ʿABDALLĀH, ṢĀRĪ (922-1071/1584-1660), Ottoman scholar, mystic, poet, and commentator of Rūmī’s Maṯnavī. He was one of the sons of a shaikh who was originally from the Maḡreb. After completing his education with his relative, the grand vizier Ḵalīl Pasha, he became connected with ʿAzīz Maḥmūd Hodāʾī of the shaikhs of the Jelvatīya. ʿAbdallāh subsequently entered government service, set out for war against Iran together with Ḵalīl Pasha, and returned to Istanbul upon the vizier’s dismissal. After a retirement of ten years he took part in the Baghdad campaign as raʾīs al-rekāb in the service of Morād IV. On his return he became raʾīs al-kottāb and retired from political life in 1065/1655-56. He died on 23 Ṣafar 1071/28 October 1660.
Works. 1. Javāher-e bavāher-e Maṯnavī is an unfinished work comprising commentaries on Rūmī’s Maṯnavī (5 vols., Istanbul, 1287/1870-71). 2. Ṯamarāt al-foʾād fi’l-mabdaʾ wa’l-maʿād, in five chapters and an epilogue, gives interesting information on the Iranian Naqšbandīya, Ḵalvatīya, Kobravīya, and Qāderīya Sufi orders. 3. Jawharat al-bedāya wa dorrat al-nehāya concerns Morād IV and his conquest of Baghdad, as well as contemporary men of religion. All three of these works are in Ottoman Turkish. 4. Merʾāt al-aṣfīāʾ fī ṣefat malāmatīyat al-aṣfīāʾ in Arabic, discusses the Malāmīs in Ebn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240) al-Fotūḥāt al-Makkīya.
Bibliography:
Mostaqīmzāda, Solaymān Saʿd-al-dīn, Resāla-ye Malāmīya-ye Bayrāmīya-ye Sattārīya, Süleymaniye Kütüp. Nafiz Paşa, no. 140.
Bursali Mehmed Tahîr, Osmanlı müellifleri, Istanbul, 1333/1975, I, pp. 100f.
A. Gölpinarli, Melâmîlik ve melâmîler, Istanbul, 1931, pp. 137-42.
S. Nüzhet Ergun, Türk şâirleri, Istanbul, n.d., fols. I, 194b-206b.
(T. Yazici)
Originally Published: December 15, 1982
Last Updated: July 15, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 2, p. 179
T. Yazici, “Abdallah, Sari,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/2, p. 179; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abdallah-sari-1584-1660-ottoman-scholar-mystic-poet-and-commentator-of-rumi (accessed on 21 January 2014).