Haji Bektash

The life of Haji Bektash is shrouded in legend . The main essay on his life is Vilayat-nama by Uzuna Firdousi, written in Turkish between 1481 and 1501. It was created on the basis of folk traditions at a time when elements of popular Shiism , widespread in Anatolia, began to penetrate the Bektashi fraternity.

According to the Vilayat Nama, Haji Bektash was the son of Sayyid Mohamed Ibn Musa, the great-grandson of Musa al-Qazim (d. 799), the seventh of twelve imams . Since Haji Bektash lived in the 13th century, such a relationship is impossible. Pedigrees in later sources filling the obvious chronological gap are doubtful. They are probably dictated by the desire to give the eponym of the nominally Shiite brotherhood an Imamite origin.

Haji Bektash, according to the Vilayat Nama, was born in the eastern Iranian city of Nishapur , but independent sources confirming this are unknown. The general trend of Turkish hagiographic literature of the end of the 15th century was the description of sacred characters, especially those with malamathia features, as “saints from Khorasan” ( Khorasan Erleri ). Nevertheless, it is very likely that Haji Bektash was among the refugees who were looking for salvation from the Mongols invading Iran in the west.

The legend considers Hadji Bektash as a deputy ( caliph ) Ahmed Yasawi (d. 1166), an eponym of the brotherhood of Yasaviy , widely distributed among the Turkic nomads in Central Asia . Yasawi allegedly sent him to Anatolia to promote fraternity. In fact, Ahmed Yasawi died long before Bektash’s birth.

It is certain that Haji Bektash arrived in Anatolia via Nyaf or Mecca . He became a follower of Babas Ilyas Khorasani , who lived in Amasya , whose murid Baba Ishaq led a major rebellion against the Sultan’s power in 1239 . Hadshi Bektash and his brother Mentesh supported the performance of Bab Iskhak in Sivas , from where they headed to Amasya, Karshehir and Kayseri . From there, Mentesh returned to Sivas, where he was executed, and Bektash decided to settle near Kirshehir, in the village of Sulujakaraheyuk, now called Hadzhibektash . There he spent the rest of his life preaching among a small group of his followers. However, everyone who was looking for orderly spiritual education, he referred to his successive daughter, Hatun Ana.

The date of the death of Haji Bektash is given on the frontispiece of the collection of his treatises stored in the Ankara library as the year 669 of the Hijra (= 1270-1271 CE). The same year is indicated in the Silsila Nama by the dervish Mohammed Shukuri, the author of the beginning of the 20th century. Another possible date is 691 g. (= 1291-1292 years. BC. E.) - This is how the vacufa letter dated Bektash is dated. The first tomb above his grave was built by the Ottoman Sultan Murad I (1359-1389).

Records of his own teachings and beliefs are contained in Makalat , the only work reliably attributable to Bektash. The book was probably originally written in Arabic based on Bektash's sayings in Turkish. The treatise was preserved in the Arabic version and in the more popular Turkish edition, compiled by one of his followers, Sa'd al-Din. In Makalat , emphasis is placed on the four-part structure of religion ( sharia , tarikat , marefat , hakikat ) and its manifestations in the material world ( four elements ), man (four different spiritual types) and sacred history ( four righteous caliphs ). Bektash’s assertion that man was created in the image of letters forming the name of Muhammad subsequently contributed to Hurufi influences on the Bektashi fraternity.

According to Haji Bektash, there are 4 stages of approaching God:

1. Sharia (rules): the ability to judge and separate the pure and the dirty, the right and the wrong. A person should only learn prudence, and live as God's laws in the Qur'an prescribe, and avoid what He tells us to avoid. But knowledge alone cannot elevate man.
2. Tarikat (order): the way of the dervishes that they pray day and night, calling to God. They strive for a future life, and must avoid boredom and longing; if a generation of people is not active enough and falls into pride, then it cannot count on exaltation.
3. Marifet (enlightenment): enlightened mystics - like water pure and making others clean. They believe in God, they do not seek the earthly, but want to reach the heavenly and honor the rules of God.
4. Hakikat (realities): people who know reality are the highest of these categories. They are decent, humble, and obey God; they fade in the presence of God; they achieve constant contemplation and prayer (munajat), they love the Lord and are loved by him.

These 4 categories are the most successful approach (Dort Kapi), with which a person reaches the highest level. Each level is reached in 10 steps - commitments, only forty (Kirk Makat).

In man, the devilish and angelic principles are constantly opposed. The king of one side is wisdom, its main deputy is faith, and the leaders of his troops are knowledge, generosity, decency, modesty, patience, the avoidance of sin, the fear of God, morality and other virtues. Each of these qualities has under its command hundreds of thousands of soldiers. The king of the other side is the devil, his deputy is a human being, his rulers are pride, envy, meanness, stinginess, anger, empty chatter, buffoonery, and loud laughter. And they have hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

The flaws that Haji Bektash calls include exhibiting something, hypocrisy, and inconsistency. “Poor thing!” He exclaims, “Faith is lost by you. You say that you believe in God, but you do not obey His laws. You say that you believe in angels, but you sin when you are alone, not realizing that there are three hundred and sixty angels within you. You say that you believe in the Book, in the Quran, but your heart and your actions are full of evil. What book tells you to do this? Even the one chosen by God is angry on the same day, then spends day and night in prayer, already not sure of their future life: they live in fear of God's judgment. Be sure that your shortcomings and sins will turn against you. ”

According to legend, Haji Bektash was the founder of the Janissaries corps, which gave the name and a distinctive headdress ^[3] . In fact, the 13th century Sufi is not directly related to the army organized in the middle of the next century. However, the Janissaries saw their patron in Haji Bektash. The Janissaries Corps in the Ottoman chronicles was called the Bektashi Corps, the Janissaries - members of the fraternity, and the Janissaries commanders - aha Bektashi. In the 94th orth (unit), the sheikhs (baba) of the brotherhood were symbolically credited ^[4] . Some of the highest figures of the Ottoman Empire built buildings and fountains in the cloisters of Haji Bektash and made donations to the Bektashi fraternity.

• Averyanov Yu. A. Hadji Bektash Veli and the Sufi brotherhood of Bektashia. - M .: Marjani, 2011 .-- 664 p. - (Bibliotheca Islamica). - 500 copies. - ISBN 978-5-903715-36-7 .

• Algar H. Bektāš, Hājī (English) . Encyclopædia Iranica . Date of treatment April 24, 2011. Archived February 14, 2012.