Background
Haji Bayram was born in small village in Ankara Province, and became a scholar of Islam.
Haji Bayram was born in small village in Ankara Province, and became a scholar of Islam.
He also composed a number of hymns. He lived between 1352 and 1430. His original name was Numan, he changed it to Bayram after he met his spiritual leader Somuncu Baba during the festival of Eid ul-Adha (called Kurban Bayramı in Turkish).
Pilgrimage and the foundation of his order
The two mystics, Shāikh Hāmeed’ūd-Dīn-ee Wālī (Somunju Baba) and Haji Bayram, were living in the city of Bursa when they made the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) together.
He built a Dervish lodge on the site in Ankara where his tomb and mosque stand today. The order grew popular with Bayram"s successful teaching.
The growth of the order perturbed some local authorities. They shared their worries with the Ottoman Sultan Murad II, who called Haji Bayram to Edirne (the capital of the Ottoman Empire at that time).
At this time in Anatolia there were many independent Turkish clans with little unity among them.
Haji Bayram took another scholar, his murid Akshemsaddin (Aqq-Shams’ūd-Dīn) (Ak in Turkish means The Pure White), with him to Edirne to meet the Sultan. Murad soon understood that the complaints against Bayram were merely rumours and Haji Bayram and Akshemseddin stayed for a while in Edirne, lecturing and preaching to the court. He had more private consultations with the Sultan in which they discussed matters of the world, life and the future.
The Sultan asked Bayram directly, "Who will conquer the city?" The reply came: "You will not.
But this baby shall. You and I will not be alive at the time of that conquest. But my student Akshemseddin will be there." The baby was the Sultan’s son, the future Mehmed II, who would conquer the city (which later became known as Istanbul) in 1453 and receive the title Fatih (meaning the conqueror).
Haji Bayram made a few more trips to Edirne until he died in 1430 in Ankara, passing the leadership of his order to Akshemseddin. His tomb and the mosque dedicated to him are in Ankara.
The evolutionary development of "Bāyrāmī faith" throughout Anatolia.
The Sultan wanted to test the opinions, doctrine and the patriotism of the order.