Irsadi Baba

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Irsadi Baba (1806 - 1877) was one of the most famous Sufi masters of his time in the North East 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 peotical form. His grandson Aglarbaba completed these series of poems. However, he lost the only copy of this book during the First World War. Other poems of Irsadi Baba are well-preserved and published in Turkish. Unlike his grandson Aglar Baba, Irsadi Baba used a simple laguage 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).