40 chapter 1
to come). One of these texts is the Saltukname, which celebrates a champion of
the dervish warriors associated with Aşıkpaşazade’s gazi environment.25
Sharp, though indirect, criticisms of contemporaneous social conditions
can also be found in an encyclopedic work by Yazıcıoğlu Ahmed Bican (d. after
1466), a dervish and disciple of Hacı Bayram Sultan who lived all his life in
his hometown of Gelibolu and who was part of the anti-imperial trend
described above. Written in all probability shortly after 1453, Dürr-i meknûn
(“Hidden Pearls”) is a synopsis of Islamic cosmology and mythology, contain-
ing tales of the creation of the world, the form of the universe, the prophets,
various mythical places, islands, and cities, attributes of the world’s fauna and
flora, etc.26 Even at the beginning of his work, Yazıcıoğlu labels his own era
“a time of disorder” (S19–20: bu fıtne zamanında); later on he takes advantage
of several opportunities to prove this claim, although he always does so while
detailing societies distant in both time and place. In the seventeenth chapter
of his book, Yazıcıoğlu enumerates the signs that will show that the end of the
world is near. According to Yazıcıoğlu, the Prophet had said that these will start
to occur after the 900th year of the Hegira, i.e. 1494/95. This reference shows
clearly that Yazıcıoğlu wanted to speak of his own times.27
The first sign, as usual, is the clear decline in both morals and religiosity
among the people (S122ff.):28
The mosques will be many, but few people will pray, and even they will
not be pious in their prayers, because they will not know the difference
between legitimate and illegitimate (helal ve haram) in their gains ...
Women will mount horses like chieftains (beyler) and they will dominate
(hükümet edeler); boys will be like princes (emir) ... They will not esteem
the pious and the spiritual, but the men of the world. Women will not
stay bashful, women will sleep with women and men with men. There
will be plenty of false sheikhs. Princes (beyler) will oppress in the name
of justice; viziers will be jolly and treacherous fellows (rind ve kalleş);
the ulema will be sinful ( fısk ede); judges will take bribes. Adultery, sod-
omy and drinking will become manifest. Among the people, the wicked
will become chieftains and the base will come to rule; people will rebel ...
They will build high and magnificent houses like royal mansions ...25 Yerasimos 1990, 207–210.
26 Yazıcıoğlu – Sakaoğlu 1999. Cf. Yerasimos 1990, 60–61; Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.,
“Bîdjân, Ahmed” (V. L. Ménage). On the background of the genesis of the Bayrami order
cf. Terzioğlu 2012, 91–92.
27 Cf. Yerasimos 1990, 195–196.
28 Cf. Yerasimos 1990, 195–196.