Sari Saltik
Encyclopedia
Sari Saltik (d. 1297/1298) was a 13th-century semi-legendary Turkish dervish
, venerated as a saint by the Bektashis in the Balkans
and parts of Middle East
.
, his real name was Mehmed, and he originated from Bukhara
. According to 14th-century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta
, Saltik was an "ecstatic devotee", although "things are told of him that are reproved by the Divine Law
". He is considered by various sources a disciple of Mahmud Hayran, of Haji Bektash Veli, or of one of the successors of Ahmed ar-Rifa'i
. In a fetwa by the 16th century Sheikh ul-Islam
Ebu's-Su'ud Effendi, Sari Saltik is considered a "Christian monk" who became a skeleton by asceticism
. Early 20th century historian Frederick Hasluck
considered him a saint of a Tatar
tribe from Crimea
, which had brought his cult into Dobruja, from where it was spread by the Bektashis.
According to the 15th-century Oghuz-name narative, in 1261 he accompanied a group of Anatolia Turkomans
into Dobruja
, where they were settled by the Byzantine
Emperor Michael VII
to protect the northern frontier of the empire. The same source places him in Crimea after 1265, along the Turkomans transferred there by Tatar khan Berke
, and after 1280 mentions him leading the nomads back to Dobruja. After the death of Sari Saltik, part of the Turkomans returned to Anatolia, while other remained and became Christians, becoming the ancestors of the Gagauz people
. This migration has characteristics of a folk epic destan, and its historicity is doubted by some scholars.
(Turkish, Babadağ, Mountain of the Baba), in the Romania
n Dobruja, identified with the town of Baba Saltuq visited in 1331/1332 by Ibn Battuta, is said to be named after him. The oldest sources about Sari Saltik available place his tomb in the area of the future town. This tomb was visited in 1484/1485 by Ottoman
Sultan
Bayezid II
during a military campaign, and, after reporting an important victory, he ordered the building of a socio-religious and educational complex here (including a mausoleum to Saltik, finished in 1488), around which the town developed. According to Evliya Çelebi, a marble sarcophagus was found during the construction, with a Tatar inscription attesting it was the tomb of the saint. However this miraculous discovery is not mentioned in other sources talking about the sultan's passage through the town.
Babadag became an important place of pilgrimage, visited in 1538 by Suleiman the Magnificent
, and the most important urban centre in 16th-century Dobruja. The town however decayed during the frequent wars that ravaged the region during the 17th century, and was eventually burned down, along with the mausoleum to Saltik, during the Russo-Turkish Wars. A simple domed türbe
was rebuilt over the grave of the saint in 1828. The mausoleum in Babadag remains of relative importance even nowadays, and was recently renovated, being reinaugurated in 2007 by Turkish
prime-minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
.
, Elijah, Saint Nicholas
, Saint Simeon
, Saint Naum
or Saint Spyridon
). According to a legend, his body was buried in seven coffins, in remote towns in the lands of the Infidels
. Nowadays, alleged tombs (türbe
) are found over the Balkans (Blagaj
village of Mostar
, Krujë
, Kaliakra
) and western Anatolia
(İznik
).
Dervish
A Dervish or Darvesh is someone treading a Sufi Muslim ascetic path or "Tariqah", known for their extreme poverty and austerity, similar to mendicant friars in Christianity or Hindu/Buddhist/Jain sadhus.-Etymology:The Persian word darvīsh is of ancient origin and descends from a Proto-Iranian...
, venerated as a saint by the Bektashis in the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
and parts of Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
.
Historical figure
According to the 17th-century traveller Evliya ÇelebiEvliya Çelebi
Evliya Çelebi was an Ottoman traveler who journeyed through the territory of the Ottoman Empire and neighboring lands over a period of forty years.- Life :...
, his real name was Mehmed, and he originated from Bukhara
Bukhara
Bukhara , from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 263,400 . The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time...
. According to 14th-century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta
Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta , or simply Ibn Battuta, also known as Shams ad–Din , was a Muslim Moroccan Berber explorer, known for his extensive travels published in the Rihla...
, Saltik was an "ecstatic devotee", although "things are told of him that are reproved by the Divine Law
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
". He is considered by various sources a disciple of Mahmud Hayran, of Haji Bektash Veli, or of one of the successors of Ahmed ar-Rifa'i
Ahmed ar-Rifa'i
-Early life:Shaikh Ahmed er-Rifai was born in Hasen Region of Wasit, Iraq on a Thursday. This day was in the first half of Recep of lunar months. When he was seven years old, his father Seyyid Sultan Ali died in Baghdad. After that his uncle Seyyid Mansur er-Rabbani el-Betaihi took under his...
. In a fetwa by the 16th century Sheikh ul-Islam
Sheikh ul-Islam
Shaykh al-Islām is a title of superior authority in the issues of Islam....
Ebu's-Su'ud Effendi, Sari Saltik is considered a "Christian monk" who became a skeleton by asceticism
Asceticism
Asceticism describes a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals...
. Early 20th century historian Frederick Hasluck
Frederick William Hasluck
Frederick William Hasluck was an English antiquarian, historian, and archaeologist.Hasluck was educated at The Leys School and King's College, Cambridge. Graduating in 1904 , he went to the British School at Athens. There he helped on excavations in Laconi, Geraki, Angelona, Cyzicus and Bithynia,...
considered him a saint of a Tatar
Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group that originally resided in Crimea. They speak the Crimean Tatar language...
tribe from Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
, which had brought his cult into Dobruja, from where it was spread by the Bektashis.
According to the 15th-century Oghuz-name narative, in 1261 he accompanied a group of Anatolia Turkomans
Oghuz Turks
The Turkomen also known as Oghuz Turks were a historical Turkic tribal confederation in Central Asia during the early medieval Turkic expansion....
into Dobruja
Dobruja
Dobruja is a historical region shared by Bulgaria and Romania, located between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, including the Danube Delta, Romanian coast and the northernmost part of the Bulgarian coast...
, where they were settled by the Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
Emperor Michael VII
Michael VII
Michael VII Doukas or Ducas , nicknamed Parapinakēs , was Byzantine emperor from 1071 to 1078.- Life :...
to protect the northern frontier of the empire. The same source places him in Crimea after 1265, along the Turkomans transferred there by Tatar khan Berke
Berke
Berke Khan was the ruler of the Golden Horde who effectively consolidated the power of the Blue Horde and White Hordes from 1257 to 1266. He succeeded his brother Batu Khan of the Blue Horde and was responsible for the first official establishment of Islam in a khanate of the Mongol Empire...
, and after 1280 mentions him leading the nomads back to Dobruja. After the death of Sari Saltik, part of the Turkomans returned to Anatolia, while other remained and became Christians, becoming the ancestors of the Gagauz people
Gagauz people
The Gagauz people are Turkic speaking group living mostly in southern Moldova , southwestern Ukraine , south-eastern Romania and northeastern Bulgaria. Unlike most other Turkic speaking people, the Gagauz are predominantly Orthodox Christians...
. This migration has characteristics of a folk epic destan, and its historicity is doubted by some scholars.
Legacy in Babadag
The town of BabadagBabadag
Babadag is a town in Tulcea county, Romania, located on a small lake formed by the Taiţa river, in the densely wooded highlands of northern Dobruja. Its name means "the mountain of the father" in Turkish...
(Turkish, Babadağ, Mountain of the Baba), in the Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n Dobruja, identified with the town of Baba Saltuq visited in 1331/1332 by Ibn Battuta, is said to be named after him. The oldest sources about Sari Saltik available place his tomb in the area of the future town. This tomb was visited in 1484/1485 by Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
Sultan
Ottoman Dynasty
The Ottoman Dynasty ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1299 to 1922, beginning with Osman I , though the dynasty was not proclaimed until Orhan Bey declared himself sultan...
Bayezid II
Bayezid II
Bayezid II or Sultân Bayezid-î Velî was the oldest son and successor of Mehmed II, ruling as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512...
during a military campaign, and, after reporting an important victory, he ordered the building of a socio-religious and educational complex here (including a mausoleum to Saltik, finished in 1488), around which the town developed. According to Evliya Çelebi, a marble sarcophagus was found during the construction, with a Tatar inscription attesting it was the tomb of the saint. However this miraculous discovery is not mentioned in other sources talking about the sultan's passage through the town.
Babadag became an important place of pilgrimage, visited in 1538 by Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566. He is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the East, as "The Lawgiver" , for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system...
, and the most important urban centre in 16th-century Dobruja. The town however decayed during the frequent wars that ravaged the region during the 17th century, and was eventually burned down, along with the mausoleum to Saltik, during the Russo-Turkish Wars. A simple domed türbe
Turbe
Türbe is the Turkish word for "tomb", and for the characteristic mausoleums, often relatively small, of Ottoman royalty and notables. It is related to the Arabic turba, which can also mean a mausoleum, but more often a funerary complex, or a plot in a cemetery.-Characteristics:A typical türbe...
was rebuilt over the grave of the saint in 1828. The mausoleum in Babadag remains of relative importance even nowadays, and was recently renovated, being reinaugurated in 2007 by Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
prime-minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been Prime Minister of Turkey since 2003 and is chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party , which holds a majority of the seats in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Erdoğan served as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He graduated in 1981 from Marmara...
.
Legendary figure
In various legends he is identified with Christian saints (Saint GeorgeSaint George
Saint George was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier from Syria Palaestina and a priest in the Guard of Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic , Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox...
, Elijah, Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas , also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century saint and Greek Bishop of Myra . Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker...
, Saint Simeon
Simeon the Righteous
Simeon is the "just and devout" man of Jerusalem who, according to , met the Virgin Mary, Joseph, and Jesus as they entered the Temple to fulfill the requirements of the Law of Moses on the 40th day from Jesus' birth.According to the Biblical account,...
, Saint Naum
Saint Naum
Saint Naum , also known as Naum of Ohrid or Naum of Preslav was a medieval Bulgarian scholar and missionary among the Slavs. He is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church.Information about his early life is scarce...
or Saint Spyridon
Saint Spyridon
Saint Spyridon, Bishop of Trimythous also sometimes written Saint Spiridon is a saint honoured in both the Eastern and Western Christian traditions.-Life:...
). According to a legend, his body was buried in seven coffins, in remote towns in the lands of the Infidels
Kafir
Kafir is an Arabic term used in a Islamic doctrinal sense, usually translated as "unbeliever" or "disbeliever"...
. Nowadays, alleged tombs (türbe
Turbe
Türbe is the Turkish word for "tomb", and for the characteristic mausoleums, often relatively small, of Ottoman royalty and notables. It is related to the Arabic turba, which can also mean a mausoleum, but more often a funerary complex, or a plot in a cemetery.-Characteristics:A typical türbe...
) are found over the Balkans (Blagaj
Blagaj
Blagaj is a village-town in the south-eastern region of the Mostar basin, in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It stands at the edge of Bišće plain and is one of the most valuable mixed urban and rural structures in Bosnia and Herzegovina, distinguished from other similar...
village of Mostar
Mostar
Mostar is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the largest and one of the most important cities in the Herzegovina region and the center of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation. Mostar is situated on the Neretva river and is the fifth-largest city in the country...
, Krujë
Krujë
Krujë is a town in north central Albania and the capital of the municipality and the Krujë District. It has a population of about 15,900. Located between Mount Krujë and the Ishëm River, the city is only 20 km from the capital of Albania, Tirana....
, Kaliakra
Kaliakra
Kaliakra is a long and narrow headland in the Southern Dobruja region of the northern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, located 12 km east of Kavarna and 60 km northeast of Varna. The coast is steep with vertical cliffs reaching 70 m down to the sea....
) and western Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
(İznik
Iznik
İznik is a city in Turkey which is primarily known as the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea, the first and seventh Ecumenical councils in the early history of the Church, the Nicene Creed, and as the capital city of the Empire of Nicaea...
).