Hacı Bayram-ı Veli

Hacı Bayram-ı Veli (رحمت الله عليه) was a prominent person in the history of Islam in Turkey.

His early life

He lived between 1352 and 1430. His original name was Numan, he changed it to "Bayram" after he met his spiritual leader Somuncu Baba during the festival of Eid ul-Adha (called Kurban Bayramı in Turkish). Hacı Bayram was born in small village in Ankara, and became a scholar of Islam. His life changed after he received instruction in Sufism from Somuncu Baba in the nearby city of Kayseri.

His pilgrimage and the foundation of his sect

The two mystics were living in the city of Bursa when they made the Hadj (pilgrimage to Mecca together. During this holy journey Somuncu Baba continued to teach sufism. Somuncu Baba died in 1412 passing his authority to Hacı Bayram-ı Veli, who returned to Ankara as the sheikh (leader) of an Islamic sufi sect called Bayrami. He built the Dervish lodge on the site in Ankara where his tomb and mosque still stand today. People would come to stay there and learn about sufism. The sect grew popular with Bayram's successful teaching.

Akshemseddin And Hacı Bayram

The growth of the sect perturbed some local authorities; and they shared their worries with the Ottoman Sultan Murad II, who called Hacı Bayram-ı Veli to Edirne (the capital of the Ottoman Empire at that time). The Sultan wanted to test the opinions, doctrine and the patriotism of the sect. At this time in Anatolia there were still many independent Turkish clans with little unity among them.

Hacı Bayram-ı Veli took another scholar, his student Aksemseddin with him to Edirne to meet the Sultan. Murad soon understood that the complaints against Bayram were merely rumours and Hacı Bayram-ı Veli and Aksemseddin stayed for a while in Edirne, lecturing and preaching to the court. He had more private consultations with the Sultan in which they discussed matters of the world, life and the future.

In particular the Sultan was concerned with the conquest of Constantinople, the Byzantine capital that the armies of Islam had struggled to conquer without success. The Sultan asked Bayram directly "Who will conquer the city?". The reply came "You will not. But this baby shall. You and I will not be alive at the time of that conquest. But my student Aksemseddin will be there." The baby was the Sultan’s son the future Mehmed II, who would conquer the city (which then became named Istanbul) in 1453, and receive the title Fatih (meaning "the conqueror").

Hacı Bayram-ı Veli requested that his student Aksemseddin be the teacher of the baby Mehmed. And Sultan Murad accepted this. Hacı Bayram-ı Veli made a few more trips to Edirne until he died in 1430 in Ankara, passing the leadership of his sect to Aksemseddin. His tomb and the mosque dedicated to him are in Ankara.