzâde" as the child of a scholarly family of Amasya. Latîfî, however, counts him as a man of Edirne, and the article in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi gives no birthplace. What matches Hüsameddin's entry with the other sources is the name of his sheikh, his lodge in Edirne, the list of his works and the same matla; the tie to Amasya rests on Hüsameddin alone.

Hüsameddin's Account

Amasyalıdır. Ulemâdan Salâhaddîn Mûsâ Efendi bin Bâyezîd Çelebi bin eş-Şeyh İmadeddîn Ömer Çelebi mahdûmudur. Amasya'da Müderris Abdî Efendi'den ikmâl-i tahsîl edib ders-i âm oldu. Bir müddet tedrîs-i ulûm etdi. Ba'dehû Hâce Sultân Zâviyesi şeyhi Cemalzâde eş-Şeyh Cemâleddîn Mehmed Çelebi halîfeye intisâb edib tefeyyüz ederek terk-i tedrîs etdi. Şeyhiyle beraber Hicâz'a gidip avdetde İstanbul'da kaldı. Ba'dehû Edirne'ye gidip orada ikâmet ve neşr-i tarîkat etdi. Sultân Bâyezîd-i Sânî bendegânından Sinan Bey kendisine Dakîk Pazarı karyesinde bir zâviye binâ ve ta'âmiyesine bir karye vakf edib zâviye şeyhi oldu. 925 hudûdunda vefât etdi. Âlim, fâzıl, vâ'iz, mütekellim, şâir, mazınne-i kerâmet bir şeyh-i ârif-i billâh idi.

That is to say: Bâyezîd Efendi came from Amasya, a son of the scholar Salâhaddîn Mûsâ Efendi, descended through Bâyezîd Çelebi from Şeyh İmâdeddîn Ömer Çelebi. He completed his studies in Amasya with the professor Abdî Efendi, became a lecturer and taught for a while. Then he attached himself to Cemâleddîn Mehmed Çelebi Halîfe, sheikh of the Hâce Sultan lodge, received his grace and gave up teaching. He went to the Hijaz with his sheikh, stayed in Istanbul on his return, then moved to Edirne and spread the order there. Sinan Bey, one of the servants of Bayezid II, built him a lodge in the village of Dakîk Pazarı and endowed a village for the expenses of its kitchen, and he became sheikh of this lodge. He died around 925 (1519). Hüsameddin presents him as a learned man, a preacher, a theologian, a poet and a sheikh from whom miracles were expected.

In the rest of the entry Hüsameddin quotes a passage from Mecdî's translation of the Şakâyık. Mecdî says that he knew the outward sciences entirely, was versed in the secrets of the divine names and united truth and metaphor in his poems; he gives the matla below and lists his works: a commentary on the sura Fâtiha, two books called Tûr-ı Sînâ and Secencelü'l-ervâh, the Turkish verse Ser-Cânân and a commentary on Câmî's Nusûs. Hüsameddin's entry in its original wording appears on the page Bâyezîd Efendi-Şeyh İmâdzâde.

Bâyezîd Halîfe in Other Sources

The article in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi gives him under the name "Bayezid Halife" and his death as after 922 (1516). His father's name is Abdullah; he is also known as Bâyezîd-i Rûmî and Derviş Bayezid. His spiritual guide was Cemâl-i Halvetî, known as Çelebi Halife, at whose bidding he came to Edirne and settled. A lodge was built for him beside the Kıyık Cemetery, and a village was endowed as its income. He lived in Edirne until his death and was buried beside his lodge. Because of his asceticism and gnosis his rank was held close to that of Bâyezîd-i Bistâmî, and he was also called "Bâyezîd-i Sânî", the second Bayezid. According to the TDV his most important work is Sırr-ı Cânân, a verse gloss on a commentary on the Fusûsü'l-hikem, of more than 5,500 couplets; he himself says he wrote it in 1516. A manuscript of his commentary on the Fâtiha, Secencelü'l-ervâh, is in the Süleymaniye Library.

Latîfî, in the anthology he completed in 1546, names him "Hazret-i Şeyh Bâyezîd", says that he was from Edirne and counts him a second Bâyezîd on the path of piety. He notes that he wrote a verse gloss on the Fusûs called Sırr-ı cân and a prose commentary on Sadreddin Konevî's Nusûs. He explains the matla in Sufi terms and sets beside it a Persian couplet by Câmî on the same theme.

The State of the Sources

Hüsameddin's "Bâyezîd Efendi-Şeyh İmâdzâde" and the TDV's "Bayezid Halife" are the same man: both describe a sheikh who attached himself to Cemâl-i Halvetî, sat in a lodge built for him in Edirne, to which a village was endowed, wrote the same works and spoke the same matla. The guide whom Hüsameddin calls "Cemalzâde eş-Şeyh Cemâleddîn Mehmed Çelebi Halîfe" coincides with Cemâl-i Halvetî, known as Çelebi Halife, who according to his TDV article guided disciples for a time in Amasya. According to the same article Cemâl-i Halvetî died in 899 (1494) on the pilgrimage road near Tabuk; Hüsameddin's statement that Bâyezîd went to the Hijaz with his sheikh and stayed in Istanbul on his return agrees with this journey. This identification has been drawn from reading the sources together.

The divergences are also plain. Hüsameddin gives his father as Salâhaddîn Mûsâ Efendi, the TDV as Abdullah. Hüsameddin counts him from Amasya, Latîfî from Edirne. For his death Hüsameddin gives around 925, the TDV after 1516; these two do not contradict each other. Hüsameddin's information on the İmâdzâde family in Amasya is detailed; he mentions the grandfather Bâyezîd Çelebi in a separate entry and counts Salâhaddîn Mûsâ among his sons. Latîfî's "Edirnevî", on the other hand, may refer to the city where the sheikh spent the second half of his life and was buried; this is a possibility. Bâyezîd Halîfe is therefore treated on our site as a poet whose tie to Amasya rests on a single source and is disputed.

His Poetry

Most of Bâyezîd Halîfe's poetry is in Sırr-ı Cânân. The TDV article says that the work has lapses of metre and rhyme but is important for the history of Sufism; it has not been published, and no passage from it can be given here. The piece that has reached us as a separate poem is the matla mentioned by all the sources. According to the TDV it was translated from Câmî and is among the best-known lines of Turkish Sufi literature. It has an article of its own in this category.

Chronology

899 (1494): His guide Cemâl-i Halvetî dies on the pilgrimage road.

922 (1516): Writes Sırr-ı Cânân.

Around 925 (1519): According to Hüsameddin, dies in Edirne.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources