TURKOMANS BETWEEN TWO EMPIRES: THE ... - Bilkent University

The anonymous author then recites the account of Dede Muhammed Rumlu, who
was a sufi-dervish from Anatolia (Urum-ili) gifted with second sight, and in the year 907
(1501-2) “had the honor of kissing the ‘Perfect Guide’s’ feet in the market-place called
Sāhib-ābād in Tabriz.” 831 Dede Muhammad was a dervish and a disciple of Hasan
Khalifa Tekelu, 832 who attended the court of Shaykh Junayd and was among the
prominent khalifas of Shaykh Haydar. 833
In the following pages, the anonymous author of this chronicle narrates how
Bābā Shahkulu, the son of Hasan Khalifa, sent Dede Muhammad, who was one of his
most pious dervishes, to pilgrimage in 905 / 1499-1500. The adventure of Dede
Muhammad, on its own, has a special value not because it merely reflects historical
events but for the fact that it reflects the qizilbash mentality.
Following his death, his son Shahkulu succeeded Hasan Khalifa. During this
time Dede Muhammad, who then became a disciple of Shahkulu, requested the
permission of his spiritual guide for a pilgrimage to Mekka.
In the year 905 834 , Dede Muhammad, who was a disciple of Khalifa, desiring to
make the pilgrimage to Mekka, asked the permission of Bābā Shāh Kulī, who
said to him: “You have permission, go; but when you have completed your
pilgrimage to Mekka you will visit the Holy Shrines (in Babylonia) and thence
go to Tabrīz. On the first day of your arrival there the time will have come for
one of the sons of purity and goodness, and he will have become pādishāh,
having caused coins to be struck and the khutba read in his name; you will find
831 Ross Anonymous, p. 327.
832 The same story is recited in another chronic, which is studied by Erika Glassen, as well. The main
difference in the account of the manuscript housed in India Office Library (pers. 1877) comes out in the
identity of Dede Muhammad Rumlu. Differing from Ross Anonymous, he is depicted as a Bektashi
Dervish – one of the followers of Haci Bektash Veli in Constantinople. The account of this manuscript is
published by Glassen. See Erika Glassen, “Schah Ismā’īl, ein Mahdī der anatolischen Turkmenen?”,
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gessellschaft, band 121, 1971, pp. 61-69.
833 Hasan Khalifa was the father of Shahkulu who initiated and led a large-scale revolt against the Ottoman
state in Teke-ili and western Anatolia. For further information see “Shahkulu Rebellion” in this study.
834 1499-1500.
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