Yasawiyya in the Turkic Sufi Tradition: Historical Development and Intellectual Structure

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Abstract

Khoja Ahmad Yasawi was the founder of the Turkic Sufi tradition, a thinker and poet. The only confirmed date of his life is his death in 1166. His work Diwani Hikmet (“Book of Wisdom”, also known as “Hikmets”) has survived to the present day. His father, Ibrahim, was a well-known sheikh in Sayram. Yasawi’s personal formation is closely connected with the city of Yasi (the former name of present-day Turkestan, 6th–15th centuries). He later traveled to Bukhara, where he studied under Hamadani. After attaining mastery in Sufism, Yasawi returned to Yasi and continued the spiritual path founded by Arystan Bab. He spent the last years of his life in an underground  cell  (khalwa),  which  has  now  been  identified  and  restored. The  mausoleum of “Hazrat Sultan”, built by direct order and design of Timur, is considered a masterpiece of medieval architecture in Kazakhstan. Yasawi made a significant contribution to the development of Sufi ideas about the meaning of life. According to him, God exists everywhere, in everything, and is eternal. Yasawi believed that every human being possesses qualities enabling spiritual perfection. God grants humans free will so they may realize their true purpose and meaning.