ESMĀʿĪL ḤAQQĪ BORSAVĪ

 

ESMĀʿĪL ḤAQQĪ BORSAVĪ (or Oskodārī) b. MOṢṬAFĀ, Shaikh Abu’l-Fedāʾ; Turkish scholar, theologian, and mystic (b. Aydos near Edirne, 1063/1652; d. Bursa, 11137/1725). His two nesbas refer to his long stays in Bursa and Uskodār. At the age of eleven he was sent to Edirne, where he received traditional education under the guidance of the scholar ʿAbd-al-Bāqī. In 1084/1673 he went to Istanbul to continue his studies with Shaikh ʿOṯmān Fażlī, the head of the Jelwatīya Sufi order, which he eventually joined. He also learned Persian and became interested in the works of the masters of Persian literature. In 1086/1675 he went to Skopje, where he founded a convent of the Jelwatīya order. He spent the rest of his life teaching and preaching in various parts of the Ottoman empire, including Egypt, but ultimately settled in Bursa where he eventually died.

He wrote over a hundred works in Turkish and Arabic. The most famous of his published works are: Rūḥ al-bayān, a Koran commentary (4 vols., Bulāq, 1276); Rūḥ al-Maṯnawī, a commentary on the introductory verses of the Maṯnawī (2 vols., Istanbul, 1287-89); Šarḥ-e pand-nāma-ye ʿAṭṭār, a translation of ʿAṭṭār’s Pand-nāma (Istanbul, 1250); Šarḥ-e Būstān; and a dīvān in Turkish (Cairo, 1257). He also wrote a commentary on Najm-al-Dīn Kobrā’s (d. 618/1221) al-Oṣūl al-ʿašara (Istanbul, 1874).

 

Bibliography:

M. Ali Ayni, Ismail Hakki, philosophe mystique, Paris, 1933.

Idem, Türk Azizleri I. Ismail Hakki, Istanbul, 1944.

Brocklemann, GAL II, p. 440; S. II, pp. 652-53.

E. Fuat, “İsmail Hakki Bursavinin Hayatı ve Tefsiri,” İlahiyat Fakültesi İslâmi İlimler Enstitüsü Dergisi 2 (Ankara), 1975, pp. 205-19.

G. Kut, “Ismāʿīl Ḥaḳḳī,” EI2 IV, pp. 191-92.

T. Menzel, “İsmail Hakki,” in İA V, pp. 1114-15.

B. Meḥmed Ṭāher, Mawlānā Šayḵ Esmāʿīl Ḥaqqī al-Jelwetī, Istanbul, 1329/1911.

Idem, ʿOsmanlı Müʾellifleri I, Istanbul, 1333/1915, pp. 28-30.

J. V. Hammer, Geschichte der Osmanischen Dichtkunst, Pest, 1836-38, IV, pp. 135-37.

Šams-al-Dīn Sāmī, Qāmūs al-aʿlām II, Istanbul, 1316/1898, p. 950.

Türk Dili ve Edebiyati Ansikopedisi V, Istanbul, 1982, p. 5.

(Tahsin Yazıcı)

Originally Published: December 15, 1998

Last Updated: January 19, 2012

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