Abstract
A Work on Bayramî-Melâmî Philosophy: Risâle-i Cevâhirü’l-İrfân or Risâle-i Müşkilât-ı Esrâr-ı Işk
Written by Abdurrahmân el-Askerî, one of the 16th
century Melâmî philosophers, the writing in question has
four different copies and consists of 565 couplets. Risâle-i
Cevâhirü’l- İrfân or Risâle-i Müşkilât-ı Esrâr-ı Işk starts
with couplets about unity of and gratitude to Allâh,
continues with appreciation towards the prophet and the
miracle of ascension. After topics such as the true path,
wisdom, God’s light, worship, education and love have
been mentioned, the reason behind the creation of this work
has been explained. After this whole part of the writing
which may be considered as “introductory chapter”,
author starts discussing about the perfect human being,
marks of the “kutbu’l aktab”, the chain of saints, states of
love and the secret of saintliness coming from Hejaz.
Having ecstasy, ascended people, saintliness, saints,
affection, love, prosperity, state, spiritual realm, manifestation, wisdom and education as its topics, this
piece has often quoted parts from Qur’an.
In the work in question, firstly it has been
explained why this is a Melâmî piece of art; then, with a
detailed discussion and comparison, it has been discovered
that the author of this piece, which hasn’t been mentioned
in the piece itself, is Abdurrahmân el-Askeri. It is noticed
that certain chapters of the book about the sultan of the day,
Kanuni Sultan Süleyman, was taken out of its two copies,
the reason of which was considered to be that one of the
important Bayramî-Melamî shaikhs, İsmâil-i Ma’şuki,
also known as Oğlan Şeyh, has been executed in Kânûnî.
This work also analyzes some of the Melami terminology,
attempting to explain it with the help of the expression of
the book in question, the other book of the author and
certain quotations from certain mysticism dictionaries.
Keywords
Risâle-i Cevâhir-i İrfân, Risâle-i Müşkilât-ı Esrâr-ı Işk, Mysticism, Melâmîlik, Abdurrahmân el-Aske