achievements are also related to Rustam-i Zāl,
(Qilghra) kil ed a seven-headed dragon which had
are likewise vividly described as having fought
captured the daughters of a king 222 Afterwards,
like dragons against the infidels Moreover, the
the people converted to Islam and Ṣaltūq built a
combined actions of two of the Turkish armies
tekke (dervish lodge) 223
are referred to with the simile:
According to the Ṣaltūq-nāma, Ṣarī Ṣaltūq is
said to have had close relations with Ḥājjī Bektāsh
The Greeks found themselves caught between
these two dragons
(possibly d 669/1270–1), the patron of the het-
erodox Bektāshiyya order of dervishes in Anato-
The impact of the dragon symbolism on these
lia 224 Ḥājjī Bektāsh’s spiritual affiliations are
frontier societies is furthermore documented
linked to the great mystic Aḥmad yasawī
by the fact, mentioned earlier, that after the
(d 562/1166–7) from western Turkestan and,
Dānishmendid conquest of Malatya, the last
according to legend, he is regarded as a khalīfa
Dānishmenid ruler of Malatya, Nāṣir al-Dīn
or representative of shaykh yasawī,225 the eponym
Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl minted a copper coin in
of the yasawiyya that had a wide fol owing among
the 1170s featuring a dragon-slaying equestrian
Turkic nomads in Central Asia Allegedly the
warrior 216
mystic sent him to Anatolia to propagate his order
Similar feats are described in the mid-fifteenth-
there 226 However, before coming to Rūm (Ana-
century hagiography, the epic Ṣaltūq-nāma
tolia) Ḥājjī Bektāsh accomplishes several heroic
(“Book of Ṣaltūq”), of the eponymous warrior
feats According to the principal hagiographical
saint, a religious leader among the circles of wan-
work concerning the saint, the Wilāyat-nāma,
dering dervishes The narrative describes how Ṣarī
written in Turkish prose between 886/1481 and
Ṣaltūq was transported to the summit of Mount
907/1501,227 Ḥājjī Bektāsh conjures up natural
Qāf, doing battle there with a dragon that threat-
disasters such as flood, drought, famine and an
ened the nest of a sīmurgh, a mythical bird from
eclipse and as yet another manifestation of a der-
Iranian mythology 217 At another time Ṣaltūq
vish dragon-slayer he overcomes a dragon,
battles jāżū s (sorcerers, wizards)218 who ride on
thereby converting the people of Badakhshān (the
lions and dogs brandishing serpents in their
mountainous region situated on the left bank of
hands 219
the upper reaches of the Āmū Daryā) to Islam 228
Ṣarī Ṣaltūq is also known to have propagated
It is likely that Ḥājjī Bektāsh was part of the
Islam in the Crimea and the Dobruja 220 He had
westward migration caused by the Mongol inva-
joined the fleeing Rūm Saljuq sulṭān ʿIzz al-Dīn
sion of Khurasan 229 According to legend the der-
Kay Kāwūs II to whom the Byzantine emperor
vishes from Rūm tried to prevent him from
Michael VIII Palaeologus had allocated Dobruja,
coming to their lands from greater Khurasan
south of the Danube delta in Rūmeli, as a base to
Ḥājjī Bektāsh overcomes this struggle by a well-
settle with his men 221 The legendary frontier saint
known miracle, namely by going to Anatolia
saved the kingdom and at the fortress of Kaliakra
transformed as a dove 230 Later, after changing
216 Cf Turks, 2005, p 397, cat no 80; Pancaroğlu, 2004,
ing him for help “to get rid of a dragon that had appeared
p 157, fig 6
in their country The shaikh girded the waist of Osman, who
217 Mélikoff, 1962, vol 1, p 39
was still a child, with a wooden sword and sent him off
218 The term jāżū is frequently employed in Turkish epic
He went (to China) and killed the dragon Subsequently,
literature In Mazdean religion the term jādū (Av yātav, Pahl
Osman was given the by-name amīr Chīn (“Commander
yātūk) served as the synonym of “zindīq,” or heretic, unbe-
of China”) And he was sent to Rūm by his shaikh There
liever Eadem, p 199 and n 2
he guided a great many people to Islam ” While serving the
219 Ṣaltūq-nāma, ff 178–80, as cited in Mélikoff, 1962,
warden of the sancak of Bozok in 1005/1596–7, the Otto-
p 39
man official and historian Muṣṭafa ibn Aḥmad ʿAlī, heard
220 DeWeese, 1994, p 253
the story from the shaykh of the tekke (dervish lodge) of
221 Leiser, “Ṣarī Ṣaltūḳ Dede,” EI² IX, 61a
Osman Bābā, ʿUmdat al-Māchīn; ʿAlī (Muṣṭafa ibn Aḥmad),
222 Hasluck, 1929, vol 2, pp 430–1; Leiser, “Ṣarī Ṣaltūḳ
Kunh al-akhbār (“The Essence of Events”), 5 vols , Istanbul,
Dede,” EI² IX, 61a; DeWeese, 1994, p 253
1861–9, vol 5, pp 58–61, cited after Köprülü, tr and eds
223 Köprülü, tr and ed Leiser, 1992, pp 54–5; see also
Leiser and Dankoff, 2006, p 50
Leiser, “Ṣarī Ṣaltūḳ Dede,” EI² IX, 61a
226 Algar, “Bektāš,” EIr
224 Leiser, “Ṣarī Ṣaltūḳ Dede,” EI² IX, 61a Legendary fron-
227 Idem On the hagiographical literature of Ḥāj ī
tier heroes like Abū Muslim, Sayyid Baṭṭāl and Ṣarī Ṣaltūq
Bektāsh, see Mélikoff, 1998, pp 58–60
were venerated by the Bektāshi Birge, 1939, pp 27, 51, 70,
228 Eadem, p 70
71, 217; Mélikoff, 1960, vol 1, p 51
229 Algar, “Bektāš,” EIr
225 Later hagiographical tradition links Aḥmad yasawī
230 Saints with a shamanic origin often seem to have had
to another dragon-slaying saint, Osman Bābā, relating that
the power to metamorphose into a bird, a lion (for instance,
some merchants from China came to Aḥmad yasawī implor-
Ḥāj ī Bektāsh and his disciples) or a dragon (for instance,