Who Is Haji Bektash Veli?

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• published: 18 Jan 2015
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Haji Bektash Veli or Ḥājī Baktāsh Walī (Persian: حاجی بکتاش ولی ‎ Ḥājī Baktāš Walī; Turkish: Hacı Bektaş Veli) was an Alevi Muslim mystic, Sayyid, humanist and philosopher from Nishapur in Khorasan, Persia (Iran), who lived and taught from approximately 1209 to 1271 in Anatolia. He is revered among Alevis for an Islamic understanding that is esoteric (spiritual), rational, progressive and humanistic. Alevi and Bektashi Muslims believe the path of Haji Bektash is the path of Ali ibn Abu Talib, since Ali was the source of Bektash his teachings. His original name was "Sayyeed Muhammad ibn Sayyeed Ebrāheem Ātā", was one of the figures who flourished in the Sultanate of Rum and had an important influence on the Turkoman nomads of Asia Minor. He is also referred to as the Sultan of Hearts and the Derwish of the Derwishes. Haji Bektash Veli was a descendant of the 7th Shi'a Imam Musa Kazim. Not much is known about him, his origins are shrouded in mystery and much of his biography is based on legends. It is assumed that he was of Turkish or Iranian descent, and belonged to a group of Iranian migrants in Anatolia who had left their homeland during the Mongol conquests.[2] According to "The history of Āshikpāshāzādah" (Aşıkpaşazade Tarihi), written by one of the grandsons of "Āshik Pāshā" who was the son of "Muhlis Paşa" (Muhlees Pāshā) who was the son of renowned Bābā Eliyās al-Khorāsānī, "Sayyeed Muhammad ibn Sayyeed Ebrāheem Ātā" had come to Sivas, Anatolia from Khorasan with his brother “Menteş” (Mantash) to become affiliated with the tariqat of Bābā Eliyās al-Khorāsānī. On the other hand, the famous reference book of Bāktāsh’īyyah tariqat, Valāyat-Nāma-i Hādjī Baktāsh-ī Wālī, claims that "Hajji Bāktāsh" was the murshid of Bābā Rāss’ūl-Allāh (Bābā Eliyās al-Khorāsānī). The name attributed to him by his followers can be translated as "The Pilgrim Saint Bektash." The Hajji title implies that he had made the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina to perform Hajj. He is the eponym of the Bektashi Sufi order and is considered as one of the principal teachers of Alevism. According the to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the "center and source of his teachings" was Ali ibn Abu Talib, whom Alevis believe to be the righteous successor of Muhammad while also "acknowledging the twelve Shia Imams" and "holding Jafar as-Sadiq in high esteem". Despite his Shia belief and his unorthodox teachings, he is considered a renowned figure in the history and culture of both, the Ottoman Empire and the modern nation-state Turkey. On the other hand, Ibn Khallikan reports that Shī'ite tendencies belonged not to him but rather to his murids, who took refuge in his tekke at Suluca Kara Oyuk in Kırşehir after the Babai Revolt. Origins Hajji Bektash was born in Nishapur. It is reported in some Bektashi legends that Hajji Bektash was a follower and the caliph ("representative") of Khwaja Ahmad Yasavi, a Sufi mystic from Central Asia who had great influence on the Turkic nomads of the steppes. However, there are no signs of Yasavi influence in the original teachings of Hajji Bektash and this claim is rejected by modern scholars, since Khoja Akhmet Yassawi lived nearly one hundred years before Hajji Bektash. The founder of the Bektashiyyah sufi order Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli (Ḥājjī Baktāsh Walī), a murid of Malāmatī-Qalāndārī Sheikh Qutb ad-Dīn Haydar, who introduced the Ahmad Yasavi's doctrine of "Four Doors and Forty Stending" into his tariqah. Actually, the sisilah of Hadji Baktāsh Wālī reaches to the "Yassaw’īyyah tariqah" through another but a similar tariqah, which is well known as the "Wafā’īyyah tariqah" of Abu’l Wafā al-Khwarazmī, who was a murid of Khoja Ahmad Yasavi and the murshid of Dede Ğarkhen, who was in turn the murshid of Bābā Rasul Eliyās Khorāsānī. Modern research connects him to another important religious movement of that time: to the Qalandariyah movement and to Rāss’ūl-Allāh Bābā Eliyās al-Khorāsānī († 1240), an influential mystic from Eastern Persia, who was the murshid of Aybak Bābā, who was in turn the murshid of one of the leading actors of the Babai Revolt, namely Bābā Ishāq Kafarsudī as well. Eventually, Bābā Eliyās Khorāsānī was held responsible for the Babai Revolt organized by Bābā Ishāq Kafarsudī, and consequently executed by Mūbārez’ūd-Dīn-i Armāğān-Shāh, the supreme commander-in-chief of the armies of the Anadolu Selçuklu Devleti (Sultanate of Rum).