Irsadi Baba

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Irsadi Baba (1806 - 1877) was one of the most famous Sufi masters of his time in northeast Anatolia. He was affiliated with one of the Uwaysi lineages of Naqshibandi Tariqa. He wrote mystical poems. He also started writing Stories of Prophets (Kisas-ul Enbiya) in a poetical form. His grandson Aglarbaba completed these series of poems. However, he lost the only copy of this book during World War I. Other poems of Irsadi Baba are well-preserved and published in the Turkish language. Unlike his grandson Aglar Baba, Irsadi Baba used a simple language in his poems. He was more of a folkloric poet and he rarely referred to the Scripture and Tradition. Some of the major themes he was preoccupied were divine love (Ilah-i Ask), Reality (Hakikat) and Asceticism (Zuhd).