Akbaba is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of

Beykoz Beykoz () is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 310 km2, and its population is 247,875 (2022). It lies at the northern end of the Bosphorus on the Anatolian side. The name i ...

Istanbul Province Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Its population is 2,771 (2022). It is home to the

türbe ''Türbe'' refers to a Muslim mausoleum, tomb or grave often in the Turkish-speaking areas and for the mausolea of Ottoman sultans, nobles and notables. A typical türbe is located in the grounds of a mosque or complex, often endowed by the ...

Akbaba Sultan Akbaba may refer to: Places *Akbaba, Bartın, village in Bartın Province, Turkey *Akbaba, Istanbul, neighborhood in Beykoz district of Istanbul Province, Turkey *Akbaba, Sultandağı, village in Afyonkarahisar Province, Turkey People with the s ...

(Akbaba Mehmed Efendi or Akmehmet Efendi in short), a

Bektashi Bektashism (, ) is a tariqa, Sufi order of Islam that evolved in 13th-century western Anatolia and became widespread in the Ottoman Empire. It is named after the wali, ''walī'' "saint" Haji Bektash Veli, with adherents called Bektashis. The ...

Sufi baba who participated in the

Conquest of Constantinople The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city was captured on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 55-day siege which ha ...

and was a mentor of

Ottoman Sultan The sultans of the Ottoman Empire (), who were all members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental empire from its perceived inception in 1299 to Dissolution of the Ottoman Em ...

Mehmet the Conqueror Mehmed II (; , ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror (; ), was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481. In Mehmed II's first reign, ...

(reigned 1444–1446, 1451–1481).AKBABA TEKKESİ (in Turkish)
TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi. 1989 Edition. Following the Conquest, he moved to this valley rich with

spring water A spring is a natural exit point at which groundwater emerges from an aquifer and flows across the ground surface as surface water. It is a component of the hydrosphere, as well as a part of the water cycle. Springs have long been important f ...

s and established a tekke with his

dervish Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from ) in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity (''tariqah''), or more narrowly to a religious mendicant, who chose or accepted material poverty. The latter usage is found particularly in Persi ...

murid In Sufism, a (Arabic ) is a novice committed to spiritual enlightenment by (traversing a path) under a spiritual guide, who may take the title , or . A or Sufi follower only becomes a when he makes a pledge () to a . The equivalent Pers ...

s. The tekke was last revived by the

Naqshbandi Naqshbandi (Persian: نقشبندیه) is a major Sufi order within Sunni Islam, named after its 14th-century founder, Baha' al-Din Naqshband. Practitioners, known as Naqshbandis, trace their spiritual lineage (silsila) directly to the Prophet ...

Shaykh Abdulhakim Efendi of

Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...

between 1876 and 1889. Canfeda Hatun, a noblewoman attendant of Sultan

Murad III Murad III (; ; 4 July 1546 – 16 January 1595) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death in 1595. His rule saw battles with the Habsburg monarchy, Habsburgs and exhausting wars with the Safavid Iran, Safavids. The long-inde ...

’s mother, completed building a mosque in 1588 which bears her name. It is thought that the

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

complex first fell into disuse, along with all other Bektashi lodges in and around Istanbul, with its closure following the

Auspicious Incident The Auspicious Incident or Auspicious EventGoodwin, pp. 296–299. ( in Constantinople; , "Event of Malignity" in the Balkans) was the forced disbandment of the centuries-old Janissary Corps by Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II on 15 June 1826.Kinross, ...

of 1826. Its followers were exiled from the area. Following an inactive period of half a century, during the reign of Sultan

Abdulhamid II Abdulhamid II or Abdul Hamid II (; ; 21 September 184210 February 1918) was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1876 to 1909, and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state. He oversaw a Decline and modernizati ...

, it was turned over to Shaykh Abdulhakim by Abdulkadir Pasha, the commander of Istanbul central command. The pasha helped rebuild the center. Upon Shaykh Abdulhakim's passing in 1889, he was buried near Akbaba Sultan behind the tekke, which came to be Akbaba Cemetery extending up the hillside. His son Ahmed Mansur Mukerrem Efendi took his place and was active until the declaration of all tekkes and zawiyas to be illegal in 1925. The law for the closure of traditional institutions was passed on 30 November 1925 as part of Mustafa Kemal's reforms and revolutions. Religious institutions started to appear in public life along with the multi-party system following the

1950 Turkish general election General elections were held in Turkey on 14 May 1950, using the multiple non-transferable vote electoral system.Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) ''Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I'', p238 The result was a land ...

. By this time, most of the tekke buildings were destroyed and only the mosque and attached

harem A harem is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic Domestic worker, servants, and other un ...

section remained. The harem section was turned into an imam's office. The government of President Erdogan and his

AK Party The Justice and Development Party ( , AK PARTİ), abbreviated officially as AK Party in English, is a political party in Turkey self-describing as conservative-democratic. It has been the ruling party of Turkey since 2002. Third-party sources ...

supported religious institutions and restored the mosque in the 2000s. The mosque was rebuilt again in the 2010s, keeping true to its original wooden form on a stone foundation, and reclaiming the entire borders of the complex with landscaping and a stone border wall. A Rifai tekke also existed in the village but its one known building fell into disuse, rotted away and was demolished for safety reasons. The graveyard of the tekke is preserved and lies next to the property of Akbaba Dergah. The area is famous for its greenery which attracts the filming of Turkish TV series.Sahipli Dizisi Nerede Çekildi? (in Turkish)
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References

{{Beykoz, Istanbul Neighbourhoods of Beykoz