Khwaja Ahmad Yasavi

Khwaja Ahmad Yasavi ( _uz. Xoja Ahmad Yassivi, also spelled Khoja Ahmad Yasawi, Ahmet Yasevi, Ahmed Yesevi or Ata Yesevi) born in Sayram in 1106, and died in 1166, Yasi, Turkestan, both cities now in Kazakhstan, was a Turkic [ [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN1850654034&id=iEJg6Ivwt2wC&pg=PA373&lpg=PA373&dq=yasawi%2Bturkic&sig=7bAxvMT8QMobcUbAdZ8hTSBRBVc Islam in the Soviet Union: From the Second World War to Perestroika] ] poet and Sufi (Muslim mystic), an early mystic who exerted a powerful influence on the development of mystical orders throughout the Turkic-speaking world. [ [http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-10235/Ahmed-Yesevi Encyclopædia Britannica (2007): Related Articles to "Ahmed Yesevi, or Ahmad Yasawi, or Ahmed Yasavi (Turkish author)", accessed March 18, 2007] ] Yasavi is currently the earliest known Turkic poet who composed poetry in a Turkic dialect. Ahmed Yesevi was a pioneer of popular mysticism, founded the first Turkic tariqah (order), the Yasaviyya (Yeseviye), which very quickly spread over the Turkic-speaking areas. [ [http://www2.let.uu.nl/Solis/anpt/ejos/pdf6/melikoff-final.pdf I.Melikoff, 'Ahmad Yesevi and Turkic popular Islam', EJOS, VI (2003), No. 8, 1-9, ISSN 0928-6802] ] Yasavi is also mentioned by Ernest Scott (pseudonym) [ The People of the Secret by Ernest Scott (1983) ISBN 0863040381 ] as a member of the Khwajagan Sufis.His poems created a new genre of religious folk poetry in Central Asian Turkic literature and influenced many religious poets in the following countries. [John L. Esposito, ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, Volume 1, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 271]

Very little is known about his life, but legends indicate that his father Ibrahim died when the boy was young and his family moved to Yasa. There he became a disciple of Arslan Baba. After the death of the latter Ahmed Yesevi moved to Bukhara and followed his studies with the well known Yusuf Hamdani [Y. N. Öztürk: "The Eye of the Heart" (Redhouse Press Istanbul 1988), p.49] (d. 1140).

Later he made the city of Yasi into the major centre of learning for the Kazakh steppes, then retired to a life of contemplation aged 63. He dug himself an underground cell where he spent the rest of his life. "It was a Seljuq king who brought Rumi, the great Sufi poet, to Konya; and it was in Seljuq times that Ahmad Yesevi (died 562; A.D. 1166), another great Sufi, lived and taught. The influence of those two remarkable teachers has continued to the present", notes a Turkish scholar Hasan Basri Çantay. [ [http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=1656&C=1643 Hasan Basri Çantay, "Chapter 7: Islamic Culture in Turkish Areas", in Islam -- The Straight Path: Islam Interpreted by Muslims by Prof. Kenneth W. Morgan, Published by The Ronald Press Company, New York 1958.] ]

A mausoleum [ [http://archnet.org/library/dictionary/entry.tcl?entry_id=DIA1011 Yasavi (Shrine of Ahmed Yasavi), ArchNet Dictionary of Islamic Architecture] ] was later built on the site of his grave by Tamerlane the Great in the city (today called Türkistan). The Yasaviyya Tariqah which he founded continued to be influential for several centuries afterwards, with the Yasavi Sayyid Ata Sheikhs holding a prominent position at the court of Bukhara into the 19th century. [Devin Deweese "The Politics of Sacred Lineages in 19th-century Central Asia: Descent groups linked to Khwaja Ahmad Yasavi in Shrine Documents and Genealogical Charters" "International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies" Vol.31 (1999) pp507-530] In the Yasaviyya Sufis one comes across the greatest number of the shamanistic elements compared to other Sufi Orders. [ [http://www.bashat-cbf.org/publications/the_sacred_sites_of_kyrgyzstan.pdf "The Sacred Sites of Kyrgyzstan", Cholpon K. Dyikanova, Taalaibek K. Dyikanov, Jarkyn B. Samanchina (eds.), Bishkek, 2004-2005, p. 8, citing Demidov, 1988, p. 3] ]

The first Turkish-Kazakh university, Ahmet Yesevi University, [ [http://www.yesevi.edu.tr/ Ahmet Yesevi University Official Site] ] and liceum, Hoca Ahmed Yesevi Lisesi, [ [http://www.ahmedyesevilisesi.k12.tr/tarihce.asp Hoca Ahmed Yesevi Lisesi Official Site] ] were named in his honor.

Naqshbandi Sufi Idries Shah mentions Ahmed Yasavi's lineage in his interesting book-cum-psychological-experiment "The Book of the Book" [Shah, I: "The Book of the Book" (Octagon Press ), p.9 ISBN 978-0900860126] .Yasavi's are also present in kashmir part of India.They came to kashmir from Turkey with Yousif Hamadani.Yasavi's are respected in kashmir.There is also a book "SILSLAY YASAVI "(historical background of Yasavi's in Kashmir)This book is written by Peerzada Mohammad Shafi Yasavi who is eldest member of Yasavi family in kashmir.The book is written in Urdu & it will be translated in English soon.

*Khwaja

References

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External links

*ru icon [http://www.heritagenet.unesco.kz/kz/content/history/monument/turkestan1/mavzol_yasav.htm UNESCO Heritage Mausoleum Hoja Ahmed Yasevi]
*ru icon [http://www.nlrk.kz/structure/csbk/xai/xai.htm National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan - Hoja Ahmed Yasaui]
*ru icon [http://www.cultinfo.ru/fulltext/1/001/008/112/948.htm Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Turkestan (city in Kazakh SSR)]