İsmail Hakkı Bursevî | |
|---|---|
.JPG) İsmail Hakkı Bursevî's Tomb in Bursa | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | 1653 Aytos, Ottoman Empire, now Bulgaria |
| Died | 1725 (aged 71–72) |
| Resting place | Bursa Turkey |
| Main interest(s) | Theology, ethics,mysticism |
| Notable idea(s) | Translating Arabic books into Turkish |
| Notable work(s) | Commentaries of theKoran,Ibn Arabi,Rumi,Attar,Najmuddin Kubra |
| Other names | İsmail Hakkı Üsküdari |
| Occupation | Author, translator,sheikh,musical composition, poet |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Islam |
| Jurisprudence | Sunni |
| Tariqa | Jelveti |
| Movement | Sufism |
| Muslim leader | |
Influenced
| |
İsmail Hakkı Bursevî (Bursalı İsmail Hakkı) | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1653 |
| Died | 1725 (aged 71–72) |
| Genres | Ottoman classical music,Turkish makam |
| Occupation(s) | Lyrics author, composer |
İsmail Hakkı Bursevî (Turkish: Bursalı İsmail Hakkı,Arabic:إسماعيل حقي البروسوي,Persian: Esmā’īl Ḥaqqī Borsavī) was a 17th-centuryOttoman TurkishMuslim scholar, aJelvetiSufi author onmystical experience and theesoteric interpretation of the Quran; also a poet andmusical composer.[1] İsmail Hakkı Bursevî influenced many parts theOttoman Empire but primarilyTurkey. To this day he isrevered as one of theBüyükler, the greatsaints ofAnatolia.
He is regarded as an eminentliterary figure in theTurkish language, having authored more than a hundred works.[2] Translations of some of his works are now available for theEnglish-speaking world.[3][4]
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İsmail Hakkı was the son of Muṣṭafā, who was in turn son of Bayram Čawush, who was in turn son ofShah Ḵhudā-bende. İsmail Hakkı was born in 1652[1] or 1653 inAytos,Thrace, although his parents came fromAksaray, Istanbul.[5] His mother died when he was aged seven and on the suggestion of ShaykhOsman Fazli around 1663 he was sent toEdirne (Adrinaople), to receive a traditional education under the scholar ʿAbd-al-Baki, a relative of the Shaykh.[1]
In 1673, aged 21, he went toIstanbul to the public classes ofOsman Fazli, the headSheykh of theJelveti (Djilwatiyya) order, whoinitiated him into that discipline.[1] İsmail Hakkı also attended the lectures of other scholars, and learnt Persian to studyAttar,Rumi,Ḥāfiẓ andJami. He also studiedIslamic calligraphy and music and set to music many hymns of the 17th century mysticHudāyī,[6] founder of the Jelveti order.
In 1675, age 23, Osman Fazli sent him, with three assistantdervishes,[2] toSkopje (Üsküb),Macedonia, to establish aṭarīqah (amonastery) for teaching Jelveti philosophy.[1] Some welcomed them and İsmail Hakkı married the daughter of Sheikh Muṣṭafā ʿUshshāḳī. Encouraged by his master's letters he wrote his most brilliantsermons.[6] However he offended the townsfolk by overly-berating them for what he considered loose behaviour. DespiteOsman Fazli explaining to him thatcensure was not the Jelveti way he did not rein in his zeal and hisantagonists forced them to leave, which greatly displeased his wife, it being her home town.[2]
In 1682 he was invited toStrumica, Macedonia to teach public classes. There he also began to write books, but so as to not be confused with the author Ismail HakkiAnkaravi, a famous commentator on theMathnavi, he came to be always given asuffix, such asHâlvetî, Bursevi, orÜsküdari[1][2]
Amongst Sufis,Bursa inAnatolia was first made famous by the 14th century ShāikhsSomuncu Baba andHaji Bayram, but in 1685 the then Sheykh of Bursa died and Fasli appointed Ismail Hakki as the new Sheykh. Unfortunately his first years in Bursa coincided with the difficult period after the Ottoman Empire's disastrous loss at theBattle of Vienna and theHoly League's invasion of the OttomanBalkans, so Ismāʿīl Ḥaḳḳī became very poor and had to sell his books to survive.[6]
In 1690 he journeyed to Cyprus to visit his master, Osman Farsli, who was in exile for his insistent criticism of Ottoman foreign policy. On his death Ismail Hakki succeeded him as the head of the order.[6]
In 1695–1697 SultanMustafa II requested Ismail Hakki accompany his military campaigns against theHabsburg Empire and he was in several battles until he was severely wounded. Osman Farsli had foreseen the end of the Ottoman line[2] and Bursevi defined the reason for its decline as the estrangement of spiritual and political powers, represented in his discourses by a Sheikh and a Sultan, thus formulating a Sufi interpretation of theOttoman decline paradigm.[7]
In 1700 Ismail Hakki performed theHajj, the pilgrimage, but on returning fromMecca thecaravan's members were slaughtered byBedouinbrigands. Ismail was left to die but managed to reachDamascus.[2]
In 1700 he returned to Bursa. In 1717 he moved toDamascus and wrote 12 more books. In 1720 he returned toÜsküdar, the Anatolian part of Istanbul, where he began teaching again. However he was twice attacked byfanatical mobs and decided to return to Bursa.[2]
In 1722, at Bursa he bequeathed his books to public libraries, left all his money for the construction of a small mosque, and entered into a retreat.[2] That mosque is now within the Ismail Hakki Kur’an Kursu.
In July 1724 or 1725 he died in serenity. His tomb is at the rear of the mosque.[5]
İsmail Hakkı was one of the most prolific Ottoman scholars, with 106 books and pamphlets: 46 in Arabic and 60 in Turkish.[6] To this day he is revered as an eminent literary figure in the Turkish language.[2] He wrote onIslamic sciences,Sufism, Tasawuf,Islamic philosophy,morality andtafsir in a manner which avoided the flowery style of many contemporaries,[6] resembling the style ofYunus Emre.[2]
His most famous published works are:
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As a Sufi of Jelveti order, Ismail Hakki Bursevi put all his energy and resilience into being a ‘bearer of light’. The plaque on his tomb says:
"If you want to be a pure servant in everlasting salvation, hold onto the hem of Ahmad'sSharia with love.
If you want to drink from the cup of the effusion of essential Unity, then become the unique human in the most beautiful realm.
Don't let theLote-tree orṬūbā captivate your soul and occupy the moment, reach up to the world of spirits, with all of yourself.
Never look at a lover with the eye of anascetic, never think of a child learning their ABC as equal to a wise man of knowledge.
Whoever has lit the fire ofTawhid in their heart, O Hakki, their grave shall be illumined with the light of theḤaqq."
Yahya Michot said that "Ahmad's Sharia" on the plaque on the tomb refers to the Anatolian reformerAhmad al-Rumi al-Aqhisari (d. 1632) who, called forsharia's "implementation as a way to curb the despotism and injustice of sultans and qadis. A barrier against tyranny..."[9]
