Esrefoglu's Miizekki'n-nufus.

• Author: Hickman, Bill
• Position: Esrefoglu Rumi

Turkey's many manuscript libraries--especially those of Istanbul--are justifiably world renowned. The National Library (Milli Kutuphane) in Ankara has a constantly growing manuscript collection, which can be accessed online. But smaller, private libraries are less well known. So I was delighted recently to come across a catalogue of the manuscripts at the Library of Koc University, located a few miles north of Istanbul in the Bosporus community of Istinye.'

More than two-thirds of the 261 manuscripts described came from the personal collection of the late Sinasi Tekin, one of my own Turkish teachers at Harvard in the late 1960s. (2) Other manuscripts are from the bequests of Fuat Bayramoglu, Turkish diplomat (d. 1996); Midhat Sertoglu, former director of the Turkish Basbakanhk Arsivi (d. 1995); and Josephine Powell, photographer and ethnographer (d. 2007).

This short communication intends neither to review Ali Emre Ozyildinm's catalogue nor to assess the mostly Ottoman Turkish manuscripts that form the nucleus of the library's collection. (3) Instead it will concentrate on a single volume in that collection, no. 407 (= Sinasi Tekin no. 246, henceforth Koc 407): Muzekki'n-nufus (Disciplining the self) by Abdullah b. Esref, better known by his poetic mahlas Esrefoglu Rumi (d. 1469).

The catalogue entry states that the manuscript was copied in 962/1554. (4) It does not note, however, that such a date would have made it the oldest known copy of the work. I have recently learned from Ozyildinm himself that the date given is incorrect, (5) depriving me of the initial premise for writing. During the course of rewriting, however, access to a manuscript housed in the Bibliotheque nationale allowed me to return to my original argument--still valid and still relevant for Ottoman cultural studies. (6)

I

An inspired mystic with a forceful personality, Esrefoglu attracted a handful of followers during his lifetime. He is said to have treated the mother of the eventual Sultan Bayezid II (r. 1481-1512) for a medical illness. And on that account, perhaps, his daughter is said, unusually, to have been taken into the valide sultan's harem until the girl was old enough to marry Esrefoglu's chosen successor. (7)

In Iznik, where he probably spent his later life, Esrefoglu's name was attached to a very modest mosque, the original form of which he may have helped build. Later upgraded to the status of cami, at least one sultan contributed to the building's development or decoration. It was the most prominent structure in a small kulliye including Esrefoglu's tomb, which was for many years a destination for spiritual pilgrims. (8) A few decades after his death a neighborhood in Bursa took the name Esrefiler (the Eshrefis), evidence of a growing community of followers.

In his al-Shaqa'iq al-nu'mdniyya, the Ottoman biographer Taskopruzade wrote the first brief outline of Esrefoglu's life. A few decades later an obscure Bursa mosque preacher, "Abdullah," produced a menakib account of the sheikh's life. Although at times in conflict with the earlier biographer's details, it presumably reflected the views of the sheikh's closest followers. That hagiography, written more than a century after Esrefoglu's death, became the unique source for all subsequent biographical writing about Esrefoglu.

Besides his Miizekki'n-nufus, Esrefoglu is well known for a collection of over one hundred, mainly Sufi poems. That small divan failed to gain the attention of the early Ottoman tezkire writers Sehi Bey and Latifi. A short Tarikatname (Book of the way) rounded out a trilogy of works that reflect different aspects of the sheikh's spiritual career and teaching. (9)

II

Muzekki'n-nufus is Esrefoglu's sprawling prescription for disciplining the "self (nefs, pl. niifus): "What they call the nefs is like a nursing infant: if you leave it, it sucks; but if you take it away from the milk, it learns and accustoms itself to that." (10) Training this self, the mystic seeker's goal is to transform it, through stages, to a state of tranquility from where it may "return" to God. (11) Esrefoglu says he simplified passages from Arabic and Persian and made difficult passages from the Quran and hadith easier, turning them into a clear Turkish (sirf acuk Turki diline donderub dsan eyledum). (12) Esrefoglu compiled his Muzekki'n-niifus in 852/1448, presumably in Iznik.

Throughout Muzekki'n-niifus, Esrefoglu scattered stories (more than seventy by one count) of the pre-Islamic prophets, several of Muhammad's companions, and the caliphs 'Umar and 'Ali. Early Sufi authorities whom he cites include Ja'far-i Sadik, sixth Shi'i Imam; the ecstatic sufi Bayezid Bistami; the Sufi martyr al-Hallaj, and, much closer to his own time and place, Jalal al-D?n Rumi ("Mevlana"), and many others. He often concludes sections of the book with his own poems. Verses by other Turkish poets are quoted...