A Sufi in Bektashi’s Baba: Mehmet Tevfik Bey Baba

Rumeli’de Bir Bektaşi Babası: Mehmet Tevfik Bey Baba

Abstract

Tevfik Bey who was the son of Hacı İsmail Ağa and Hatice Hanım who immigrated from Özenbaş village of Bahçesaray, Crimea, was born in Vezneciler in 1837 and died in Trablusgarp in 1896.Tevfik Bey's father, Hacı İsmail Ağa, buys the land of the Ariz Baba villages and Kamber Baba’s lands. The lands in the nearby Tekke Şeyhler village. The nineyear-old Tevfik Bey is the only son of the family who owns the selands after his father's death. When Tevfik Bey became a Bektashi, Tevfik Bey started to be called Baba. With its close surroundings, Bektashis and those connected to Sufism, its proximity to and assistance to them spread its reputation to Thrace in a short time. Tevfik Bey Baba, one of the Thracian Babagan Bektashis, has a sad life story. Because of his belief and concessions, he has been investigated many times and exiled to Trablusgarp. He died in Trablusgarp after his exile. After his death, some of the property is plundered by greedy people, and some of it is confiscated by the state and the family is dispersed.As a result of our research on Tevfik Bey Baba, one of the important representatives of Bektashism, known and respected by the Bektashis in Kirklareli and the surround in garea, we have received many pictures and documents from them. We have reached all the documents belonging to Tevfik Bey Baba and his family from the Ottoman Archives and have them translated. We have reached 20 poems by the poet Tevfik Bey Baba. With these studies, we aimed to prevent the loss of an important value for the region and Bektashism by compiling the belief world, poems and life view of Tevfik Bey Baba, one of the leading names of our poets in Thrace, who are important carriers of our cultural heritage.

Keywords: Tevfik Bey Baba, Bektashism, Amucas, Bedreddinis.