Hangi Şâhidî? Şâhidî’yi Kendi Dilinden ve Kaynaklardan Yeniden Okumak

Ibrahim Şahidi (d. 957/1550) was a prominent 16th-century Mevlevi figure whose name is now associated with Muğla, where he established his lodge. While poetry anthologies generally overshadow his poetic abilities with his lexicographical work, biographical sources and studies about Şahidi sometimes provide conflicting information about the type of dervish he represented. There is no clarity whether Şahidi, following his sheikh Divane Mehmed Çelebi (d. after 951/1544), lived a libertine life within the tradition constructed by the Şems branch of Mevleviyya, or adhered to the more regulated and pious doctrine of the Veled branch.Sixteenth-century anthology writers do not address Şahidi's position in the Mevlevi environment. They generally evaluate him through his works Gülşen-i Tevhid and Tuhfe-i Şahidi. The eighteenth-century Mevlevi texts Sefine-i Nefise-i Mevleviyan and Tezkire-i Şu'ara-yı Mevleviyye provide more detailed information about the poet. However, these texts do not mention his spiritual disposition/temperament within the Mevlevi circle. Only the poet himself provides certain information on this matter. In Ibrahim Şahidi's Gülşen-i Esrar, his narrative describing his encounters with his sheikh contains motifs that are not quite compatible with classical Islamic understanding. In Sefine-i Nefise-i Mevleviyan and Tezkire-i Şu'ara-yı Mevleviyye, the figures surrounding Şahidi appear to be individuals known for their ecstatic spiritual states in the contemporary Mevlevi environment. A work written in a geography distant from Ottoman Sunni politics provides entirely different information about him. Garibi, an anthology writer trained by Şahidi, expresses a different opinion about him compared to Ottoman anthologies and characterizes Şahidi as a Shiite poet. This study will examine the biographical information about Şahidi from various sources, how he described himself within the framework of dervish typology, how he positioned himself against the ascetic, and reveal what kind of Mevlevi dervish identity he possessed during his lifetime. Following an introductory section providing information about Şahidi's life, the first two sections will compare prominent details in biographical information about Şahidi in anthologies. The second part will discuss how Şahidi expressed himself as a dervish in his works. The third section will address the Ottoman Empire's relationship with the Safavids and Mevlevis in the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries and evaluate how these relationships affected the writing of Şahidi's biography. The final section will examine Şahidi's sectarian affiliation and his self-positioning as a dervish through examples from his poetry. This study argues that while Şahidi belonged to the tradition built by dervishes known as the Şems branch in the Mevlevi tradition, famous for their more libertine attitudes, he did not deviate from the Ottoman official ideology.Keywords: Mevleviyya, Şems Branch, Şahidi of Muğla, Anthology, Types, Sunnism.