Turkistan Impressions I: My Master Ahmed Yesevi

While I was reading our process of reading and teaching the history of Islamic philosophy chronologically, I was systematically "concerned" about understanding how the connection between Turkistan, that is, Atayurt, and Turkey, that is, the Motherland, was formed and continued. We are trying to make a geo-philosophy of Turkestan and the migration routes starting from there, and to understand the mind that established states on these roads in order to understand how the Turkish mind and Muslim vision, which developed out of the Muslim imagination revealed by the Arab and Persian minds, was formed. The first grounding of this was in a year when I was working as a lecturer at the faculty of theology established within the State University in the city of Osman al-Oshi, who is an important scholar in the West Fergana valley, in 2004.

Returning to Kyrgyzstan, I published the article titled Reterritorializing Philosophy in Anatolia in 2005. We have prioritized to examine the cultural foundations of Turkestan-Turkey contact from a philosophical point of view. 2010-2011 While I was a Tika officer at the Department of Turcology at Yemen Sana'a University, I went back to Turkestan after being in the process called Arab Spring. While serving as the deputy dean here, I was in the process of opening the tomb of Imam Serahsi, the symbol of our fiqh tradition, which was built by our Presidency of Religious Affairs. In other words, I talked, talked and dealt with the symbols of Hanafi fiqh and Maturidi creed, that is, through his works, but I did not have the opportunity to visit the symbol of popular Islam, which brought this picture/book to the people who embody Islam. I went to Almaty, Kazakhstan, but I did not get the chance to visit Yesevi. How many times have I been to the city of Karasu, which is very close to Osh, but on the other side of the small river-like water, I could not visit Uzbekistan, that is, the cities where Imam Maturidi, Imam Bukhari, Shah-i Naqshbandi, Biruni, Khwarezmi and Ulugh Beg grew up. ukde has always been in me.

Last year, I was invited by the Turkish Imam Hatipliler Foundation (Timav) to an event that we thought would turn into a great information feast as Yesi became the capital of the Turkestan province with a very accurate decision, but I did not have the chance to attend. This year, my faculty friend Süleyman Gezer was assigned there and organized a trip to Uzbekistan after the “Turkestan from Past to Present: History, Culture and Civilization Symposium (15-16 April 2019), reviewing our project of Reterritorialization of Philosophy in Anatolia in terms of a kind of fieldwork. it was like.

Again, after seven years, we reached Ata Meken in the morning of 14 April. We reached Shymkent Kazakhstan's 3 largest cities, now the largest city of Turkestan province, the capital city Yesi, with a two-hour bus ride. While I was in a hurry to settle in the hotel, I saw that we were right next to the Yesevi Tomb, and there is the Turkestan province government building in front of us. While the people were in a hurry to settle in the hotel, I immediately went to the entrance, took photos, greeted and shared my joy with the homeland.

Kyrgyzstan Osh is at the end of the Fergana valley and is the city of Osman al-Oshi, one of the leading scholars of the Maturidi creed and taught in the Ottoman Empire. In 2004, I visited the tomb of Serahsi, one of the fiqh scholars, in the city of Özgen, and in 2012 I became one of those who undertook the task of opening his tomb, which was built by the DIB, as the deputy dean. When I first came to Ataur, I had stated in my travel notes that if the measures against the Gulf-based Salafist mentality were not increased, the conflict language of the Muslim imaginations produced by Arab and Persian minds would be transferred to the region. 210-2011 Yemen When I was appointed by Tika in the Department of Turcology at Sanaa University, I shared my impressions of the Arab Spring and the changes and transformations in the Middle East with the public. When I came to Ataur right after, when I saw that the confrontational language of the Salafi mentality started to dominate these places, I saw once again that the Yesevi teaching, which played an active role in reaching the official Hanafi/Maturidi Islamic vision to the public, needed to be updated. For the next seven years, we continued to base the philosophical dimension of reterritorializing philosophy in Anatolia, starting with Farabi. Aygün Akyol, who started our fellowship from the moment she came to the faculty as a student, became the main contractor of this project during her teaching career. My teacher İclal Arslan has been involved in our work for the last five years.

Although I came to Almaty on both of my visits, I was not lucky enough to visit Yesevi. Although I went to Karasu, which is very close to the city of Osh, many times, it was not possible for me to cross the bridge just a few hundred meters ahead and go to the places where Imam Maturidi, Imam Bukhari, Shah-i Naqshbandi, Khwarazmi, Ulug Bey and Biruni lived. Now I had the chance to visit an important part of Turkestan. I hope the millet is in East Turkestan, that is, the Uyghur region. Ötüken and Orkhon Monuments in Mongolia I have already visited.

Our fatherland is Turkistan

At this point, let me give you a little bit of information about the concept of Turkestan. Let's first explain the concept of Turkistan in order to evaluate the re-territorialization of philosophy in Anatolia from a geo-philosophical point of view. The other end of the fertile lands between the rivers of Transoxiana (Sirderya, which was once called Seyhun, Ceyhun, that is, Amuderya), which is mentioned as the Fertile Crescent in the Bible and extends from one end to the Fergana valley and the other to Anatolia, is Turkestan, which is called Ata meken. Let's remember that ancient Turkish cities such as Bukhara and Samarkand, Amuderya, Otrar/Farab, Yesi and Savran were also founded on the Sirderya line. Ceyhan and Seyhan, also called Mesopotamia, the most important region of Çukurova, through Horasan, reaching up to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Considering that the places described as pearls in Göktürk monuments are the places between Taşkent and Fergana, the importance of the region emerges from every aspect.

When we say Turkistan-Turkey, we mean the examination of the intellectual and political movements in the most fertile regions of the ancient world and the contribution of the "Urban Turks" to the accumulation of humanity. Considering that Ceyhun has been the border between Iranian and Turan generations since ancient times and wars of sovereignty have been fought, the historical basis of today's struggles may become a little clearer. Also, paying attention to the fact that these names are put exactly in the names of villages, neighborhoods, towns and cities in Anatolia for the continuation of individual consciousness, it turns out that Turks are actually always in a geo-philosophical consciousness.

While Turkestan, the region where the Turks lived, was used for a very large area especially for Inner Asia in the VI century, it began to be used for the Caspian and Hungarian countries stretching from the Volga to Central Europe in the IX-X centuries, and finally for Anatolia from the 12th century. Even the lands of the Egyptian slave state were called Turkey. Central Asia has an important geographical position in the world in terms of being a bridge and a transition zone between Eastern and Western cultures. According to the Land Domination Theory, these are the heart of the world.

As I will mention in the Uzbekistan part of the travel notes, the Turks who settled around the Seyhun, Ceyhun (Sir and Amu Derya) rivers and the Aral Lake established many states here and in other regions. It has been influential on Eastern and Western cultures and civilizations, especially by taking the Silk Road, starting from China and reaching the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts, under their dominance. The places where they live are called Turkish el or Turkistan. Barcınlı, Sığnak, Karnak, Savran, Farab (otrarlı) are the Oghuz cities of that period. Especially Farab is extremely important for us and we visited on the first day. Arslan Bab, who trained Yesevi literally, took him there, saying that he would be visited. Then we went to Farab, that is Otrar, which is nearby.

Arslan Bab Visit

Arslan/Aristan Bab is a Turkish sheikh who was influential in the upbringing of Hoca Ahmed Yesevi together with Sheikh İbrahim Şihâbuddin İsficabi and Yusuf Hamadani. Sixty km from Yesi, the minaret, mosque and tomb in the Otrar region is a magnificent complex, there is a mosque on the right side of the entrance, this is a cute and simple place of worship with wooden poles and ceiling tree decoration. To the left of the complex lies Arslan Bab, his son Laçin and Kargı. It is like a small museum where pottery belonging to the period and copies of the Qur'an are also placed.

Bab means door in Arabic, that is, it is used for people who opened the door to Islam, one of the important personalities who introduced Islam to Turkestan. This is where the word "Father" comes from in our country. But it seems to me that being called Arslan Ata is more suitable for Turkish tradition. Because they were seen as physical and metaphysical threshold-gates who can provide spiritual guidance and have knowledge.

If we say that the lineage of Arslan Bab continued with his son, Ahmed Yesevi's first caliph Mansur Ata (d. 594/1197-98), we would have gone beyond all legends. Born in Sayram and losing his parents, Ahmed was raised by his older sister, Gevher Hatun, and was discovered by Arslan Bab at a young age. Later, he migrated to Yesi, an Oghuz city, and was given the title of Yesevi for this reason. We performed the noon prayer in the Arslan bab mosque and made our visit, and our teacher Hayati Bice briefly informed us. My teacher, Hayati, whom I met before but had a long conversation with during this visit, in my opinion, my teacher Özer Revanoğlu, with whom we stayed together for months in Kyrgyzstan, is one of the white beards of Turkey, who guides the youth with their gentility and grace. May the wise people who carry the love of Turkistan to Turkey, may their Mevlam make their life auspicious and fruitful.

Otrar/Farab

We asked permission from Arslan Bab and went to the place where the remains of the city of Otrar are located, right next to the Tomb. This place is very important for us because it is the birthplace of Farab and is called the new city. In terms of Turkish history, it is a region that can be called before and after Genghis Khan and needs to be examined in detail in terms of a disaster that functions as a domino. do. In the years (1206), when Genghis Khan turned the Mongols into war machines using the advanced technology of his period, he paid tribute to most of the surrounding countries. He also sent envoys to the Harzamshah state. Sultan Alaaddin Muhammad, the ruler of the Khwarazmshahs, one of the biggest Muslim Turkish states of the period, wanted to eliminate the approaching danger with a trade agreement. Genghis Khan accepted this and sent a delegation of merchants. Alaaddin Muhammed, who was exposed to the operations of the sultan, who assumed that his own son would become the sultan if he failed the sultan, killed a significant part of the delegation, saying that there were spies among the merchants. Genghis Khan asked for the Governor İnalcık, who was responsible for this, and he did not give it, after which Genghis Khan, who destroyed Otrar, took Bukhara and Samarkand, thus triggering the migrations in Turkish history. The Harzemshahs migrated to Anatolia, where they fought with the Seljuk Turks and disappeared. We immediately returned to the university, saying that this much can only fit in one day, and after dinner we went to the hotel. Despite the tiredness, friends took a tour in the park where the Yesevi tomb is located, this area is already closed to traffic and Kazakh citizens are walking around the park until late.

And Knowledge Feast

In the morning of April 2019, we moved to the University campus. Nursultan Nazarbayev of Turkestan, who illustrated all Turkish history in the building where the symposium will be opened; There is a place where there are pictures of Atatürk representing Turkey. In the lower corners of the hall, which has a giant tortoise and a world on it, it is seen that the clothes of Turkish tribes are exhibited.

Those who come are greeted with violin accompaniment, Assoc. We help our teacher Nurgül Begic to exhibit the masterpieces of art she made from felt. He interprets his works for us one by one. Afterwards, opening speeches and a music show were made. It has been revealed how accurate it is in the long run that Turkey opened the Faculty of Theology in Osh within the body of the State University, opened Manas University in Bishkek and Ahmed Yesevi University in Yesi, and showed joint activities.

In the afternoon, I chaired one of the sessions, ran to the other hall, and presented the paper trying to read the Turkestan-Turkey contact through Yesevi and Nurettin Topçu. It was already evening and we returned to the hotel, again wandered around the mausoleum of Yesevi. The visit was left until the afternoon of the next day, and we waited. But we did not travel with the convoy, because Asilbek, whom I met in Osh city in 2004, took us to the town of Yuknek in his car.

Edip Ahmet Yukneki's City

These are the blessings of the virtual world, because my brother said let me take you to Edip Ahmet Yukneki's city in the context of reterritorializing philosophy in Anatolia. He knows the importance of Atabetü'l-Hakayık (12th century) as he is also a teacher of Turcology. It's close already, we stopped at the entrance to the city and made a short video shoot. Then we went up a small hill, this is the place where the story of Dede Korkut is said to take place. After taking a short break there, the city of Karnak, which, as I will explain a little later, is the place where the giant cauldron in the Yesevi tomb was made.

It is extremely important in terms of showing the technology of that time. We got in the car again and came to the place called Ukkaşe Ata and claimed to be a Companion. Asil Bey says that this is not an office, but a tomb. I am content to remind you that there is an office of Ukkaş in the village of Durmuşlar in Nurdağı district of Kahramanmaraş, so the name Ökkeş is very common in that region.

We walk up to the well near the tomb. When I see the rags tied to the bushes along the road, and the small elevations built on top of the stone, the images in the Ötüken valley and the similarities in Turkey come to mind. But here I was most interested in a dog, who took us by the shrine, keeping company at a distance of more than two thousand paces. He waited in the shade until he went to look at the well, which was said to be blessed, then quietly came near the shrine. So we gave him the biscuit we ate, he waited so kindly and gently that he didn't take it from us, he waited for us to put it on the ground, but there was no sound, no growl, no click. I loved it a little bit, then I didn't put it on the ground, I gave it with my hand, took care not to hurt it and ate it, I witnessed this for the first time in my life, Asil Bey is laughing too, I say this is not a position. I said let's not waste much time and visit our teacher Ahmed Yesevi right away, otherwise I would be offended, believe me, because there was a trip to Uzbekistan at 6 am.

My Master Ahmed Yasawi

We came the night before and took pictures of the night, because the day and night of such historical places are different, and the impressions it evokes have a different effect, to be honest.

Turkistan is the threshold of two worlds, this building honoring the city that is the cradle of every Turk, is a gigantic building that Emir Timur brought to the world culture. You go up on the walls on both sides of the entrance gate. From there, another magnificent tomb looks like. Actually, this is the road, it is made of earth on both sides, adobe is used a lot, it is so wide that these walls there are alars on both sides. Just opposite the main door, there is another kind tomb, where Rabia Sultan Begum, the granddaughter of Timur and daughter of Ulugh Beg, lies. Its dome is again decorated with turquoise and tiles. This fifteen-storey building, covered with glamorous ceramics and glazed bricks, can be seen from all over the city and attracts people. Its dome is huge and turquoise in color. You enter the courtyard of the rectangular building by crossing the flower-lined road. There is a front door, iwans on both sides and a huge dome above it, and a back door, with a smaller dome than the first. They look even better from the side. On the wooden boards in the octagon, el-melik Allah is written, and Ya Muhammed is written inside. There is an ornament lined with pale blue tiles and purple bricks.

This spiritual center, which has been idle for a long time, has undergone an arrangement that also contributes to Turkey. Two plaques about it stand on the edge of the shrine and I am proud of it. Seven centuries old doors have been removed and are on display inside. The main entrance is a large central room, actually a masjid. The reason why it is also called Kazanlik is because there are verses on it, which is huge and made of seven metals, called Thai cauldron. Above is the 19th verse of the chapter of repentance. The most important place is the grave house. The dome architecture is wonderful. From the south to the north, there is the inscription Allahu Rabbi, Muhammad Nebi. There is also a hammam in the complex. Unfortunately, it is damp because not enough water is drawn. But the most important place is the private room. This place is underground, the pictures there show that this is a common phenomenon in Central Asia. Moreover, when we consider the heat of 55 degrees in summer and the cold of minus 20 degrees in winter, it becomes clear why underground places of worship are important. It is not a cell as it is said, but a place of worship, in fact, it is a large place that he had built while he was alive.

He has a çilehane that he had built in a corner of the lodge at the age of 63. It is impossible to enter there. Now it is like a museum. There are historical relics from the 14th and 15th centuries. Men can worship on one side of the lodge and women on the other. There is a Friday mosque right next to it, where historical artifacts are exhibited. There are wooden columns and manuscript books. I thank my Lord for the opportunity to visit this place where Anatolian yeast is thrown and to pray two rak'ahs of tahiyyatu'l masjid.