Bayazid Bastami

Bayazid Bastami

Bayazid Bastami, or in full Abu Yazid Tayfur ibn Isa ibn Surushan (777–848), was a Persian Sufi and Islamic thinker. Known in the history of Sufism by the title "Sultan al-'Arifin" (Sultan of the Gnostics), Bastami is regarded as one of the most important figures to systematize the concepts of "sukr" (spiritual intoxication) and "fana" (annihilation).

Biography

There are differing accounts regarding Bayazid Bastami's dates of birth and death. Although authorities such as al-Qushayri and al-Harawi cite the year 261 (875) as the year of his death, al-Sahlagi—regarded as the earliest and primary source for Bastami's biography—states that he died in the year 234 (848) at the age of seventy-three. Because of their chronological consistency, the dates given by al-Sahlagi—161 (777) for his birth and 234 (848) for his death—are accepted in academic studies as the closest to the truth.

His grandfather Surushan was a Zoroastrian who later converted to Islam. Bastami spent his childhood in Bastam in asceticism and worship, and, in order to be alone with God, he renounced worldly desires and led a reclusive life.

Sufi views

Bastami is among the first Sufis to have personally experienced the stations of "Fana fi'Allah" (annihilation in God) and "Baqa bi'Allah" (subsistence in God) and to have expressed these states with candor. Because of these sincere and fervent expressions he came to be known as the "Intoxicated Sufi" (a representative of the sukr school). Whereas before him Sufism rested mainly on asceticism and obedience, with Bastami the concepts of "Divine Love" and "Unity" (wahda) assumed a central position.

His activity and traces in Anatolia

Before him, Sufism rested only on "piety" and "obedience." It was thanks to him that Divine Love was introduced into Sufism.

He held sincerity and affection toward Musa al-Kazim and Ali al-Rida, both among the Twelve Imams. He was accepted as a student by Ali al-Rida. Since he died in 874/878, he had probably also known Imam Muhammad al-Jawad (d. 835 CE), Imam Ali al-Hadi (d. 868 CE), and Imam Hasan al-Askari (d. 874 CE), who lived in the same era. That he also played an active part in preserving the respect and love felt toward the Twelve Imams—through his successors such as Abu'l-Hasan Kharaqani, Khwaja Abdullah Harawi, and Abu'l-Qasim Gurgani—is understood from the fact that the names of the Twelve Imams were also inscribed in the places of worship these figures had built.

His descendants who migrated to Anatolia and the saints of Khurasan

Two of his descendants, Isa and Musa, migrated from Iranian Khurasan to Anatolia. They first resided in the Kırıkhan district of Hatay; later, in accordance with a duty assigned to them, they wished to migrate into the interior of Anatolia, and the two brothers parted ways in Kırıkhan. The Tomb of Shaykh Isa lies on a hill north of the village of Alabeyli in Kırıkhan, four kilometers from the district center. The other brother (Shaykh Musa) came to the Zile district of Tokat and continued his spiritual guidance there; he is buried there, and it is widely believed that his descendants live in Zile.

The tomb of Bayazid Bastami and Mustafa Şevki Pasha stands within the Darb-ı Sak Castle on a small hill on the northern side of the village of Alaybeyli on the Kırıkhan–Hassa road in Hatay.

The place of visitation known among the people as Beyazıbesten (the Şeyh Ethem Çelebi Mosque), located in the Ali Kadı neighborhood in the center of Zile, is among the sites visited by the surrounding populace for headaches and eye ailments and for various wishes. The holy mantle (hırka-i şerif) of Muhammad kept in the Şeyh Ethem Çelebi Mosque in Zile had passed from Uways al-Qarani to Bayazid Bastami; in the early years of the Republic, on the grounds that it could not be safeguarded and because the people of Zile did not adequately protect it, it was transferred first to Tokat and then, on 17 September 1944, to the Ankara Ethnography Museum.

Sources

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