In the Pirler quarter of Amasya, around the Çilehane Mosque and Pirler Park, the traces of a sheikh who still gives the district its name can be followed to this day. Şücâeddin İlyas, known among the people as Pir İlyas, served as mufti of Amasya at the beginning of the fifteenth century, spoke for the city's scholars on the days when Timur took it, then travelled to Shirvan, entered a forty-day retreat under Sadreddin-i Hıyâvî and brought the Khalwati path to Amasya. Most of what we know about him rests on hagiographical anecdotes, late biographical dictionaries and local historical tradition; his date of birth is unknown, the sources give three different years for his death, and nothing indicates that he left any written works. For this reason, telling his story means above all separating fact from legend.

Family and Education

The sources agree that Şücâeddin İlyas was born in Amasya. His birth date is unknown; the age he lived in spans the reigns of Bayezid I, Mehmed I (Çelebi Mehmed) and Murad II, that is, the most turbulent half-century of the Ottoman state. He is known by the epithet Gümüşlüzâde or Gümüşlüoğlu, his order name is Halvetî and his nisba is Amâsî. Two different accounts circulate about the family's roots. A paper that İsmail İpek presented at the International Amasya Scholars Symposium traces the lineage to the Seljuk emir Gümüşlü Muînüddin Yunus Müstevfî (d. 670/1272) and says that everyone descended from this line was known as Gümüşlüoğlu or Gümüşlüzâde. Kadir Özköse, on the other hand, places the family's origin in the Gümüş district of Amasya, which took its name from a silver mine. The two explanations do not exclude each other, but both are transmissions of local historical tradition rather than a genealogy verified by documents.

According to the account based on Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar's Amasya Tarihi, İlyas studied both the rational and the transmitted sciences, took his place among the leading scholars of the city and rose to the office of mufti of Amasya. A local text compiled in Amasya says he gained fame as a mufti around the 1400s. That a mufti trained in the madrasa should turn to Sufism in the second half of his life would change the course of both his own life and the religious life of the city.

Timur's Examination

In 1402, after the Battle of Ankara scattered the army of Bayezid I, Timur's forces roamed across Anatolia. According to İpek's paper, Amasya too was caught up in this invasion; Timur appointed Melik Nasırüddin Bahtiyar as governor of the city, and the people rose against it. The city was spared from plunder, as the story goes, by means of an examination. Timur had a habit of testing a city's scholars before punishing it; if the right answer came, the city was spared, and if not, its people were punished. Difficult questions were put to the scholars of Amasya, and the mufti İlyas won over the delegation with his answers.

The framework of the legend stays fixed, but its details change from source to source. In the account based on Mecdî's translation of the Şakâyık and on Amasya Tarihi, ten questions are asked and İlyas answers all of them correctly. In the local text compiled in Amasya, the delegation conducting the examination is headed by a person called "Numaneddin ül-Cebbar el-Mutezili", the questions are drawn from the rational and the transmitted sciences, and it is said that in case of defeat the city would be put to the sword like Sivas. The account İpek relays brings a single question to the fore: "Two Muslim armies are fighting; which side's dead are martyrs?" While the scholars hesitated to answer, İlyas said, "Those who fight for their homeland and die in God's cause are martyrs," and so spoke the truth before a tyrannical ruler.

It is impossible to say that this story rests on a historical document. The earliest written accounts available to us were set down long after the event. Even so, the event's place in the city's memory is clear: Amasya regards itself as having been spared plunder by the word of a mufti, and this memory forms the foundation of Pir İlyas's fame.

His Dispatch to Shirvan

Timur admired İlyas's learning and, according to most sources, sent him to Shirvan so that its people might benefit from him. A suitable stipend was also ordered for him. His nephew (in some sources his son), Gümüşlüzâde Celâleddin Abdurrahman Çelebi, was appointed to the office of mufti of Amasya. The local text compiled in Amasya ties this appointment to a decree dated 1402 and says that İlyas was sent to Shirvan together with his nephew Mevlana Şemseddin Ahmed.

A frequent error in older writing should be pointed out here. It is written that Pir İlyas went to Shirvan as a student "in his youth, for knowledge and spiritual insight"; yet the information collected in Müzekkir Kızılkaya's article states that he was already a mufti known for his learning in Amasya, that he went to Shirvan at Timur's direction and that he served there for a time as a judge and madrasa teacher. Metin Hakverdioğlu, by contrast, calls him a "young scholar" and writes that he was trained in the circle of Ömer Halvetî, counted among the first leaders of the Khalwati order, and of Seyyid Yahya Şirvânî in Shamakhi, the capital of Shirvan. This interpretation does not fully match the other sources that give the Khalwati chain of transmission, especially those that present İlyas as a disciple of Hıyâvî, and should be read as a hagiographical account.

A brief background on the Khalwati order is in place at this point. The order is attributed to Ömer el-Halvetî (d. 800/1397-98), born in Lahijan in the Gilan region southwest of the Caspian Sea; its chain runs from Ahî Mîrem to Hacı İzzeddin, from him to Sadreddîn-i Hıyâvî and finally to Seyyid Yahyâ-yı Şirvânî, regarded as the second pir of the order and in a sense its true founder. The Khalwati order was founded in Azerbaijan and from there spread to Anatolia, the Balkans, Syria, Egypt and North Africa, becoming one of the most widespread orders in the Islamic world. When İlyas's road led him to Shirvan, he stood right beside this source.

The Retreat with Sadreddin-i Hıyâvî

In Shirvan, according to the common account of the sources, İlyas attended the discourses of Sadreddin-i Hıyâvî and entered a forty-day retreat under his supervision. The retreat (halvet) is the great seclusion that gives the order its name: the seeker shuts himself in a room, eats little, sleeps little, speaks little, and disciplines his ego through remembrance and contemplation. In the Khalwati order the purification of the ego from evils and sins is fundamental, and the way to it passes through remembrance performed with the tongue, the heart, the spirit and the innermost self. Spiritual struggle is a requirement for reaching the station of witnessing.

An anecdote that passes from Hulvî's Lemezât to Amasya Tarihi and to Kızılkaya's article describes the difficulty of this process. Hıyâvî was an unlettered man, an "ummî". İlyas himself says that, as a mullah, he felt doubt in his heart in the face of the difficulty of submitting to an unlettered man. When he returned to Amasya (the sources differ about the timing of the return), he struggled to discipline his ego alone and intended to go to Zeynüddin-i Hâfî in Khorasan. That night he sees the Prophet in a dream: "O İlyas, remove all other loves from your heart. The best man of the age at this moment is Sadreddin-i Hıyâvî. Hasten to his service." Realizing his mistake, İlyas sets out at once. As he nears the sheikh's town, Hıyâvî tells his dervishes, "Pir İlyas is coming, go and receive him"; and as the disciple kneels before him he lets it be understood that he knew of the dream, saying, "O Mullah İlyas, not everyone receives the blessing of guidance from the Messenger of God." After this İlyas spends some time in spiritual struggle and austerity, receives his license and is counted as Hıyâvî's successor. The account is a hagiographical anecdote and has reached us through the memory of the order.

There is also an unresolved problem of chronology. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi entry on Halvetiyye and Fatih Sarıkaya's 2017 article, Sadreddin-i Hıyâvî died in 860/1455. The death dates given for Pir İlyas are earlier than this; whichever is adopted, the picture is of a teacher who died between twenty and fifty years after his student. This contradiction has not been resolved in the scholarly literature.

Return to Amasya and the Gümüşlüoğlu Lodge

After Timur's death in 1405, İlyas returned to Amasya with his teacher's permission. Özköse gives the return as 1406; in the biographies of saints the same event is likewise tied to 809 AH (1406). In those years the city was one of the centres where the shock of the Ottoman Interregnum was felt most strongly in social terms. According to what Özköse relays from Abdülhamit Budak, İlyas's relative Hâce Celal Çelebi had the Gümüşlüoğlu Lodge built a year after the sheikh's arrival and opened it to the Khalwati path. Rising on the empty plot east and south of the Gümüşlü Mosque, known among the people as "Tâciye", this lodge is, according to the sources, the first lodge in Amasya built specifically for the Khalwatis. For more than two hundred years it was home to the Gümüşlüzâdes, and it was also equipped with a soup kitchen. In the poverty of those days the soup kitchen hosted many refugees and became a door of hope for the people whose economy had broken down. Nothing of the lodge survives today; only the tomb stands.

İlyas trained students at this lodge and taught the Qur'an, the Sunna and the Prophet's character. An anecdote in the saints' biographies also reflects his understanding of sainthood. Asked "What are the signs of the friends of God?", he is said to have answered that such a person gives counsel when speech is called for, does not busy himself with idle things and softens the hearts of listeners when he recites the Qur'an. Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar explains the rapid spread of the Khalwati order in Amasya as follows: the order encouraged its followers toward learning and abstinence and kept them from meddling with administrators and statesmen, and the people therefore adopted the path quickly. According to Yasar, this new path eclipsed the old fame of the Babai and Mevlevi paths (Amasya Tarihi, I, 266).

In the same article Özköse also touches on Pir İlyas's relationship with politics. After the Battle of Ankara, the mufti, resolute enough not to let Timur's governor into the city, said when Mehmed I (Çelebi Mehmed) was invited to Amasya that he could become the city's ruler on condition that he treat the people well and give up tyranny. During the Interregnum he gave Çelebi Mehmed material and spiritual support and made Amasya, the refuge he could turn to when pressed in his struggle with his brothers and the other lords, a city of peace. This information rests on Budak's work Bir Şehir Bir Tarikat: Amasya ve Halvetilik. In Özköse's words, Pir İlyas's personality and his order became an element of balance in Amasya in that period.

The Çilehane (Yâkub Pasha) Lodge

A confusion often seen in older writing concerns the lodge and the endowment deed. The sentence "Pir İlyas's lodge was founded by the 1413 endowment deed of Yakub Pasha, Beylerbey of Anatolia" is widespread; according to the entry Yâkub Paşa Tekkesi that M. Baha Tanman wrote for the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, however, the situation is as follows. Pazarlıoğlu Yâkub Pasha, Beylerbey of Ankara, had this lodge built and endowed in 815/1412, conditional on the Khalwati order, for the mufti Sheikh Gümüşlüzâde Abdurrahman Çelebi; its endowment deed was registered in Dhu al-Qa'dah 815 (February 1413) by Mevlânâ Rükneddin Mahmud, nicknamed Sarı Kadı, the judge of Amasya. The entry notes that it is also called the Çilehâne Lodge among the people, and that Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin says the lodge stood inside the Yâkub Pasha Mansion. His successor Şemseddin Mehmed Buhârî took on the lodge's trusteeship; after his death the duty passed to his children and, once his line died out, to Müeyyed Çelebi and his children.

The Çilehane Lodge, then, is the lodge not of Pir İlyas but of Abdurrahman Çelebi, who is described as his son-in-law and successor; Pir İlyas's own lodge is the Gümüşlüoğlu Lodge. Even so, both buildings are the work of the same family and the same circle, and they stand close to each other in the Pirler quarter. The Çilehane Lodge's place in the Khalwati world was so marked that, because so many sheikhs were trained there, it has been called a "Dervish Factory" in the academic literature (Özköse, citing Hasan Karataş's doctoral dissertation).

The architecture of the lodge is described in detail in Tanman's entry. Because of the sloping terrain, the building rests on four terraces at different heights. On the highest level are the mosque with the dervish cells and retreat cells to its east; lower down are the cells west of the mosque; on the third level are the tevhidhane (hall of remembrance), the tomb and the sheikh's room; and on the lowest level is the barrel-vaulted corridor running east to west. The mosque is covered by a dome on squinches. On either side of the mosque are six vaulted units: six windowless units are retreat cells, and the other six, adjoining the outer wall and each with a window, are dervish cells. According to Özköse, the square-planned retreat cells measure about 1.90 x 1.90 metres and each has a hearth and a cupboard niche. The tevhidhane is a space of iwan character, while the tomb is a square-planned room entered through the tevhidhane. The wrought-iron lattice door of the tomb, bearing two signatures reading "amel-i Ramazan el-Kastamonî" and showing intersecting polygons, is counted among the rare examples of early Ottoman metalwork. Above the petition window opening onto the corridor there is a Persian inscription concerning those who lie in the tomb.

Tanman records that the facades have no ornament, that apart from the cut-stone front of the west entrance the alternating walls are built of rubble stone with triple brick courses, and that the roofing consists of lead-covered vaults and domes. He finds the plan scheme, which emerges when the relationship between retreat and prayer required by the practice of seclusion is considered together with the slope of the terrain, "extremely practical", and finds it surprising that this scheme was not continued in the Khalwati lodges built in later centuries. The building has been repaired several times. According to Özköse, Bayezid II had it rebuilt in masonry in 1485, and in 1894 it was renewed through the efforts of the people and with income set aside from the endowments of Abdülhamid II, and one mosque each for women and men was added to the right and left of the tomb. What Tanman reports belongs to recent history: the building damaged in the 1939 Erzincan Earthquake was repaired in 1967.

A seventeenth-century transformation of the building also shows the institutional life of the lodge. In 1031 (1622), to settle a dispute over the office of sheikhdom between the preacher Sheikh Hüsâmeddin Efendi and Sheikh Abdi Efendi, a madrasa was established in the mosque and the retreat-cell units attached to it, and its professorship was given to Abdi Efendi. The lodge function continued in the room at the northeast corner and in the tevhidhane, and the sheikhdom was left to Hüsâmeddin Efendi. Özköse adds that the building was counted among the madrasas of forty akçe and was run by senior teachers.

His Successors and the Chain

On those who followed Pir İlyas's path the sources complement one another. According to Hakverdioğlu, figures such as Zekeriyya Halvetî, Sheikh Şerafeddin and Hamza Akşemseddin came out of his circle; the calligrapher Hamdullah and Çelebi Halife (Cemaleddin İshak Karamânî), who spread the Khalwati order in Istanbul, are also counted among the followers of this path. The information that Özköse relays from Budak is more detailed: in a tomb at the place once called Ok Meydanı and today occupied by the railway station lies Pir Şerafeddin Hamza Halvetî, who is described as one of Pir İlyas's successors and as the father of Akşemseddin, the teacher of Mehmed the Conqueror. Akşemseddin is thus presented as the son of Pir İlyas's successor; there is no information that he was a direct disciple.

Kızılkaya's article adds a debate to this chain. Ümmî Şeyh Tâhirzâde, who is named in the sources as a successor of Pir İlyas, was also the sheikh of Cemal Halvetî (Çelebi Halife), the founder of the Cemaliyye branch; at his indication Cemal Halvetî set out to enter the service of Seyyid Yahyâ-yı Şirvânî, went as far as Baku, and learned on the day he arrived that Şirvânî had died. Özköse mentions the same connection on the basis of Budak: Sheikh Tahiroğlu, one of Pir İlyas's disciples, gave Çelebi Halife his licence while he was guiding people in Tokat. Kızılkaya also argues that Musa b. Tâhir Tokâdî, who is regarded as the same person as Tâhirzâde in part of the sources, was not a Khalwati but belonged to the Bayrami-Shamsi circle. He draws attention to the gap of roughly a century between Pir İlyas's date of death (813/1410 or 837/1433) and the time of Prince Orhan, to whom Tokâdî presented his work; by this reckoning Tokâdî cannot have been a successor of Pir İlyas and could at most be counted an indirect follower of one of his successors.

The sheikhdom of the Gümüşlüoğlu Lodge passed after Pir İlyas to his son-in-law and successor Abdurrahman Çelebi, then to his son Celal Çelebi, to Pîr Hayreddin Hızır Çelebi (d. 890/1486), to Üveys Çelebi and to others. The sheikhs of the Çilehane Lodge, on the other hand, are known among the people of Amasya as the "silsiletü'z-zeheb", that is, the golden chain. Tanman continues this chain from Pîr Abdurrahman Çelebi, son-in-law of Abdurrahman Çelebi, through Pîr Şemseddin Mehmed Buhârî, Pîr Celâleddin Abdurrahman Çelebi, Sun'ullah Halvetî, the Pir of the Saddlers, Pîr Zekeriyyâ Halvetî, İğnecizâde Pîr Safiyyüddin Mahmûd, Kubâlı Çelebizâde Pîr Muhyiddin Mehmed Çelebi, Buhârîzâde Pîr Mehmed and Sheikh Ya'kûb Halvetî; then come Sheikh Abdurrahman and his sons İzzeddin Hasan and Hüsâmeddin Hüseyin. In the later period Sheikh Mehmed Efendi (d. 1099/1688), Seyyid İbrâhim Efendi and Hâfız Seyyid Abdullah Efendi (d. 1214/1800) took over the sheikhdom.

The dates conflict here too. For Abdurrahman Çelebi's death the TDV gives 903/1497-98, while Özköse gives 827/1424 as the sheikh of the Gümüşlüoğlu Lodge; İpek also adopts 903. The seventy-year gap between them suggests either that two different people are called by the same name or that a date is wrong. Özköse's own account also contradicts itself internally: the same article writes that Murad II sent his sons Ahmed, Alaeddin and Mehmed on the Ramadan feast of 1438 to kiss the hand of the Khalwati sheikh of Amasya, Abdurrahman Çelebi. Two princes kissed the sheikh's hand, while Prince Mehmed fell at his feet and begged for his spiritual aid; the sheikh took the mantle off his neck and put it on the prince and prayed, "Serve the Muslims well in Constantinople." According to the legend, Mehmed conquered Istanbul twenty years later. The date 827/1424 does not fit this account; the date 903/1497-98, on the other hand, makes the sheikh's life unusually long. The same source also records that Abdurrahman Çelebi wrote poetry under the pen name "Hüsamî" and was a poet prone to ecstasy and fond of the whirling ceremony.

Pir İlyas's family ties are written somewhat more clearly. That the poet Mihrî Hatun's grandfather was Pir İlyas is stated by the TDV, Gönül Ayan and Özköse, while Hakverdioğlu and some local writings say "grandson". Mihrî Hatun's father is Kadı Hasan Amasyevî, who wrote poetry under the pen name Belâyî, and the TDV writes that Mihrî was buried in Amasya in the cemetery of her grandfather Pîr İlyas's lodge. Hakverdioğlu also relays from Yasar that Pir İlyas personally taught his wife Raziye Hanım and that she gave lessons to the women of Amasya; this detail is found only in this source and should be read with caution.

The Problem of the Death Date

The date of Pir İlyas's death is the subject on which the sources diverge most. Three different years are put forward.

  • 813 (1410): Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, I, 266; Hakverdioğlu also cites this date.
  • 833 (1429): Özköse's article on the Khalwati lodges.
  • 837 (1433-34): Hulvî's Lemezât; İpek, Kızılkaya, biographical compilations based on the TDV and local writings compiled in Amasya.

İpek reminds us that Pir İlyas and Seyyid Yahya Şirvânî were disciples of the same sheikh and close in age, and therefore finds the date 837 in the Lemezât "more correct, it seems". Kızılkaya also prefers the date given by Hulvî, because his work is both a history of the Khalwati order and was written earlier. 1433-34 is therefore the stronger possibility, but one cannot speak with certainty about a single year. This uncertainty also leaves unresolved the chronological problem noted above concerning Hıyâvî's death in 860/1455.

The saints' biographies also contain a legend about his death. While his body was being washed, it is said, the washing board or a piece of wood gave way, and the body, about to fall, straightened up, held on with one hand and stretched back into place. Those who saw this are said to have been deeply moved, and many repented and entered the path. This is a miracle story and should be read as a tale that the memory of the Khalwati order attributed to him, not as a historical fact.

The Pirler Tomb

Pir İlyas is buried in the Pirler Tomb at the head of the Sevâdiye Quarter Cemetery in Amasya. The tomb, which today lies inside Pirler Park and is also called "Yukarı Pirler" (Upper Pirler) among the people, stands south of the Çilehane Mosque. Besides Pir İlyas, his son-in-law Pir (Celâleddin) Abdurrahman, his grandson Pir Hayreddin Hızır Çelebi and members of the family lie here; the name "Pirler" became established because there are the graves of three pirs (Özköse, from Budak). The tomb inside the Çilehane Mosque, on the other hand, is known as "Aşağı Pirler" (Lower Pirler), and according to Özköse it holds either Pîr Celaleddin Abdurrahman Sani, the grandson of Pir İlyas's grandson, or his son-in-law and cousin Abdurrahman Çelebi; here too the sources differ.

Two different pieces of information circulate about the date the Upper Pirler Tomb was built. According to a local text compiled in Amasya, the tomb was built in 1482 by Bayezid II; it has a transverse rectangular plan and its construction inscription is above the entrance door. The inscription's text is relayed as follows: "This tomb was built for Sheikh Şücaeddin Pir İlyas, known as Gümüşlüoğlu, leader of the possessors of the stations of certainty and annihilation, pole of the great sheikhs. May God let us benefit from his exalted spirit. This building was built in the year 887." The revenue of the village of Kara Mağara in Merzifon was also endowed to the tomb. The Amasya Governorship, on the other hand, writes that the tomb was built in 1486 by Gümüşlüzâde Ahmed Bey. 887 AH corresponds to 1482-83, and the difference between the two accounts is unresolved.

The building is divided into three sections by pointed arches resting on buttresses in the north and south walls, and each section is covered by a dome; the west part has a mihrab and is used as a mosque. It was heavily damaged in the 1895 earthquake, later repaired, and inscriptions dating from the reign of Abdülhamid II were added. In the area where the tomb stands there was once a cemetery containing the graves of many notable figures; according to Özköse, the graves were removed in 1938 by the governor of the time, Talat Öncel, and the area was turned into a park.

When Evliya Çelebi came to Amasya he visited the sheikh's grave; he wrote that he had hundreds of bareheaded and barefoot devotees and that, because his endowments were many, bounty was plentiful for all who came and went. He also saw on the wall of the grave these verses written on a piece of paper: "Ali kulunu eyleme bigane(ye) kıyas / Hızır ol ona her vartada ya Hızır İlyas." Among the soup kitchens of the city the Pir İlyas Soup Kitchen beside the Pir İlyas Tomb is also mentioned; Özköse counts it, together with the Mehmed Pasha and Yörgüç Pasha soup kitchens, among the important kitchens coordinated by the lodges and recalls that Evliya Çelebi wrote that Amasya had many refectories feeding the poor.

The Question of the First Khalwati in Anatolia

The sentence most often repeated about Pir İlyas is that he brought the Khalwati order to Anatolia. The TDV entry on Halvetiyye says it plainly: the order "was brought to Anatolia by Pîr İlyas of Amasya, one of the successors of Sadreddin-i Hıyâvî." İpek and Özköse also describe the Gümüşlüoğlu Lodge as the first lodge founded under the name Halvetiyye; on this basis Özköse says that the centre where the Khalwati order first sprouted in Ottoman lands was Amasya. The same article finds wrong F. de Jong's view that the Halvetiyye entered Anatolia during Bayezid II's governorship of Amasya. As for the claim that Ahî Yusuf Halvetî (d. 1308) opened a zawiya in Niğde at the end of the thirteenth century, it is recalled that the order had not yet taken shape at that date (İpek, relying on Köprülü).

Fatih Sarıkaya's 2017 article adds a nuance to this epithet "first". In the endowment deed that İshak Çelebi of the Saruhanoğulları gave to Revak Sultan in Manisa in 1371, it was stipulated that the sheikh of the lodge be from the Halvetiyye order. According to Sarıkaya, this document shows that the Halvetiyye was present in Anatolia about half a century before Pir İlyas's death. For this reason the claim of "the first Khalwati in Anatolia" cannot be stated categorically without taking Revak Sultan into account. Pir İlyas's contribution should be sought in his making the Khalwati order a hearth that drew the interest of the dynasty and spread across Ottoman lands.

The spread soon passed beyond the city's limits. According to Özköse, although the Halvetiyye entered Amasya with Pir İlyas, its main expansion in Ottoman lands was carried out by the successors of Seyyid Yahyâ-yı Şirvânî, regarded as the order's "pîr-i sânî". Habîb-i Karamânî (d. 902/1496), one of Şirvânî's successors, travelled through the Karaman, Ankara, Amasya and Sivas areas and began his guidance activity in the Mehmed Pasha Lodge built in Amasya by Hızır Paşazâde Mehmed Pasha (d. 890/1485); this activity was continued by his successors until the end of the sixteenth century. The chain begun by Karamânî's other successor in Amasya, el-Hâc Hızır-ı Amâsî, later led to the birth of the Shamsiyya branch. The Çilehâne, Çevikçe, Sadeddin, Şehre Küstü, Kutup, Gümüşlüoğlu, Mehmed Pasha, Mahmud Çelebi and Meydan lodges are counted as the main Khalwati lodges of Amasya that stood for centuries. The sheikhs trained in this network built a religious and cultural line between Amasya and Istanbul. Until Sufi lodges were officially closed in 1925, the Khalwati order remained one of the most widespread orders in Ottoman society.

An Order in the City of Princes

The meaning Amasya held for the Ottoman dynasty also affects the position of the Khalwati order in the city. According to Hakverdioğlu, because the order took root in a city that the dynasty regarded as a princely governorate, it influenced the candidates for the throne. Two examples that Özköse relays show that this relationship did not always wear the same face. While the legend of the feast-day visit in 1438 tells of the princes' respect for the sheikh, the letter of complaint that Seydi Halife, a successor of Habîb-i Karamânî, sent to Mehmed the Conqueror paints an entirely different picture. Seydi Halife complained of the improper conduct of Prince Bayezid, who was in Amasya, and of the bad influence of his friends. The Conqueror sent a delegation headed by the vizier Hamza Begzade Mustafa Pasha to investigate and, after examining the delegation's report, ordered three of the prince's friends executed and the others removed. The prince, who learned of the order beforehand, had his friend Müeyyedzade Abdurrahman Efendi smuggled to Iran and Tacibey to Baghdad, while Mahmud Bey was executed.

Pir İlyas's Traces in Amasya Today

  • Pir Sücaeddin İlyas Tomb (Yukarı Pirler): In Pirler Park, south of the Çilehane Mosque; one of the most visited tombs in Amasya.
  • Çilehane (Yâkub Pasha) Lodge and Mosque: In the Pirler quarter, north of the tomb; dated 1412, a rare example of early Ottoman lodge architecture. The Aşağı Pirler Tomb is inside it.
  • Gümüşlüoğlu Lodge: Southeast of the Gümüşlü Mosque; no trace remains at the site today.
  • Pir İlyas Soup Kitchen: Mentioned among the soup kitchens feeding the poor that Evliya Çelebi speaks of (Özköse).
  • Tomb of Pir Şerafeddin Hamza Halvetî: At the place once called Ok Meydanı, where the railway station stands today; the tomb of the man described as Akşemseddin's father (Özköse, from Budak).
  • Gümüşlü Quarter: The road to the Pir İlyas Tomb passes above this quarter; in a small cemetery nearby lie the Khalwati sheikh Ya'kub Halvetî, his son the mufti of Amasya Mustafa Efendi, and their family (Özköse, from Budak).

The area where Pirler Park lies is a neighbour of the remains of the palaces (Saray Düzü) in which Ottoman princes lived for about two and a half centuries.

What Was Left Behind

What we know about Pir İlyas is limited, and the sources do not mention any works of his. İpek, in the conclusion of his paper, hopes that his life will be treated in more detail and that his works, if there are any, will be brought to light. In place of a book, what remains is the successors he trained, his sons-in-law, his grandchildren, a poet grandchild such as Mihrî Hatun, the lodges, the tombs and a soup kitchen. These document less his teaching than how Amasya remembers him: as a mufti who spoke the truth he knew before Timur's army, as a disciple who openly admitted how hard it is to discipline the ego, and as a sheikh who opened the first stop of the Khalwati path in Anatolia.

Chronology

1371: In the endowment deed that İshak Çelebi of the Saruhanoğulları gave to Revak Sultan in Manisa, it is stipulated that the lodge's sheikh be a Khalwati (Sarıkaya; an early trace of the Halvetiyye in Anatolia).

1402: After the Battle of Ankara, Timur takes Amasya; Pir İlyas and the scholars of Amasya are examined (İpek). It is also related that Pir İlyas was sent to Shirvan in the same year (local text).

1405: Death of Timur.

1406 (809 AH): Pir İlyas returns to Amasya and begins guidance at the Gümüşlüoğlu Lodge (Özköse; saints' biographies).

1412-1413 (815 AH): The Yâkub Pasha Lodge is founded for the mufti Gümüşlüzâde Abdurrahman Çelebi; the endowment deed is registered in February 1413 (TDV).

1410 / 1429 / 1433-34: The three different dates given in the sources for Pir İlyas's death (813, 833, 837 AH).

1438: The sons of Murad II are said to have been sent on the Ramadan feast to kiss the hand of the Khalwati sheikh of Amasya, Abdurrahman Çelebi (Özköse).

1455 (860 AH): Death of Sadreddin-i Hıyâvî (TDV; Sarıkaya).

1482 (887 AH): The inscription report that the Upper Pirler Tomb was built by Bayezid II; the Governorship gives 1486 and Gümüşlüzâde Ahmed Bey.

1485: Bayezid II is reported to have had the Çilehane lodge and tomb rebuilt in masonry (Özköse).

1622 (1031 AH): A madrasa is established in the mosque and retreat-cell section of the Çilehane Lodge (TDV).

1894-1895: The Çilehane Lodge is renewed through the efforts of the people; the Pirler Tomb is damaged in the 1895 earthquake and later repaired.

1925: Official closure of the Sufi lodges.

1938: The cemetery at Pirler is cleared and turned into a park (Özköse).

1939 / 1967: The Çilehane Lodge is damaged in the Erzincan Earthquake; repaired in 1967 (TDV).

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar, Amasya Tarihi (through secondary relays: İpek, Özköse, Kızılkaya, Hakverdioğlu).
  • "Pir İlyas", Amasya (amasya-abdulhalim.blogspot.com); "Pîr İlyâs", Evliyalar Ansiklopedisi (ehlisunnetbuyukleri.com, evliyalarimiz.com, islamilimleri.com). amasya-abdulhalim.blogspot.com

Academic studies

  • M. Baha Tanman, "Yâkub Paşa Tekkesi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 43, Istanbul 2013, pp. 285-286 (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Süleyman Uludağ, "Halvetiyye", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 15, Istanbul 1997 (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • "Mihrî Hatun", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr).
  • İsmail İpek, "Amasya'da Halvetîlik ve Pir İlyas Şücâeddin'in Hayatı", Uluslararası Amasya Âlimleri Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı I, Amasya 2017, pp. 678-681.
  • Kadir Özköse, "Amasya'da Bulunan Halvetiyye Tekkeleri", Akademiar Dergisi, no. 5, December 2018, pp. 91-118.
  • Müzekkir Kızılkaya, "Ümmî Şeyh Tâhirzâde ile Musa b. Tâhir Tokâdî Üzerine Bir İnceleme", Bozok Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, no. 20, 2021.
  • Fatih Sarıkaya, "Halvetiyye Tarikatının Kurucusu Meselesine Dair Yeni Bir Değerlendirme ve Revak Sultan", İnsan ve Toplum Bilimleri Araştırmaları Dergisi, vol. 6, no. 3, 2017, pp. 2078-2095.
  • Gönül Ayan, "Mihrî Hatun ve Şiirleri", DergiPark.

Official sources

  • Abdülhamit Budak, Bir Şehir Bir Tarikat: Amasya ve Halvetilik, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, Amasya 2015 (via Özköse).

Other sources

  • Metin Hakverdioğlu, "Halvetilik ve Amasya", Türkiye Gazetesi, 20 July 2018 (molekuleredebiyat.com).
  • T.C. Amasya Valiliği, "Türbeler" (amasya.gov.tr); Wikipedia, "Pir Sücaeddin İlyas Türbesi".

Online sources