Fatma Sultan Mosque / Gumushanawi Lodge

Ömer Ziyâeddin Efendi was an heir of Prophet Muhammad and a Naqshbandi Sufi. He walked the traditional Sunni path of the Khalidiyya Gümüşhâneviyya. He spent his life spreading the word of Islam, as expressed in the Holy Qur'an and the widely esteemed Six Books (Kutub al-Sittah). He was born in the village of Miatlı near the town of Çerkay in the year 1266 of the Hijri calendar, or 1849 in the Gregorian calendar. His father el-Hac Abdullah-ı Dağıstânî was an Avar Turk and his mother was Fatma Hanım.¹

He was the seventh of eight siblings. He took his first education from his father, who was one of the scholars of his time. He learned Islamic sciences, Arabic, and various Caucasus dialects from him. He then continued his education at a madrasa, where he read Taftâzânî’s Şerh-i Akaid.²

In his youth, Ömer Ziyâeddin Efendi experienced the struggles that had been going on for years against Russia in the Caucasus. As a consequence of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-78, the area was brought under the control of Russia.³ The family of Ömer Dağıstânî emigrated to Ottoman lands with the people of Daghestan.⁴

As the scion of an ulema family with a relationship with the Naqshbandi-Khalidi order, Ömer Ziyâeddin Efendi became a follower of a Naqshbandi sheikh Ahmed Ziyâeddin Gümüşhânevî when he settled in Istanbul.⁵ And thus, he continued his education in Gümüşhânevî Tekke⁶ in Istanbul.

He attracted the notice of his sheikh due to his seriousness in his studies, his industriousness, and his sincerity (ikhlas). His sheikh gave him his name by saying, “My son, I am giving you the name of Ziyâeddin, live long with your name.” From then on, he was called Ömer Ziyâeddin Dağıstânî.⁷

Ömer Ziyâeddin Efendi was appointed to Edirne as the mufti of the nineteenth regiment of the Second Army (alay müftülüğü) in 1879 after completing his education and receiving his diploma. He served in that post until December 1894. He was assigned to Malkara as a deputy judge between 1895 and 1906. In 1903, he served for one year in the higher jurisdiction of Jerusalem. Afterwards, between 12 March 1906 and 14 August 1908, he held the office of deputy judge in Tekirdağ, and he fulfilled the position of the chief justice of the law court and criminal court.¹¹ In August 1908, after the reorganization of personnel cadre after the proclamation of the Second Constitution, he was pensioned off and returned to Istanbul.¹²

After the 31 March Incident, resulting in the dethronement of Sultan Abdülhamid II, Ömer Ziyâeddin Efendi was exiled to Medina, where he stayed for the next five and a half months. About this time, the Khedive of Egypt Abbas Hilmi Pasha came to Medina after receiving a vision in a dream. He brought Ömer Ziyâeddin Efendi to his palace in Egypt.¹³

Dağıstânî remained in Egypt for around ten years, during which time he lived and served as the imam and teacher at the Khedive’s Montaza Palace. While he was in Egypt, the First World War began and the English tried to recruit mercenaries from among the Egyptian people. In order to prevent this and raise awareness among the people, Ömer Ziyâeddin Efendi published and distributed some handouts and brochures. He said, “Muslims are the brothers of Muslims. A Muslim does not fire a gun upon another Muslim. Do not disobey the Caliph.”¹⁴ Thereupon, he was imprisoned and sentenced to death. However, the Khedive Abbas Hilmi Pasha, who had been sent to Switzerland at the start of the war for his pro-Ottoman policy, heard about the event and intervened to secure Dağıstânî’s freedom. During his time in Egypt, Ömer Ziyâeddin Efendi continued his scholarly activities and published several works.

After the death of Safranbolulu İsmail Necati Efendi in 1919, Dağıstânî returned to Istanbul and became head of the Gümüşhânevî Tekke. He thus became the third caliph of the order, following in the footsteps of the sheikhs Kastamonulu Hasan Hilmi and Safranbolulu İsmail Necati Efendi on the path of Sheikh Ahmed Ziyâeddin Gümüşhânevî.¹⁵

On 5 August 1919, after he returned from Egypt, he was appointed to the post of professor of hilâfiyat (Islamic comparative jurisprudence) at the Süleymaniye Madrasa (Medresetü’l-Mütehassısîn). Later, on 27 October 1920, he was appointed as professor of hadith at the same madrasa.¹⁶

Having served as sheikh during the most difficult years of the Islamic world, especially in its occupied capital of Istanbul, Ömer Ziyâeddin Dağıstânî passed away on Friday, 18 November 1921, at the Gümüşhânevî Tekke.¹⁸ He was buried in the cemetery of the Süleymaniye Mosque in the section reserved for Ahmed Ziyâeddin Gümüşhânevî and his successors.

Ömer Ziyâeddin Dağıstânî knew and wrote in Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Russian, Daghestani, and the Central Asian Turkish dialects. He wrote more than twenty works—printed and unprinted, and in both poetry and prose—mainly in the fields of hadith, fiqh, qiraat, and tasawwuf.¹⁹

His main works are as follows: Fetevâ-yı Ömeriyye bi-Tarikati’l-Aliyye, et-Teshiletü’l-Atire fi’l-Kıraati’l-Aşere, Mucizât-ı Nebeviyye, Sünen-i Akvâli’n-Nebeviyye mine’l-Ehâdîsi’l-Buhâriyye, Zevâidü’z-Zebidî, Adâb-u Kıraati’l-Kur’ân, Hadis-i Erbaîn fî Hukuki’s-Selâtîn, Mir’ât-ı Kânûn-i Esâsî, Zübdetü’l Buhârî, and Lügatü’l-Evzan.²¹

Ömer Ziyâeddin Dağıştânî was extremely strong on the external (zâhir) and internal (bâtın) dimensions of knowledge (ilm). He had a white face and a white beard, and he was tall, dignified, and very generous.²²

FOOTNOTES

1. Meşîhat Archive, File no: 1396; Süleyman Zeki Bağlan, “Ömer Ziyâüddîn Dağıstânî üzerine Yusuf Ziya Binatlı ile Yapılan Röportaj,” Büyük İslam ve Tasavvuf Önderleri Ansiklopedisi, Istanbul: Vefa Yay., 1993, p. 327.

2. Yusuf Ziya Binatlı, “Dağıstânî Ömer Ziyâeddin,” Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Istanbul, 1993, v. 34, p. 406-407; Sadık Albayrak, Son Devir Osmanlı Uleması, Istanbul: Milli Gazete Yay., 1981, p. 382.

3. Ziya Musa Buniyatov, “Dağıstan,” DİA, 1993, v. 8, p. 405.

4. Ethem Cebecioğlu, Allah Dostları: 20. Yüzyıl Türkiye Evliya Menakıbı, Ankara: Alperen Kitapları, 2002, v. III, p. 152.

5. Binatlı, “Dağıstânî Ömer Ziyâeddin,” v. 34, p. 406; Hüseyin Vassâf, Sefîne-i Evliyâ, eds. Ali Yılmaz & Mehmet Akkuş, Istanbul: Seha Neşriyat, 1999, p. 350.

6.  For further information about this tekke situated across from the Ottoman Sublime Porte (Bâbıâli), today the İstanbul Valiliği, see M. Baha Tanman, “Gümüşhânevî Tekkesi,” DİA, v. 14, p. 277-278; Tanman, “Gümüşhânevî Tekkesi’nin Tarihî ve Mimârî Özellikleri,” İlim ve Sanat, May-June 1998, p. 115; Semavi Eyice, “İstanbul'un Kaybolan Eski Eserlerinden: Fatma Sultan Camii ve Gümüşhaneli Dergâhı,” İstanbul Üniversitesi İktisat Fakültesi Mecmuası, XLIII, Istanbul, 1987, p. 478.

7. Bağlan, p. 327.

8. Ibid., p. 327.

9. Cebecioğlu, v. III, p. 153.

^* A meal taken before dawn by a Muslim who intends to fast, particularly in Ramazan. (Sir James W. Redhouse, A Turkish and English Lexicon, Beirut: Librairie du Liban, 1987, p. 1043.)

10. Bağlan, p. 328; Cebecioğlu, v. III, p. 160.

11. MA, no: 1396.

12. Mehmed Zeki Pakalın, Sicill-i Osmanî Zeyli: Son Devir Osmanlı Meşhurları Ansiklopedisi, Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Yay., 2008, v. XIV, p. 30; Albayrak, p. 383.

13. Bağlan, p. 328, 329.

14. Ibid., p. 329.

15. Binatlı, “Dağıstânî Ömer Ziyâeddin,” v. 34, p. 407.

16. Albayrak, v. 4-5, p. 383; Vassâf, v. 2, p. 351.

17. Ebu Abdullah Muhammed b. İsmail el-Buhari, Zübdetü’l-Buharî Tercümesi, trans. Ömer Ziyâeddin Dağıstani, Istanbul: Salah Bilici Kitabevi Yay., v. 1, p. 10; Cebecioğlu, v. III, p. 170.

18. M. Es'ad Coşan Archive, Fon: Kotku, 1/1, “Hatıra Defteri”; Albayrak, v. 4-5, p. 383; Vassâf, v. 2, p. 351.

(The date of death was also indicated one of Dağıstânî’s successors in the same tekke, M. Zahid Kotku, in his diary situated in M. Es’ad Coşan Araştırma ve Eğitim Merkezi as it is: “On Friday, 18 Tashrin al-thani year [13]37 Sheikh Ömer Ziyâeddin Efendi passed away. I went to his funeral. He was buried in a private plot at the Süleymaniye graveyard. The light of his holy countenance brought us to tears.”)

19. Buhari, Zübdetü’l-Buharî Tercümesi, p. 10.

20. Binatlı, “Dağıstânî Ömer Ziyâeddin,” v. 34, p. 407.

21. Ibid., p. 407.

22. Feridüddîn-i Attar, Tezkiret-ül Evliya, ed. M. Zahid Kotku, Istanbul: Seha Neşriyat, 1983, p. 335.