into a human being again, he was met by a mystic,
Bābāʾī insurrections during the reign of the Rūm
Sayyid Maḥmūd Hayranī from Akshehir ac -
Saljuq sulṭān Ghiyāth al-Dīn Kay Khusraw II
companied by three hundred Mawlawī (Turk
Ḥājjī Bektāsh was to some degree associated with
Mevlevī) dervishes who rode lions and used ser-
these uprisings, not least because he became a
pents as whips 231 As seen earlier, the imagery of
leading disciple of a certain Bābā Rasūl-Allāh,
mystics exerting power through handling snakes
also known as Bābā Ilyās Khurāsānī, the Bābāʾī
was prominent in the medieval Islamic world
leader who was executed at Amasya in 639/1240,
The mystic thus demonstrated his ability to con-
the year of the revolt 234
trol, manipulate and effectively master the very
Bābā Ilyās, the great-grandfather of the four-
deadliest of creatures that are also invested with
teenth-century ṣūfī master Elvān Çelebi, was also
great powers As noted above, the feat of riding
seen as a manifestation of the immortal Islamic
on animals and wielding snakes as whips is also
Prophet Khiḍr Ilyās/Hızır-Ilyās 235 Elvān Çelebi’s
ascribed to the jāżū s (sorcerers) who frequently
hagiographic work al-Manāqib al-qudsiyye
appear in Abū Ṭāhir of Ṭūs’s popular epic tales 232
(760/1358–9) written in Turkish prose, which
When seeing the opposing mystic on a lion and
records the legend of Bābā Ilyās and the Türkmen
holding a serpent, Hājjī Bektāsh is said to have
revolt, is one of many deeds of saints and found-
mounted a rock (or according to later traditions
ing figures written at least a generation after the
a wall) and ordered it to move Forthwith it
subject’s death, hence often linking a recent past
changed itself into a bird and set off Hāj ī Bektāsh
with a historical present 236
thereby demonstrated superiority over an adver-
The dervish lodge of Elvān Çelebi in the village
sary who could only exercise control over animate
of Tekkeköy near Çorum provides an example of
beings whereas he was able to rule the inanimate
a multilayered composite foundation which
as well In this context the semi-legendary saint
reflects the cross-cultural encounters between
and patron of the Anatolian tanners’ guilds, Akhī
Muslim and Christian societies and documents
Evrān (Evran or Evren, “snake, dragon”), should
a religio-cultural symbiosis The site has been
also be mentioned Not only did he free the in -
identified with the pilgrimage site Euchaita to
habitants of Kırşehir in central Anatolia from a
which the remains of the Byzantine dragon-slay-
dragon but he was able to metamorphose into a
ing warrior saint Theodore Tyron were brought
serpent and appeared in the form of this animal
According to Elvān Çelebi, Bābā Ilyās was a com-
in his tomb (türbe) 233
panion of Khiḍr (Hıżır yoldašı) 237
These tales demonstrate not only the pivotal
In the mid-sixteenth century, German travel-
importance of the potent symbolism of the dragon
lers visited Elvān Çelebi’s zāwiya and noted that
or its kin, the serpent, but its use as a link to nar-
the dervishes were dedicated to the cult of Khiḍr
rative intersections of otherwise unconnected
Ilyās One of the visitors, Hans Dernschwamm,
heroic and saintly figures whose identities became
notes in his travel journal:
connected and often amalgamated In this process
of blending, the function of malleable stories was
the Turks esteem nor know of no other saint but
complemented by the role of cult sites where
Saint George whom they call Khiḍr Ilyās, … that
Islamic, Turko-Mongol and Christian beliefs
he has not died and still lives
overlapped and amalgamated
He also recounts that the dervishes pointed out
The origins of the Bektāshiyya date from the
traces of Khiḍr’s visit to the site Among these
aftermath of the thirteenth-century heterodox
were the remains of a dragon he had slain, a hoof
Akhī Evrān); cf Mélikoff, 1998, pp 11, 78, 89, 136, 157, 199
234 For a discussion of the Bābāʾī revolt and the leading
231 Mélikoff, 1962, p 40; and eadem, 1998, p 76
figures Bābā Ilyās Khurāsānī and his disciple, Bābā Isḥāq, see
232 Eadem, 1962, p 37; Dedes, 1996, pp 41, 265
Mélikoff, 1998, pp 32–40; Ocak, 1989 Cf Algar, “Bektāš,”
233 Akhī Evrān is moreover said to have been protected by
EIr Cf also Lindner, 1983, pp 14–5 Cahen (“Bābāʾī,” EI² I,
a dragon, see Roux, “Drachen,” WdM VII, 1, p 314 His name
843b) and Tschudi (“Bektāshiyya,” EI² I, 1161b) still identify
has also given rise to the hypothesis of a survival of a snake
Bābā Isḥāq as leader of the rebellions
cult See Gordlevskiy, V , Dervishi Akhi Evrana i tsekhi v Turtsii
235 Pancaroğlu, 2004, p 158
(“The Dervishes of Akhi Evran and the Craftsmen Guilds in
236 The manuscript is preserved in the Library of the
Turkey”), Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1927, pp 1171–94
Mevlevī Dergāhı in Konya, Ms 4937 Mélikoff, 1998, pp 32–
(French résumé by Vajda, 1934, pp 79–88) Cf Taeschner,
40; Wolper, 2000, p 311f
“Akhī Ewrān,” EI² IX, 61a; also Boratov, 1957, pp 382–5
237 Franke, 2000, p 242
234