Turâbî Ali Efendi's family had come from Bukhara: his father, Sheikh Mustafa Efendi, was the son of Mirzâ Yûsuf of Bukhara, and it was he who founded the lodge (zaviye) in the Şamlılar quarter of Amasya. Known as Baba Şeyh, the son carried on the Naqshbandi path in that quarter in the early nineteenth century and wrote poetry alongside his duties as lodge sheikh. In Amasya Tarihi Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar names him as a scholar, an accomplished man, a poet and a well-known sheikh, and records that he left hymns and poems and that he also had brotherly exchanges of banter with Şeyhzâde Ahmed Rüşdü Efendi, one of the great scholars of Amasya. He died on 7 Ramadan 1245 (early March 1830). None of those hymns and poems has reached our day. Different volumes of the same book, however, give conflicting accounts of who was sheikh of the family lodge and when.

Hüsameddin's Entry

In the eighth volume three Turâbîs follow one another: Turâbî Şuayb Efendi, preacher in the reign of Bayezid II, Turâbî Mustafa Efendi, poet of the seventeenth century, and last of all this entry, Turâbî Alî Efendi-Baba Şeyh:

Amasya'da Şamlılar Mahallesi'nde zâviye binâ eden Buhârâlı eş-Şeyh Mustafa Efendi bin Mirzâ Yûsuf'un mahdûmudur. Meşâhîr-i fuzalâdan Şeyhzâde es-Seyyid el-Hâc Abdullah Vecih Efendi'den tahsîl-i ulûm edib pederinden sonra zâviyesi şeyhi oldu.
Pederinin mesleğini tutup Nakşibendî olduğu hâlde vahdet iltizâm ederek meşâyîh-i asrı arasında teferrüd etdi. Zikr u tevhîd ü ibâdetle imrâr-ı hayat edib 1245 senesi ramazânının yedinci günü vefât etdi.
Âlim, kâmil, şâir, bir şeyh-i meşhûr idi. İlâhiyât ü eş'ârı, Şeyhzâde es-Seyyid eş-Şeyh Ahmed Rüşdü Efendi ile mutâyabât-ı uhuvvet-şi'ârı vardır.

Rendered into English: He was born to Sheikh Mustafa Efendi of Bukhara, son of Mirzâ Yûsuf, who built a lodge in the Şamlılar quarter of Amasya. He studied under Şeyhzâde Seyyid Hacı Abdullah Vecîh Efendi, one of the renowned scholars, and after his father became sheikh of the lodge. Following his father's path, while remaining a Naqshbandi he embraced "vahdet" and stood apart among the sheikhs of his age. He spent his life in remembrance of God (zikr), affirmation of His unity and worship, and died on the seventh day of Ramadan in the year 1245. He was a scholar, an accomplished man, a poet and a well-known sheikh. He has hymns and poems, and exchanges of banter in a spirit of brotherhood with Şeyhzâde Seyyid Sheikh Ahmed Rüşdü Efendi.

His Teacher and His Friend

Turâbî's teacher Abdullah Vecîh Efendi was a scholar who died in 1219 (1804-05) as teacher of the Hüseyin Ağa Madrasa. Ahmed Rüşdü Efendi, named in the entry as his partner in "mutâyabât", that is, banter, was this teacher's third son. According to Hüsameddin's long entry Ahmed Rüşdü Efendi-Şeyhzâde in the sixth volume, he was born in Muharram 1200 (November 1785), became teacher of the Hüseyin Ağa Madrasa on his father's death, became mufti of Amasya in 1233 and withdrew from issuing fatwas a few months later, and died in 1273 (1856) after retiring into seclusion on the Halveti path. Turâbî and Ahmed Rüşdü were thus two sheikhs formed around the same house, one as the pupil and the other as the son of the same teacher; one followed the Naqshbandi path, the other the Halveti. That Hüsameddin lists this banter in the same sentence as "ilâhiyât ü eş'âr" (hymns and poems) raises the possibility that it took the form of verse exchanges.

The family's Naqshbandi circle is wide. Turâbî's father, Mirzâ Yûsufzâde Sheikh Mustafa Efendi, is counted in another of Hüsameddin's entries among "the great of the Naqshbandiyya"; Yeşil Şeyh Ahmed Efendi, sheikh of the Hacı İlyas lodge who died in 1236 (1820-21), was formed by serving him. The phrase "vahdet iltizâm" in the entry can be read in two ways: it may describe seclusion, that is, keeping a sheikhship of his own in his own corner, apart from his contemporaries, or adherence to the doctrine of the unity of being (vahdet-i vücûd). If one considers that Âbid Abdurrahman Efendi, who is said to have been sheikh of the same lodge, met with the objections of the ulema because of the unity of being, the second reading is also strong; Hüsameddin's going on to say "teferrüd etdi", that is, he stood alone, supports the first.

The State of the Sources

Four separate passages of Amasya Tarihi describe the sheikhship of this family lodge in the Şamlılar quarter differently. This entry in the eighth volume says that after his father Sheikh Mustafa the lodge passed to Turâbî Ali. The entry İsmâil Efendi-Mirzâ Şeyhzâde in the seventh volume, however, writes that İsmâil Efendi, another son of Hacı Mustafa Efendi bin Mirzâ Yûsuf al-Bukhari, sheikh of the "Mirzâ lodge" in the Şamlılar quarter, became sheikh of the lodge on his father's death, led its rites for more than thirty years and died around 1253 (1837-38). The entry Âbid Abdurrahman Efendi-Şeyhzâde in the eleventh volume presents Abdurrahman Efendi, son of Mirzâ Yûsuf, as a Melami sheikh who had studied under the same teacher, Abdullah Vecîh Efendi, became sheikh of the lodge on his father's death, met with the objections of the ulema for his views on the unity of being, and died in 1237 (1821-22).

The fourth record is in the list of dervish lodges in the first volume: the Şamlar lodge near the Ayas Ağa Mosque, built in 951 by Hoca Hacı Sâlih Çelebi, long remained in the hands of Halveti sheikhs, and then "Sheikh Turâbî Ali Efendi, one of the deputies of Sheikh Yûsuf Nakşbendî," spread the Naqshbandi path there from the year 1231 (1815-16). In this record Turâbî does not appear as his father's successor; he is Sheikh Yûsuf's deputy, and he does not sit in the family's own lodge but settles in an old Halveti lodge. It is plausible that Sheikh Yûsuf Nakşbendî was Mirzâ Yûsuf, the family's ancestor from Bukhara; whether the two lodges were the same building or two separate places side by side, however, cannot be made out. Nor has the lodge's present-day location within the Şamlar quarter been identified.

One way to reconcile these records is to accept that Hüsameddin at times confused two generations: Abdurrahman was Mirzâ Yûsuf's son, while Turâbî Ali and İsmâil were sons of Mirzâ Yûsuf's son Mustafa. In that case the lodge may have changed hands between uncle and nephews; but Turâbî's death in 1245 and İsmâil's death around 1253 after "more than thirty years" as sheikh suggest that two brothers held the same office together for many years, which itself needs explaining. The source, with the information available, is not enough to resolve this contradiction. That İsmâil Efendi's son also used the pen name Turâbî is clear from Hüsameddin's calling him "Turâbî Mustafa Efendi"; this second Turâbî is a different person from the seventeenth-century Alîzâde Turâbî Mustafa Efendi.

His Poetry

That he wrote hymns and poems we learn only from that single sentence of Hüsameddin's; no example is given. Whether they were ever gathered in an anthology (mecmua) or a lodge register is not known either. Turâbî Ali Efendi's poems have not been found. His name turns up again in recent scholarship: Orhan Kurtoğlu, in his article on Türâbî Abdullah Baba of Amasya, postnişin (head) of the Koniçe lodge, also names "Baba Şeyh Türâbî Ali Efendi" on the basis of Hüsameddin when listing poets with the pen name Türâbî, and gives his year of death as 1829; but he points out that the Bektashi poet who is the subject of his study, known to have been postnişin at Koniçe in 1257 (1841-42), is a different person. The date 1829 given by Kurtoğlu differs by a year from March 1830, the Gregorian equivalent of 7 Ramadan 1245.

Chronology

1219 (1804-05): His teacher Abdullah Vecîh Efendi dies.

1231 (1815-16): According to the first volume, he begins his Naqshbandi sheikhship at the Şamlar lodge.

1237 (1821-22): Âbid Abdurrahman Efendi, said to have been sheikh of the family lodge, dies.

7 Ramadan 1245 (early March 1830): Turâbî Ali Efendi dies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

  • Orhan Kurtoğlu, "Koniçe Dergâhı Postnişîni Amasyalı Türâbî Baba ve Şiirleri", Türk Kültürü ve Hacı Bektaş Veli Araştırma Dergisi, no. 84, 2017, pp. 229-261 (poets with the pen name Türâbî: p. 232). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/tkhcbva/article/1157430

Online sources