QOṬB-AL-DIN ḤAYDAR ZĀVI

 

QOṬB-AL-DIN ḤAYDAR ZĀVI (Zāvagi), a famous Sufi of Turkish origin and founder of the Ḥaydariya sect of the Qalandariya order.  He was born in Zāva, the present-day Torbat-e Ḥaydariya in Khorasan, located 140 km south of Mashad.  His birthday is not known, but since he is said to have lived a long life (up to the age of 110 or 140), dying in either 613/1216, 618/1221 or 628/1231, it can be surmised that he was born around the end of 5th/11th century or in the beginning of 6th/12th century.  His father was Timur b. Abi Bakr b. Solṭānšāh Sālori (Faṣiḥ-al-Din, II, p. 288), who belonged to a family of Turkmen sheep owners (Faṣiḥ-al-Din, II, p. 288; Ebn al-Fowaṭi, apud Šafiʿi, Kadkani, p. 215).  His mother, whose name is not known, was apparently a pious woman (for lthe local traditions recorded in 1882, see Ṣafāʾ-al-Salṭana, pp. 93-96).

According to ʿAli-Šir Navāʾi (pp. 383-84), he was the disciple of Aḥmad Yasavi (d. 562/1160; cf. Ḥazini, fols. 108a-14b), who sent him to Khorasan to guide the people there on religious questions.  Nevertheless, once he arrived in Khorasan, instead of guiding people on the principles of religion and Sufism, he tried to attract attention through deeds and attitudes that were in contrast to the religious tenenets and canonical law. According to Zakariyāʾ Qazvini (d. 682/1283), when people saw him wearing a bow of hot iron rod around the neck, going into ice in winter and through fire in summer, they jumped from their horses, wore felt, and became his disciples (Qazvini, p. 382).  Among his disciples there were Turkish slaves who wore felt and walked barefooted.  One of his strange actions was climbing up and down the dome of the mosque as if he were walking on a flat surface.  Due to his strange behavior, he was referred to as one of the “wise insanes” (ʿoqalāʾ-e majānin; Ebn Fowaṭi, apud Šafiʿi Kadkani, p. 215). The only brief information that Qazvini has given about his disciples is that they wore felt and walked barefooted.  Ebn Baṭṭuṭa (tr., I, pp. 194, 441-42) remarks that they wore iron rings around their necks, on their clothes and ears, as well as around their genital organs.  Ebn Baṭṭuṭa’s note is almost confirmed by the description provided by Wāḥedi (fols. 41b-45a). All these pieces of information cast doubt on Qoṭb-al-Din Ḥaydar being the disciple of Aḥmad Yasavi, who was tightly attached to the Sunnite community.  Aflāki’s brief story that Ḥāji Mobārak Ḥaydar, the deputy (ḵalifa) of Qoṭb-al-Din in Anatolia, was appointed the head (šayḵ) of Dār-al-Ḏākerin by Jalāl-al-Din Moḥammad Rumi, also points to Qoṭb-al-Din’s Sunni affiliation (Aflāki, I, p. 215).

Qoṭb-al-Din Ḥaydar died at the age of more than one hundred and was buried in the tomb built in his honor in Zāva, now called Torbat-e Ḥaydariya after his tomb.  In later sources on the Ḥaydariya, which is assumed to be a branch of the Landeriya, the members of this order have been confused with the disciples of Sayyed Qoṭb-al-Din Ḥaydar Tuni and referred to as Shiʿites (Šafiʿi Kadkani, p. 221).  However, the pieces of information related to their past and to the period indicate that they descended from the disciples of Qoṭb-al-Din Ḥaydar Zāvagi.  Besides, according to Dawlatšāh (pp. 212-13), Shaikh Ebrāhim b. Esḥāq ʿAṭṭār Kadkani, father of Shaikh Farid-al-Din ʿAṭṭar (q.v.), was the disciple of Qoṭb-al-Din Ḥaydar, about whom ʿAṭṭār composed the Ḥaydar-nāma.  This book, although its attribution to ʿAṭṭār is doubtful (Foruzānfar, p. 31), contains some information that is not found in other sources.  Wāḥedi (fols. 41b-45a) described the dervishes who were the disciples of the Ḥaydariya order and followers of Imam ʿAli as follows: “All of the faces ... resemble each other.  Their beard grew up to their ears.  They wore a lock of hair on their head, tin earrings on their ears, iron rings around their necks, wrists, and ankles, had a lot of provisions with them, felt on them, and twelve-seamed hoods on their heads. They were people who used to drink wine and were a mob of drunkards.”

 

Bibliography:

Šams-al-Din Aflāki, Manāqeb al-ʿ ārefin, ed. Tahsin Yazıcı, 2 vols., Ankara, 1980, I, pp. 215, 467-68; tr. C. Huart, Les saints des derviches tourneurs, Recits traduits du persan et annotés, 2 vol., Paris, 1918-22; tr. Tahsin Yazıcı as Ariflerin menkıbeleri, 2 vols., Istanbul, 1986-87, I, p. 197, II, p. 142.

ʿAli-Šir Navāʾi, Nasāʾem al-moḥabba, ed. Kemal Eraslan, Istanbul, 1979, pp. 383-84.

 Iraj Armānpur Farāḥi, “Mazār-e Qoṭb al-Din Ḥaydar,” Meškāt, faṣl-nāma-ye ʿelmi, dini wa farhangi, 1994, pp. 150-63.

Dawlatšāh Samarqandi, Taḏkerat al-šoʿarāʾ, ed. M. ʿAbbāsi, Tehran, 1958, pp. 212-13; tr. Necati Lugal as Devletşah tezkiresi, Istanbul, 1977, p. 241.

Ebn Baṭṭuṭa, Toḥfat al-noẓẓār fi ḡarāʾeb al-amṣār wa ʿjāʾeb al-asfār, tr. Moḥammad-ʿAli Mowaḥḥed as, Safar-nāma-ye Ebn Baṭṭuṭa, 2 vols., Tehran, 1982.

Faṣiḥ-al-Din Aḥmad Ḵᵛāfi, Mojmal-e faṣiḥi, ed. Maḥmud Farroḵ, 3 vols., Mashad, 1960-62, II, p. 288.

Jahān Ḥazini, Jawāher al-abrār men amwāj al-behār, İstanbul Üniversitesi Library, TY 3893, fols. 108a-14b.

Ḡiāṯ-al-Din Moḥammad Ḵvāndamir, Tāriḵ-e ḥabib al-siar, 4 vols., Tehran, 1954, II, p. 382; tr. Wheeler M. Thackston as Habib’s-siyer, 3 vols, Cambridge, Mass., 1994.

Mehmet Fuad Köprülüzâde, Türk edebiyatında ilk mutasavvıflar, ed. Orhan Köprülü, Ankara, 1981, pp. 117, 337, 351-52.

Idem, Anadolu’da İslâmiyet, ed. Mehmet Kanar, Istanbul, 1996, pp. 50, 65, 77.

Maʿṣum-ʿAlišāh Moḥammad-Maʿṣum Širāzi, Ṭarāʾeq al-ḥaqāʾeq, ed. Moḥammad-Jaʿfar Maḥjub, 3 vols., Tehran, 1960-66, II, p. 642.

Ḥamd-Allāh Mostawfi, Nozhat al-qolub, ed. G. Le Strange, Leiden, 1915, pp. 151-52; tr. Guy Le Strange as The Geographical Part of the Nuzhat al-Qulub, London, 1919, pp. 149, 152.

Ahmed Yaşar Ocak, Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda marjinal sufilik: Kalenderiler, Ankara, 1992, pp. 40-43.

Zakariyāʾ b. Maḥmud Qazvini, Āṯār al-belād wa aḵbār al-ʿebād, Beirut, n.d., pp. 382-83.

MirzāʿAli Ṣafāʾ-al-Salṭana, Toḥfat al-foqarāʾ, ed. Iraj Afšār, Farhang-e Irān-Zamin 16, 1969, pp. 90-190.

Moḥammad-Reżā Šafiʿi Kadkani, Qalandariya dar tāriḵ: degardisihā-ye yak ideʾoloži, Tehran, 1007, pp. 214-27, 268-70.

Zayn-al-ʿĀbedin Širvāni, Riāż al-siāḥa, ed. Saʿid Ṭabāṭabāʾi Nāʾini, Tehran, 1960, p. 226.

Wāḥedi, Manāqeb-e Ḵᵛāja-ye Jahān wa natija-ye jān, Istanbul University Library, Ms. TY 9504.

ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Zarrinkub, Jostoju dar-taṣawwof-e Irān, Tehran, 1988, pp. 368-69.

(Tahsin Yazici)

Originally Published: January 1, 2000

Last Updated: June 29, 2011