(Life, works and thoughts) Kaygusuz Abdal

Ashikpashazâdâ, who relays important information about the groups being active in the social-religious life of Ottoman's early period, mentioned a group named Abdalân-ı Rum. This group, which is also named as Anatolian dervishes, consists of dervishes titled as "baba, abdal, sheikh". Dervishes affiliated with this group assumed important duties within the society. It is possible to divide these duties into two parts. While some of them were participating in wars with their ghazi-dervish identity, some others provided contribution to the period's world of thought by engaging in scientific activities in the places named lodges with their sufi-poet identity. As a matter of fact, dervishhood of Abdal Musa and his follower Kaygusuz Abdal, who are the representative of Abdalân-ı Rum group, is formed in this way. This study is about the Qalandarî dervish Kaygusuz Abdal, who is predicted to have lived in the middle of the XIV. century and in the first half of the XV. century. Information about his life is based upon the Wiliyatnāmā-i Abdal Mûsa and Manāqibnāmā, which was put down on paper after his death. According to this, Kaygusuz Abdal was born in Alâiye city affiliated to the Teke Region, population of which is mostly consisted of Turcomans. He became a follower of ghazi-dervish Abdal Musa, who has dervish lodge in the Tekke Village of Elmalı in an age that may be deemed as young. Having completed his sufi education in the Elmalı zawiyah, he had spent almost all of his life by remaining loyal to Qalandarî life style and rituals. This philosophic dervish spread the teaching of his mentor Abdal Musa to Anatolia, Rumelia and Egypt. He gained his real fame as a result of the tekke of Kasru'l Ayni he opened in Egypt and the works he wrote. Kaygusuz Abdal spreading the Abdal Musa's teachings through this tekke had moved him into an important position within the Bektashi tradition. As a matter of fact, thoughts of Kaygusuz Abdal were adopted by the Bektashi dervishes and poets, and he became a very popular character. Such that, mentioning of his name within the Bektashi cult in the period after the dervish's death overshadowed the fact that he had a Qalandarî identity. Kaygusuz Abdal wrote up poetic and prosaic works about divine love, unity of existence, human soul training, the love for prophet Hz. Muhammad and the Ahl al-Beyt. After the death of Kaygusuz Abdal, his almost three hundred poems were gathered under the roof of Divân. The other works that the dervish wrote are Budalanâme, Kitab-ı Miğlate, Risâle-i Kaygusuz Abdal, Vücudnâme, Saraynâme, Dilgüşâ and Mathnawis (Mesnevî-i Baba Kaygusuz, Mesnevî-i Sâni, Mesnevî-i Sâlis).