Habib Karamânî (d. 902/1496-97) was one of the first shaykhs of the Khalwatiyya order to work in Anatolia. He spent twelve years in the service of Sayyid Yahyâ-yi Shirvânî in Shirvan, lived for a long time in İskilip after returning to Anatolia, and passed the last twenty years of his life in Amasya, in his lodge beside the mosque complex of Hızır Pashazâde Mehmed Pasha. What we know of his years in Shirvan and İskilip rests largely on Lâmiî Çelebi's Nefehât Tercümesi and Taşköprizâde's al-Shaqâ'iq. His Amasya years, by contrast, are recounted in far greater detail in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar's Amasya Tarihi; built on the city's court registers, endowment records and biographical dictionaries, this work records his lodge, his sons, his khalifas and the line of shaykhs that held the lodge down to the nineteenth century one by one. Because the endowments he founded, his lodge and his tomb can be traced through documents and buildings, his name is one of the firm landmarks in the fifteenth-century Sufi history of Amasya.

The Karaman Epithet and His Education

Habib was born in the town of Ortaköy near Niğde. Hüsameddin gives his father's name as Hasan bin Ömer. According to tradition he descended from Abu Bakr on his mother's side and from Umar on his father's; Hüsameddin notes that this is written in the Shaqâ'iq. Since Niğde then belonged to the province of Karaman, he became known by the epithet Karamânî. The sources say little about his family or his youth. Lâmiî's remark that Habib was reading a commentary on creed when he arrived at Sayyid Yahyâ's side shows that he had studied the exoteric sciences before entering Sufism. Hüsameddin makes the same point in other words: in his early youth Habib pursued learning and advanced as far as the study of creed, and when his inclination toward Sufism prevailed he abandoned lessons and the madrasa path and set out for Shirvan.

The only member of his family known by name is his brother Sirâceddîn Ömer Çelebi. According to Hüsameddin, Sirâceddîn also studied with the scholars of his day, taught for a time in İskilip and served there as a madrasa teacher. In 882 (1477-78) he came to Amasya together with his elder brother, continued teaching there, became the first preacher (khatib) and pulpit shaykh of the Mehmed Pasha Mosque once it was completed, and died after the year 900 (1494-95). Hüsameddin describes him as a memorizer of the Qur'an, an eloquent preacher of good character, and gives his son's name as Fahreddîn Mehmed Efendi. That the two brothers moved together from İskilip to Amasya shows that Habib changed cities along with his family and circle.

The year in which he went to Shirvan is not known. The purpose of the journey was to become a disciple of Yahyâ-yi Shirvânî, regarded as the second founder of the Khalwatiyya. The Khalwatiyya is an order traced to Umar al-Khalwatî. It had developed within a spiritual chain reaching from the region of Gilan, southwest of the Caspian, to Tabriz and from there to Azerbaijan. Yahyâ-yi Shirvânî, born in Shamakhi and deceased in Baku in 868 (1463-64), is in a sense considered the order's true founder. Khalwatism was thus established and matured in Azerbaijan, and from there spread to Anatolia, and from Anatolia to the Balkans, Syria and Egypt.

In the Service of Shirvani

As Lâmiî relates, when Habib reached Shirvan he met Sayyid Yahyâ's dervishes and asked them whether their shaykh could show him the Lord in a single day. At these words Hacı Hamza Efendi, one of the shaykh's senior disciples, struck him so hard that Habib fell to the ground. When Shirvânî learned of the incident he summoned him, consoled him by saying, "Dervishes are zealous, pay it no mind," and accepted him into the dervish path. By Habib's own account, the shaykh told him, "Go and stand by that window, and whatever you see in your dream tonight, come and tell us," and he went and sat before the window and at that very moment passed away into the shaykh. He expressed this with the words, "He came, and we were gone." The story speaks in symbolic language: it tells that entering the path begins with the breaking of the seeker's pride and selfhood.

Habib remained in the shaykh's service for twelve years and finally received his authorization (khilâfa) from him. Among Shirvânî's most important khalifas are counted Dede Ömer Rûşenî, his elder brother Alâeddin Ali, Pîr Şükrullah Ensârî, Habib Karamânî, Muhammed Bahâeddin Erzincânî and Ziyâeddin Yûsuf Shirvânî. The first to bring the Khalwatiyya to Anatolia is said to have been Pîr İlyas of Amasya (d. 837/1433), one of the khalifas of Sadreddîn-i Hiyâvî. Those who actually spread the order across Anatolia were Yahyâ-yi Shirvânî's khalifas Erzincânî, Habib Karamânî and Dede Ömer Rûşenî. Through Habib Karamânî a separate branch formed within the order. Its foremost representative is Cemâleddin İshak Karamânî, known as Cemal Halîfe (d. 933/1527). Cemal Halîfe spread the order to various parts of Anatolia and carried it to Istanbul as well. Even so, the continuity of the Khalwatiyya in Anatolia ran mainly through Pîr Muhammed Erzincânî and his khalifas.

Return to Anatolia and His Travels

The date of Habib Karamânî's return to Anatolia is likewise uncertain. Since he is known to have met Akşemseddin (d. 863/1459) and attended his gatherings, it is thought that he must have returned around 1450-1455. For a time he lived in Ankara and frequently visited the tomb of Hacı Bayrâm-ı Velî. Afterwards, rather than settling in one place, he spent his life travelling to cities such as Aydın, Kayseri, Konya and Karaman. Lâmiî Çelebi says that he met him in Konya. In Kayseri he met İbrâhim Tennûrî, Akşemseddin's khalifa, and Emîr Efendi, one of the Naqshbandi shaykhs. He made the pilgrimage three times and in Mecca had the opportunity to converse with Abdülmutî Efendi, one of the Zeynî shaykhs. These meetings show that a Khalwati shaykh was in close contact with leading figures of the Bayrami, Naqshbandi and Zeynî circles.

Hüsameddin's account gives these years in a somewhat different order. According to him, after returning from Shirvan Habib stayed for a while in the land of Karaman and completed his studies in the lessons of Mevlânâ Sarı Ya'kûb Karamânî. He then crossed into Ottoman territory, visited İbrâhim Tennûrî in Kayseri and Akşemseddin in Göynük and benefited from their company, and afterwards came to İskilip. That a Khalwati shaykh sat down to madrasa lessons again after receiving his authorization suggests that Habib did not regard exoteric learning as lying outside the Sufi path; this interpretation is our own. His tie with Konya, meanwhile, seems not to have been broken during his İskilip and Amasya years. According to Cemal Halîfe's biography, after an incident with his teacher Kastallânî he went to Konya and became Habib's disciple, most probably in 886 (1481) or shortly afterwards.

The İskilip Years

Habib eventually settled in İskilip and married there. The sources disagree as to who his father-in-law was. The encyclopedia entries based on Lâmiî write that Habib married Rukiye Hatun, the daughter of Shaykh Yavsî Efendi and sister of Ebüssuûd Efendi. Hüsameddin, however, says that in İskilip Habib stayed with Mevlânâ Musliheddîn Mustafa bin İmâd el-İskilibî, that "İmâdzâde Mevlânâ Musliheddîn Çelebi" was his father-in-law, and that the latter's son Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi was Habib's brother-in-law. Shaykh Yavsî's real name was Muhyiddin Muhammed, his father's name was Mustafa, and he was born in the village of İmâd. On Hüsameddin's account, then, Habib was Yavsî's brother-in-law rather than his son-in-law. We have no document that would reconcile the two traditions. The published copy of the joint endowment deed of Shaykh Habib Ömerî, buried in Amasya, and of Rukiye and Bacı Hatun supports the view that his wife was named Rukiye, but does not by itself settle who her father was.

Yavsî himself and his family matter for understanding Habib's circle in İskilip. Born near İskilip, Yavsî was a nephew of Ali Kuşçu, came from the Tennûriyye branch of the Bayramiyya, and united in his person the learning of both the madrasa and the lodge. His grandfather had been chief falconer to Ulugh Beg, governor of Samarkand. His father Mustafa Efendi, together with his brothers Ali Kuşçu and Abdünnebî, left Samarkand after the murder of their patron Ulugh Beg (853/1449), came to Anatolia, and served as a shaykh of the Zeyniyya in İskilip. Yavsî married Sultan Hatun, the daughter of Ali Kuşçu, and from this marriage had two daughters and four sons. Of his sons, Ebüssuûd Efendi is known as shaykh al-Islam. Nasrullah succeeded his father as shaykh of the lodge in İskilip and later of the lodge in Istanbul. Yavsîzâde Mehmed Efendi, for his part, became a disciple of the Khalwati shaykh Nûreddinzâde and received authorization from him. Yavsî's works, such as his commentary on the Vâridât, and his views in the line of Ibn Arabi reflect a Sufi milieu different from the Khalwati path to which Habib belonged.

As Taşköprizâde relates, in 885 (1480), while on his way to the pilgrimage, Yavsî met Bayezid II, then sanjak governor in Amasya, and gave him the good tidings that he would become sultan. When Bayezid came to the throne a year later, he summoned Yavsî to Istanbul, had a lodge built for him, and assigned endowments in his name in Istanbul and İskilip. Because of this closeness Yavsî is remembered by the title "the sultan's shaykh" (hünkâr şeyhi). Hüsameddin presents the same person, the Muhyiddîn Mehmed el-İskilibî whom he counts as Habib's brother-in-law, as the man who went to Istanbul after Bayezid's accession, won great fame there as the sultan's shaykh, and whose son was Shaykh al-Islam Ebüssuûd Efendi. Hüsameddin also counts him as the "choicest of Habib's khalifas". If this record is correct, the relationship between Yavsî and Habib in İskilip goes beyond a family tie and becomes one of discipleship; but since Yavsî's attachment to the Bayrami-Tennûri chain is explicitly recorded in other sources, this information should be read with caution.

Habib was no short-term guest in İskilip. Hüsameddin writes that he stayed there for about fifteen years and, with the votive offerings and alms given to him, built a mosque and a lodge beside it. He is known to have founded many endowments there, including a mosque, a madrasa, a lodge and a library. Foremost among them is the Shaykh Habib Mosque, which he built and endowed in the Tabakhâne quarter in 881 (1476). The mosque's endowment deed is in the Archive of the General Directorate of Foundations; Hüsameddin too notes that the deed was entered in the endowment registers. The madrasa buildings in front of the mosque, which covers an area of roughly 370 square metres, were demolished after 1925. The madrasa, built beside the mosque together with a library and a lodge, had sixty-seven students in 1900. Hüsameddin also records that some of Habib's sons were born in İskilip and some in Amasya.

His Coming to Amasya: Two Accounts

Why Habib left İskilip is likewise told in two different ways. Lâmiî says that a serious dispute arose between son-in-law and father-in-law and that it was resolved "by the power of dervishhood", but he does not state its cause. According to tradition, Yavsî had established his endowment as a family endowment (evlâdiyelik), belonging to his own descendants, whereas Habib wanted it established as an erbâbiye endowment, belonging to the people of the path, and this is said to have caused their estrangement. This explanation should not be taken as an established fact; it should be read as a tradition transmitted by the sources. According to this account, Habib left İskilip because of the dispute and went to Amasya.

Hüsameddin, however, makes no mention of any dispute. In his account Habib's fame reached Prince Bayezid, then governor in Amasya, and Bayezid invited him to Amasya. Habib had the endowment deed of the charitable works he had built in 881 drawn up, and then came to Amasya with his family, his children, some of his disciples and his father-in-law's son Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi, taking up residence in a house prepared for him near the Mehmed Pasha Mosque. The date 882 in his brother Sirâceddîn's biography indicates that this move took place in 1477-78. Hüsameddin's text says the house was "near the Mehmed Pasha Mosque", although the mosque was completed in 891; the author is most probably using the later name of the place here, and this is our inference.

The two accounts do not exclude each other entirely. A dispute with the father-in-law over the endowment and an invitation from the prince in Amasya may well fall in the same years. Yet Hüsameddin's statement that Muhyiddîn Mehmed, that is Yavsî, came to Amasya together with Habib does not sit easily with the tradition that son-in-law and father-in-law parted on bad terms. The sources at hand are not enough to say which is more accurate; the reader should weigh both accounts with this reservation.

The Lodge in Amasya and Its Endowments

The place where Habib lived in Amasya is the point on which the sources agree most firmly. According to Hüsameddin, Âdil Beyzâde Hacı Mehmed Bey, one of the lords in Bayezid's retinue, built a fine lodge for Habib adjoining the house in which he had settled, and endowed the village of Enderûn in Sonisa to cover its expenses, securing the basic needs of the disciples living in the lodge. In the chapter of Amasya Tarihi on dervish lodges, the building known as the "Mehmed Pasha Lodge" is described as standing south of the mosque, on the road, and as having been built by Mehmed Pasha in 890 (1485) for Habib Karamânî, one of the Khalwati shaykhs, with its endowments arranged at the same time. Habib served there as shaykh and guided the people until his death. In his biography of Seydî Ali Halîfe, Hüsameddin describes the site of the lodge more clearly: it lay on the qibla side of the mosque, on a plot that had become a garden in his own day. Since the qibla in Amasya lies to the south, the two descriptions agree.

The mention of two different founders may suggest that the lodge was first set up as a modest building by Âdil Beyzâde and then enlarged by Mehmed Pasha's construction in 890; as the sources do not say this explicitly, it is an inference. The setting in which the lodge was founded is the mosque complex of Hızır Pashazâde Mehmed Pasha. Mehmed Pasha was a statesman known as vizier to Bayezid II and lala (tutor-guardian) to Prince Ahmed. When his father Hızır Pasha died at a great age in Muharram 889 (1484), Mehmed Pasha came from Istanbul, and by 890 the mosque and madrasa of his complex were nearing completion. The location of Habib's lodge beside this group of buildings shows how closely Sufi circles and the patronage of statesmen were intertwined in Amasya.

Habib did not remain in Amasya merely as a shaykh sitting in his lodge. Hüsameddin writes that he preached on Fridays in the Yakub Pasha Mosque and that Prince Bayezid profited from these sermons. In 886 (1481), when Bayezid ascended the throne and his eldest son Prince Ahmed became governor of Amasya, Habib became Ahmed's shaykh. When Mehmed Pasha completed his mosque, madrasa, soup kitchen and tomb, Habib became the mosque's first pulpit shaykh. Since his brother Sirâceddîn is also recorded as having been appointed to the same office, it is possible that the two brothers shared the pulpit or held it one after the other; this too is a possibility the sources do not state explicitly.

A phrase recorded by Hüsameddin conveys Habib's standing in the city well. Around 889, the year Hızır Pasha died, Gümüşlüoğlu Pîr Hayreddîn Hızır, Cemâloğlu Cemâleddîn Mehmed and Karamânî Habîb Çelebi were spoken of in Amasya as the "Three Poles" (Üç Kutub). In the section of the same work on the Sufi orders, Hüsameddin relates that the Khalwatiyya appeared in Amasya with Pîr İlyas's return from Shirvan and spread quickly among the people because it directed its followers to learning, asceticism and piety and kept them from meddling in the affairs of the lords and notables. In the reign of Murad II the Zeynî and Naqshbandi paths also became widespread, but Khalwatis such as Habib Karamânî and Çelebi Halîfe gained such fame that these two paths, together with the Babai and Mevlevi paths, lost their former renown. This is Hüsameddin's own assessment. Even so, Habib's relations with the other orders do not appear to have been ones of rivalry: it is recorded that Müstencidzâde Âbid Çelebi, shaykh of the Mevlevi lodge of Amasya, held "heart-to-heart conversation" with Habib.

His Death and Tomb

Habib Karamânî died in Amasya in 902. Hüsameddin gives his death as "the Night of the Ascension (Mi'raj) of the year 902". Since the Night of the Ascension is traditionally held to be the twenty-seventh night of Rajab, this date corresponds by our calculation to the end of March 1497; this is why the year of his death is given in the sources sometimes as 1496 and sometimes as 1497. Hüsameddin describes him as a learned, ascetic preacher, strict in observing the sharia, strong in spiritual discipline, struggling against his lower self and trusted by the people, and adds the following detail: until his final illness Habib never took to his bed or found rest, never stretched out his legs to lie down, but sat day and night as if in the presence of a great personage, with perfect courtesy, and even slept in that posture. Mehmed Pasha, who built the complex, had died in 900 (1495), so Habib passed away a year or two after him.

His tomb lies within the Mehmed Pasha Imaret. Hüsameddin describes the "Tomb of Habîb-i Karamânî" as a distinct spot in the garden of the Mehmed Pasha Tomb, on the eastern side of the Mehmed Pasha Mosque. Here lie Shaykh Habîb-i Karamânî, one of the great Khalwati masters, and beside him his khalifa Seydî Halîfe. This confirms the grave of Seydî Halîfe, mentioned in earlier accounts only as a local tradition. According to Mecdî's translation of the Shaqâ'iq, too, Seydî Halîfe took his seat as spiritual guide in Habib's lodge and on his death was buried in that same lodge; Hüsameddin adds that the common belief in Amasya is that he lies beside his shaykh, in the garden of the Mehmed Pasha Tomb.

According to the Arabic inscription above the mosque's main portal, the building was completed in Muharram 891 (January 1486). The complex consisted of a mosque, madrasa, soup kitchen (imaret), tomb, hospice (tabhâne), lodge, fountain and graveyard. Only the mosque, side spaces that were probably the hospice, and the tomb have survived. The madrasa and the soup kitchen were destroyed by fire, and the mosque and tomb, ruined in the 1939 earthquake, were restored by the General Directorate of Foundations. Classed among the mosques with lodge rooms (zâviyeli cami), the building is constructed entirely of cut stone. Its prayer hall measures approximately 8.70 × 8.60 metres. The interior of the dome is decorated with polychrome painted ornament. The marble minbar, with intricate rumi and arabesque reliefs covering almost its entire surface, is described as a true work of art. The late-comers' portico rests on seven marble columns and arches built of red and white stone. Its door leaves, regarded as important examples of woodwork, are now in the Amasya Museum.

The tomb stands on a platform raised about eighty centimetres above the mosque floor and is covered by an eight-segmented dome. The sarcophagus inside bears no inscription. According to research on the Mehmed Pasha Complex, Mehmed Pasha's grave is outside the tomb, the second grave in front of the door. The first grave belongs to Mehmed Pasha's father Hızır Pasha and the third to Habib Karamânî. Local accounts give a different arrangement for Habib's grave, saying that he lies between the tombs of Nezir Mehmed Pasha and his son. Since the accounts do not fully agree, it should be borne in mind that there is no inscribed document identifying the occupants of the graves. A photograph of Habib's gravestone at the Mehmed Pasha Imaret has been published.

Evliya Çelebi writes that Habib Karamânî's tomb is in the village of Karacalar, attached to the town of Kurşunlu in Çankırı. This information is considered wrong; Hüsameddin, too, refers to Habib each time in the biographies of his sons and grandsons as "buried in front of the Mehmed Pasha tomb". Besides the tomb and lodge in Amasya, a copy of the joint endowment deeds of Shaykh Habib Ömerî, buried in Amasya, and of Rukiye and Bacı Hatun was published in 1939 in the journal Çorumlu. The first page of the İskilip endowment deed is also among the published documents.

His Khalifas

Hüsameddin says that Habib had "a great many" khalifas and lists the best known as follows: Shaykh Seydî Ali el-Amâsî, Shaykh Hayreddîn Hızır el-Amâsî, Shaykh Tâceddîn Mahmûd el-Amâsî, Shaykh Cemâleddîn İshak el-Karamânî, Shaykh Abdurrahmân bin İbrâhim el-Konevî, Ezelîzâde, Shaykh Sinâneddîn er-Rûmî and Shaykh Hayreddîn Hızır el-Malatî. That a large part of this list is made up of men of Amasya shows the mark Habib's twenty years in the city left on its Sufi life. The biographical volumes of Amasya Tarihi recount the lives of most of these figures separately.

The first of the khalifas, and the one who took his place in Amasya, was Seydî Ali Halîfe, also known as Mevlânâ Alâeddîn-i Halvetî. He was the son of Ahmed Çelebi, imam of the Dirâğiye Mosque, and had studied with the teacher Mevlânâ Abdî Çelebi. When the Mehmed Pasha Mosque was completed and the nearby Dirâğiye Mosque was converted into a madrasa by the addition of cells, he became its first teacher. He then attended Habib's gatherings, gave up teaching and became one of his khalifas. When Habib died he became shaykh of the lodge and preacher of the Mehmed Pasha Mosque. For some forty years he devoted himself to remembrance, preaching and the transmission of hadith and Qur'anic exegesis, and died in 940 (1533-34), reportedly at the age of eighty. Hüsameddin also quotes from Mecdî a story about the moment of his death: he told one of those with him that his station in paradise had been shown to him, and that he was therefore praying for his soul to be taken without delay.

The sources again disagree on how Cemal Halîfe came to know Habib. According to the encyclopedia entry on Cemâleddin İshak Karamânî, he went to Konya and became Habib's disciple, and after completing his spiritual journey worked for a long time as a guide in the Karaman region; later he went to Istanbul and settled in the lodge that his relative, the vizier Pîrî Mehmed Pasha, had built in Zeyrek. Hüsameddin, however, has him born in the Temennâ quarter of Amasya as the son of a Mehmed Çelebi who had migrated from Karaman to Amasya; he relates that when Cemal saw his teacher Molla Kestelli spend on a Karaman horse the money he had thought too much for a Qur'an manuscript, he left the madrasa saying, "Let me not become a scholar like this," came to Amasya, joined Habib's company, and received authorization after enduring hard austerities in his house of spiritual discipline. According to Hüsameddin, when Habib died in 902 Cemal Halîfe became shaykh of the Selâmet Hatun lodge and preached and taught there for about twenty-two years. Cemal Halîfe, who carried to Istanbul the branch of the Khalwatiyya that had spread through various parts of Anatolia by way of Habib Karamânî, died in Istanbul in 933 (1527) and was buried near his lodge in Sütlüce. Among his khalifas, Ezelîzâde Abdurrahman Efendi served as shaykh in Konya, and Hayreddin Hızır Amâsî first in Sütlüce and then in Amasya.

The lives of the other Amasya khalifas show how Habib's path was distributed among the city's lodges. Tâceddîn Mahmûd Çelebi, a descendant of Âşık Pasha known in Amasya as "Nefisoğlu", was trained in Habib's company and received authorization from him; he later became shaykh of the Yakub Pasha lodge, died after 932 (1525-26), and left a Sufi work titled Risâle-i Tâciyye. Hayreddîn Hızır Efendi, after receiving authorization from Habib, became pulpit shaykh of the Enderûn Mosque and then shaykh of the Mahmud Çelebi Lodge, guiding disciples for some thirty years; he died in 940 and wrote a treatise on ethics titled Akabât. Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Efendi of Akdağ completed his spiritual journey in Habib's company and was appointed to the Ahî Darbhâneci lodge and as preacher of the Sultan Bayezid Mosque; he later became shaykh of the lodge Prince Ahmed had built beside the fountain south of the Kağnılı Market, became known for defending the Sunni position against Shah Ismail's missionaries, and died in 917 (1511). Nûreddîn Hamza Halvetî is also counted among the shaykhs who served Habib and received authorization, and who died in 923 after guiding disciples for years in the Ahî Sadeddîn lodge.

The case of Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Efendi of Sonisa shows how the biographical dictionaries recorded the chain differently. Atâî's Zeyl-i Şakâyık counts him as Habib's khalifa, while another work, the Meşâyihnâme, presents him as a khalifa of Nûreddîn Hamza. Hüsameddin reconciles the two records by saying that he first benefited from Habib's company and, after Habib's death, received a certificate of authorization from Hamza. Hüseyin Efendi was so effective a preacher that he was called "Habîb-i sânî", the second Habib. He died in 937 (1531); his son was the chief judge (kazasker) Sinâneddîn Yûsuf Efendi, known as "the glossator".

Habib's influence also spread beyond Amasya. The Ahî Dede lodge in İnepazarı later came to be headed by one of Habib's khalifas, Shaykh Musliheddîn Mustafa Efendi of İnepazarı. According to Hüsameddin, Shaykh Ebü'l-Berekât Mehmed ez-Zilevî, father of Şemseddin Sivâsî, was a khalifa of this Musliheddîn Efendi; thus the family of the founder of the Shamsiyya, one of the four main branches of the Khalwatiyya, is connected, if indirectly, to Habib's chain. In the Bolu area, Dâvûd-ı Halvetî of Mudurnu, after going to Baghdad to deepen his learning and returning, became Habib's disciple and completed his spiritual journey with him. His master asked him to return to his homeland and devote himself to guidance, and he went to Mudurnu. In the final part of the masnavi Gülşen-i Tevhîd, which Dâvûd-ı Halvetî wrote in Mudurnu in 913 (1508), sayings of Yahyâ-yi Shirvânî and Habib Karamânî are included.

The Later Shaykhs of the Lodge and the Habibzâdes

Hüsameddin lists Habib's sons as Muhyiddîn Mehmed, Bedreddîn Mahmûd, Şemseddîn Ahmed, İzzeddîn Hasan and Hüsâmeddîn Hüseyin Çelebi. Of these, Şemseddîn Ahmed Efendi was counted among the great scholars; his son Habîb Efendi taught at the Hatuniye madrasa in Tokat and, after serving as judge of Sivas and Trabzon, retired in 966 (1558-59) from the Mehmed Pasha madrasa in Amasya and died around 968. Câmî Ahmed Efendi, son of Şemseddîn Ahmed's other son Abdülbâkî Efendi, rose in the judicial career, became judge of Amasya in 1006 (1597-98), died in 1019 (1610) and was buried near the tomb of Eyüp Sultan; a couplet of his is recorded in Kafzâde's anthology of poets. The rise of Habib's grandsons as judges and madrasa teachers shows that the family became a scholarly family moving between lodge and madrasa.

İzzeddîn Hasan Efendi completed his studies in the lessons of Bahşî Halîfe, was trained in the company of his father's khalifa Seydî Ali Çelebi, and after serving as pulpit shaykh of the Mehmed Pasha Mosque became shaykh of the Habib Karamânî lodge on Seydî Ali's death. Hüsameddin gives the year of his death in one place as 945 (1538-39) and in another as 947. The same work, in other biographies, also links the shaykhdom after 940 to Habib's son Ebu'l-Vefâ Ahmed Efendi and to Seydî Ali's khalifa Sinâneddîn Yûsuf Efendi. This contradiction most probably arises from separate offices, such as the shaykhdom of the lodge, the preachership of the Mehmed Pasha Mosque and the pulpit shaykhdom, being divided among different people; this too is an inference.

The story of Sinâneddîn Yûsuf Efendi is a telling example of the lodge's relationship with city life. While teaching at the Mehmed Pasha madrasa he became a disciple of Seydî Ali, and on the latter's death he became shaykh of the lodge and preacher of the mosque. In 949 (1542-43) he was dismissed from his posts because in a sermon he alluded to the extravagance at the circumcision feast of Süleyman Çelebi, son of Prince Mustafa, and spoke about the protection of the public treasury. He then withdrew to the empty mountain slope above the Çeribaşı quarter, where his disciples built him a lodge, a house, a fountain and a garden. Because he kept away from people he was called "Şehre Küstü" (He Who Sulked at the City), and his lodge and the quarter that grew up around it took that name. After living in seclusion there for about ten years he died in 959 (1552).

Seydî Ali's son Habîb Efendi also followed his father's path, becoming preacher of the Mehmed Pasha Mosque and then shaykh of the Habib Karamânî lodge. Hüsameddin relates that he wrote three works, Temâmü'l-Esâmî on Sufism, Miftâhü'l-Fâtiha on Qur'anic exegesis and Tuhfetü's-Sultâni'l-Kerîm on the law of inheritance, that when Süleyman the Magnificent came to Amasya in 961 (1554) he presented these works to him, and that with the reward he received he repaired the lodge and made it "like paradise". This record is the only information showing that the lodge underwent a thorough repair in the mid-sixteenth century.

In later centuries the lodge and its endowment remained in the hands of Habib's descendants. Hüsameddin records step by step how the offices of shaykh and endowment administrator passed from father to son among Habib's grandsons: Shaykh Abdurrahmân Efendi died in 1107 (1695-96), his son Shaykh Ömer Efendi in 1138 (1725-26), and his son Shaykh Alâaddîn Ali Efendi in 1151 (1738), after which the office passed to Seyyid Mehmed Efendi, to Seyyid Ahmed Çelebi and, for a short time, to Fâtıma Hatun bint-i Abdurrahmân Çelebi. Hüsameddin also notes that these shaykhs came to office by inheritance and that the actual shaykhdom was usually carried out by their deputies. The last shaykh of the lodge, Seyyid Hâfız Abdullah Efendi, died in 1296 (1879); afterwards refugees were settled in the lodge and the building became a private residence.

His Works

The sources record that Habib Karamânî wrote a work titled Kitâbü'n-Nesâyih, but no surviving copy of it has been found. Hüsameddin, however, attributes to him a work in verse on the spiritual journey and gives its title as Etvâr-ı Seb'a, "the seven stages". Since this work does not appear in the encyclopedia records, its attribution needs separate verification. Hüsameddin quotes from it the following couplet on the essence of God and the proof of His existence:

Hakîkat bil budur ol ferd-i mutlak
Ki oldur râ'î vü mer'î muhakkak

The lines he quotes from the same work on the qualities of the Prophet form a eulogy written in masnavi style. These couplets, which name the Prophet "true to his promise, intercessor for sinners, a mercy to the worlds", close by saying that in outward form all people are the children of Adam and Eve, while in meaning grace comes from the Prophet:

Cümlemiz evlâd-ı Âdem sûretâ
Anamız Havvâdır, Âdemdür ata
Lîk ma'nâda atâdır ol habîb
Andan irer kamûya feyz ü nasîb

That the word "habîb" in the last couplet is both an epithet of the Prophet and the poet's own name suggests a subtle play on a pen name here; this is our interpretation. For this reason it remains difficult to follow Habib's understanding of Sufism in detail through his own writings. What we have are these few couplets, the sayings quoted in Dâvûd-ı Halvetî's Gülşen-i Tevhîd, the accounts of his contemporaries and the activities of his khalifas.

The Khalwatiyya's Branches in Anatolia and Habib's Place

To place Habib Karamânî within the history of the order he established, one has to look at the later development of the Khalwatiyya. The chain running from Umar al-Khalwatî to Yahyâ-yi Shirvânî joins the Zâhidiyya chain of İbrâhim Zâhid-i Geylânî. In the line of Sadreddîn-i Erdebîlî the same chain turned into the Safaviyya, and in the line of Umar al-Khalwatî into the Khalwatiyya. From the Safaviyya came the Bayramiyya, and from the Bayramiyya the Jalwatiyya, while the Khalwatiyya, as the source of many branches, became the most widespread order in the Islamic world. This connection shows that the Bayrami-Tennûri circle to which Yavsî belonged and Habib's Khalwati circle came from a common root, and that the two shaykhs related by marriage in İskilip stood in different branches of the same tradition.

In Anatolia the order divided into four main branches: the Rûşeniyya founded by Dede Ömer Rûşenî (d. 892/1487), the Cemâliyya of Cemâl-i Halvetî (d. 899/1494), the Ahmediyya of Yiğitbaşı Ahmed Şemseddin (d. 910/1504) and the Shamsiyya of Şemseddin Sivâsî (d. 1006/1597). Habib Karamânî did not found any of these four main branches. The branch of his khalifa Cemal Halîfe is remembered as a separate offshoot that reached Istanbul. That Çelebi Halîfe, founder of the Cemâliyya, and Habib were counted among the "Three Poles" in Amasya in the same years shows that the two branches grew side by side in this city. The branches also differed in their methods of remembrance (dhikr). Dede Ömer Rûşenî added the names wahhâb, fattâh, wâhid, ahad and samad to the seven names, and Şemseddin Sivâsî the names qâdir, qawî, jabbâr, mâlik and wadûd, raising the number to twelve.

In Khalwatism the spiritual journey is carried out through the remembrance of seven names: lâ ilâha illallâh, Allâh, hû, haqq, hayy, qayyûm and qahhâr. To these seven names correspond seven stages of the self, called ammâra, lawwâma, mulhima, mutma'inna, râdiya, mardiyya and kâmila. The title of the Etvâr-ı Seb'a attributed to Habib also points to this doctrine of the seven stages. Eating little, speaking little, sleeping little, seclusion, remembrance and reflection, and wholehearted devotion to the shaykh are fundamental to the order; the account that Habib never stretched out to lie down throughout his life has been transmitted as an example of this understanding of discipline. The communal remembrance held in the lodges on certain days of the week is called devran, and instruments such as the ney, kudüm and def are used in it.

The Khalwatis' use of music in remembrance was criticized by some scholars of the period, and in response the Khalwatis wrote works defending the devran; his khalifa Cemal Halîfe is also known to have written a refutation of the letter that Vâiz Molla Arab composed against the devran. Ibn Arabi's doctrine of the unity of being (wahdat al-wujûd) also influenced many of the Khalwati branches, an influence that reached its furthest point in Niyâzî-i Mısrî, founder of the Misriyya sub-branch of the Ahmediyya. We do not know from his own words what position Habib Karamânî took in these debates.

Counted among the five famous khalifas of Yahyâ-yi Shirvânî, Habib played an important part, together with his fellow disciples Şükrullah, Alâeddin Rûmî, Dede Ömer Rûşenî and Muhammed Bahâeddin Erzincânî, in spreading the order in Anatolia. The lodge he founded in Amasya remained active for nearly four hundred years, and his khalifas became shaykhs of the city's lodges, such as those of Yakub Pasha, Mahmud Çelebi, Ahî Sadeddîn and Şehreküstü. Khalwati lodges officially came to an end with the closure of the dervish lodges in Turkey in 1925, while various branches of the order continue to exist today in Turkey, the Balkans, Syria, Egypt and North Africa.

Chronology

1450-1455 (approx.): Habib returns to Anatolia after receiving his authorization.

1463-64: Death of Yahyâ-yi Shirvânî in Baku.

1476: The Shaykh Habib Mosque in the Tabakhâne quarter of İskilip is built and endowed.

1477-78: According to Hüsameddin, Habib comes to Amasya together with his brother Sirâceddîn Ömer.

1480: On his way to the pilgrimage, Shaykh Yavsî meets Bayezid II, then sanjak governor in Amasya.

1481: Accession of Bayezid II; Habib becomes shaykh to Prince Ahmed, governor of Amasya.

1484: Death of Hızır Pasha; in these years Habib is counted among the "Three Poles" of Amasya.

1485: Mehmed Pasha builds a lodge for Habib Karamânî and arranges its endowments.

January 1486: Construction of the Mehmed Pasha Mosque is completed.

1495: Death of Mehmed Pasha.

1496-97: Habib Karamânî dies in Amasya on the Night of the Ascension.

1508: His khalifa Dâvûd-ı Halvetî writes the Gülşen-i Tevhîd, which includes Habib's sayings, in Mudurnu.

1527: Death of his khalifa Cemal Halîfe in Istanbul.

1533-34: Death of Seydî Ali Halîfe, the khalifa who succeeded him in the lodge.

1542-43: Sinâneddîn Yûsuf Efendi, shaykh of the lodge, is dismissed and withdraws to Şehreküstü.

1554: Seydîzâde Habîb Efendi presents his works to Süleyman the Magnificent and repairs the lodge with the reward he receives.

1879: Death of Seyyid Hâfız Abdullah Efendi, the last shaykh of the lodge; refugees are settled in the building.

1939: The Mehmed Pasha Mosque and tomb, ruined in the earthquake, are restored.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Hüsameddin, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 1-4, e-book pp. 139, 149, 155, 482. amasya.bel.tr
  • Hüsameddin, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 6-8, e-book pp. 86, 268, 381, 431, 446, 483, 502, 528, 564-567, 576, 578, 589. amasya.bel.tr
  • Hüsameddin, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 9-12, e-book pp. 83, 149, 157, 254, 319, 343-344, 471, 577.
  • Evliya Çelebi, Seyahatnâme, II, 177-178.

Academic studies

  • Bedriye Reis, "Bolu'da Halvetîliğin Temsilcileri", AİBÜ Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 16/1, 2016, pp. 423-451.

Other sources

  • Kamil Şahin, "Habib Karamânî", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 14, Istanbul 1996, pp. 371-372. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • "Mehmed Paşa Külliyesi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 28, Ankara 2003, pp. 511-512. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Reşat Öngören, "Karamânî, Cemâleddin İshak", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • "Şeyh Yavsî", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi.
  • "Halvetiyye", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi.
  • Lâmiî Çelebi, Nefehât Tercümesi, pp. 577-578.
  • Taşköprizâde, eş-Şeḳāʾiḳ, pp. 265-266, 342-343.
  • Mecdî, Şekāik Tercümesi, pp. 282-283.

Online sources