Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
DINBILIMLERI AKADEMIK ARASTIRMA DERGISI-JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC RESEARCH IN RELIGIOUS SCIENCES, cilt.20, sa.2, ss.689-726, 2020 (ESCI)
Shah Veli 'Ayintabi, a 16th century poet and writer, is the author of al-Rihlat al-Saniyya, the story of his sayr al-Rihlat al-Saniyya, written by the author when he was 63 years old, portrays his family members who had an influence on his spiritual maturation, and his relations with the seniors of his Sufi order. Our study aims to underline the autobiographical character of the work based on the information given by the author about his family members and significant people at the dervish convent (dergah). First of all, the biography of Shah Veli with a noble lineage and a list of his works are provided. Information about the author in the biographical sources is critically evaluated. In the first part of the article, al-Rihlat al-Saniyya is introduced in general and a content analysis of the work is presented. In the second part, an autobiographical examination of the work is made. In this section, seven people, told by the author in the context of his sayr al-sulilk story, are examined under different sections. These seven people who left a deep impression on the author are his grandfather, his father, his mother, his brother, his teacher, and two sheikhs who undertook the irshad work successively. In the light of the information given by the author, the identities of the people who supported him to reach the position of irshad are revealed. In addition to the firsthand data given by the author, fragmented information about these seven people who influenced him has been brought together with reference to historical and biographical sources. The last part of the al-Rihlat al-Saniyya includes his testament which details the qualifications of the person who will become a murshid, and explains the appointment procedure of the person who is set to replace him.