(The original Turkish version of this article was published by the Platform: Current Muslim Affairs on June 24, 2026)
Turkmenistan, situated between the Amu Darya River and the Caspian Sea, has hosted numerous states and principalities from antiquity to the present. Among these were the Ghaznavids, the Great Seljuk Empire, and the Khwarazmshah State, all of which left significant marks on the Turko-Islamic world. Historical cities such as Merv, Urgench – Köneürgenç – Abivard, Meana, Sarakhs, and Gorgan – Jurjan – a large part of which today lies within the geography of Iran- became renowned for their rich and glorious pasts as well as for the great Turko-Islamic thinkers they produced. Among these figures, three scholar-Sufis whose tombs are located within the borders of Turkmenistan have been regarded, from history to the present day, as the spiritual leaders of the Turkmen people. The first of these names is Abū Saʿīd Abū’l-Khayr.
Abū Saʿīd first went to Merv and subsequently to Sarakhs, particularly in order to study the science of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh). Unlike many Sufi order sheikhs and mystics, Abū Saʿīd became known for receiving the Sufi cloak (khirqa) from two different spiritual masters/sheikhs at an early age. He received his first khirqa from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī and his second from Aḥmad ibn Ghaṣṣāb. In addition, one of the great spiritual masters who enabled Abū Saʿīd to deepen his knowledge of Sufism was Abū ʿAlī al-Daqqāq.
Abū Saʿīd, who established his own lodge (tekke) in Mihna/Mayhana, is known in the history of Sufism for having founded the first tekke in the Khorasan region. This preference stemmed not only from his desire to perform his acts of remembrance (dhikr) and worship in a state of reverence, away from the distracting elements of urban life, but also from his Malāmī disposition. However, Abū Saʿīd did not merely withdraw from society and retreat into seclusion. At the same time, he hosted the great scholars of his age in his lodge and kept his circle of spiritual discourse (sohbet) and dhikr open to the public and to all those who wished to attend. Indeed, Abū Saʿīd met several times with Ibn Sīnā, the most prominent philosopher of the period, and they also exchanged letters on several occasions. It is reported that during their first meeting, Ibn Sīnā said of Abū Saʿīd, “He sees what I know,” while Abū Saʿīd said of Ibn Sīnā, “He knows what I see.”
After the death of Sultan Maḥmūd of Ghazni, his son Masʿūd ascended the throne. According to tradition, unlike his father, Masʿūd did not seek counsel from learned men in the affairs he undertook. By contrast, the Seljuk commanders-in-chief, Ṭughril Beg and Chaghri Beg, who entered into war against Sultan Masʿūd, received Abū Saʿīd Abū’l-Khayr’s blessing before the Battle of Dandānqān. For this reason, Abū Saʿīd is regarded as the spiritual founder of the Seljuk State. In addition to this political support, many of Abū Saʿīd’s teachings were accepted and followed in Sufi thought after his lifetime. Foremost among these teachings are certain ethical definitions concerning the human being.
According to him, from a psychological perspective, the basis of all human suffering lies in the nafs and the feeling of egotism. When a person distances himself from these inclinations, he experiences greater ease and tranquility and draws closer to the station of sincerity (ikhlāṣ). Abū Saʿīd was a gnostic (ʿārif) who succeeded in completely overcoming egotism, even refraining from using the word “I.” This conduct continued until the end of his life and was reflected in all his deeds. Through this tolerance, he succeeded in maintaining good relations with all religious groups and avoided extreme views throughout his life.
After him, major Sufi thinkers such as Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār and Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī were influenced by Abū Saʿīd. ʿAṭṭār speaks of Abū Saʿīd with praise in his works. His grandson, Muḥammad Munawwar, who recorded the master’s miracles (karāmāt) and certain spiritual states, later compiled them into a book entitled Asrār al-Tawḥīd fī Maqāmāt al-Shaykh Abī Saʿīd (The Mysteries of Unity concerning the Spiritual Stations of Shaykh Abū Saʿīd).
Abū Saʿīd, whose influence long endured in the lands where he lived, has a mausoleum located in the village of Mihna in the Kaka district of Ahal Province. This mausoleum was restored in recent years and opened to visitors. Out of reverence for this great scholar, people continue to visit their spiritual leader.
Like Abū Saʿīd, another scholar who is highly revered in Turkmenistan is Khwāja Yūsuf Hamadānī. Khwāja Yūsuf Hamadānī, or Yūsuf al-Hamadānī (d. 1140), was one of the renowned Sufis of Khorasan. He was born in Hamadan in 1049 and, at the age of eighteen, began his madrasa education at the Niẓāmiyya Madrasa in Baghdad in 1067. He then went to Isfahan, Bukhara, and Samarkand in order to continue his studies in various fields.
Hamadānī attended the circles of spiritual discourse of such eminent contemporaries as Imām al-Ghazālī and al-Shahrastānī, benefiting from them in the acquisition of various branches of knowledge. In addition, he specifically benefited from ʿAbd Allāh al-Juwaynī and Ḥasan al-Simnānī on the Sufi path. After completing his Sufi training, Yūsuf al-Hamadānī established a tekke in Merv and began his activities of spiritual guidance (irshād). This lodge, known as the “Kaʿba of Khorasan,” was frequented not only by Sufis but also by scholars. Hamadānī did not remain permanently in this lodge; rather, he traveled to many cities for the purpose of spiritual instruction. In 506 AH (1112 CE), he returned once again to Baghdad with the title of great preacher and Sufi. His sermons at the Niẓāmiyya Madrasa, where he had previously studied, attracted considerable public interest. Yūsuf al-Hamadānī spent the final years of his life in Merv and Herat. While returning from Herat to Merv, he died in Bāmiyān near Baghshūr in 1140 and was buried there. Subsequently, one of his disciples, known as Ibn al-Najjār, transferred his grave to Merv.
During his time in Merv, Hamadānī built an unparalleled complex in order to educate people intellectually and spiritually, and this lodge came to be regarded as the “Kaʿba of Khorasan.” Travelers who came to Merv in the late nineteenth century and recorded what they observed there likened Khwāja Yūsuf Hamadānī’s complex to a “verdant garden in the midst of a waterless desert.” He earned the respect and affection not only of the people and scholars, but also of rulers. In the Seljuk State, inaugurations were carried out with his prayers, and military campaigns were undertaken with his blessings. Although he was frequently invited to the palace by Sultan Sanjar and offered high-ranking positions, Hamadānī refused them.
In terms of the Sufi lineage, Khwāja Yūsuf Hamadānī is regarded as a dervish of the Naqshbandī tradition. Yūsuf Hamadānī became renowned both for his own scholarly and gnostic personality and for being the spiritual master of two founders of Sufi orders: Aḥmad Yasawī (d. 1166), known as the Pīr-i Turkistan, and ʿAbd al-Khāliq Ghijduwānī (d. 1179 or 1220). On the other hand, Hacı Bektaş Veli, who later became the founder of Bektashism, was also influenced by Khwāja Aḥmad Hamadānī.
Hamadānī spent a significant portion of his life in Merv, one of the leading centers of learning and culture of his time. On the one hand, he worked as a cobbler and distributed his earnings to those in need; on the other hand, he devoted himself to scholarship and trained numerous scholars, most notably Khwāja Aḥmad Yasawī. Although the Seljuk ruler Sultan Sanjar wished him to reside in the palace as an adviser, Hamadānī preferred to remain among the people. He continued his activities of spiritual guidance until his death in 1140.
Today, the city of Merv, one of the most important cultural and civilizational centers in Turko-Islamic history, is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List due to its numerous significant mausoleums and complexes as well as its historical fabric. In the complex where Yūsuf Hamadānī’s mausoleum is located, a mosque, gatherings for spiritual discourse, and soup kitchens have been established in recent years. People residing in the nearby area generally perform acts of charity and benevolence, including sacrificial offerings and almsgiving, within this complex. In this context, social, cultural, and religious values continue to be transmitted to future generations through the structures of the complex, which bear profound traces of Turko-Islamic civilization.
In the period immediately following Yūsuf Hamadānī, another eminent and venerable figure emerged in those lands: Najm al-Dīn Kubrā (d. 1221). Aḥmad Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, who was born in 1145, received his early education in Khwarazm and later traveled to the major centers of learning and spiritual knowledge of the period, such as Nishapur, Isfahan, and Mecca, in order to deepen his knowledge of the religious sciences. Owing to his outstanding achievements at a young age, he was given the epithet “Kubrā,” meaning “impressive, awe-inspiring, and great.” Najm al-Dīn Kubrā studied the religious sciences under the eminent masters of his time. After the age of thirty-five, he decided to follow the Sufi path.
As he approached the age of forty, he began, as a perfected spiritual guide (murshid kāmil), to convey what he had learned to the people of Khwarazm in the lodge he had established. The foundation of the Kubrawiyya, one of the three major Sufi orders of Central Asian origin — the others being the Yasawiyya and the Khwājagān — may be traced to Najm al-Dīn Kubrā’s return to Khwarazm in 1184. The master’s Sufi lineage “reaches Maʿrūf al-Karkhī through his sheikh ʿAmmār Yāsir al-Bitlisī and Abū al-Najīb al-Suhrawardī, and from him to ʿAlī ibn Mūsā al-Riḍā and ultimately to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib.” In addition, eight of the Twelve Imams are included in Najm al-Dīn Kubrā’s lineage, which also goes back, as noted above, to foundational figures of Sufi learning such as Maʿrūf al-Karkhī, Sarī al-Saqaṭī, and Junayd al-Baghdādī. In later centuries, the Kubrawiyya Order, which extended across a vast geography from Central Asia to China and Anatolia, spread in Bursa and Istanbul through Emir Sultan.
Najm al-Dīn Kubrā is particularly known as a master who sought to establish a balance among the sharīʿa, the Sufi path (ṭarīqa), and the ultimate truth (ḥaqīqa). According to him, the sharīʿa is like a ship, the ṭarīqa is like the sea, and ḥaqīqa is like a pearl: whoever wishes to obtain the pearl boards the ship, sets sail upon the sea, and attains the pearl. Thus, the master establishes an indispensable connection between the sharīʿa and the ṭarīqa, and likewise between the ṭarīqa and ḥaqīqa. Indeed, this teaching of his profoundly influenced later Sufi thinkers.
While the master spent a significant portion of his life engaged in scholarly and spiritual guidance activities at his lodge in Khwarazm, the regions in which he resided witnessed the Mongol invasion. According to the sources, when Genghis Khan was preparing to attack Khwarazm, he sent an envoy to Najm al-Dīn Kubrā and asked him to leave the city. In response, it is reported that Najm al-Dīn Kubrā stated that he had spent his seventy-six years of life with the people of Khwarazm and that abandoning them at such a difficult time would be an act of cowardice. Filled with love for his homeland in the face of Mongol oppression, Najm al-Dīn Kubrā sent his students to safe regions, while he himself went to the battlefield and was martyred in 1221 at the age of seventy-six, together with his 360 spiritual guides. Najm al-Dīn Kubrā was buried in his own lodge, and the 360 martyrs were buried around him. Today, this lodge is regarded among the people as the lodge of the 360 saints and as a second Kaʿba.
Although it has endured many wars and natural disasters, Najm al-Dīn Kubrā’s mausoleum in his own lodge has always remained standing. In 1907, the large dome of the mausoleum collapsed, and the structure sustained severe damage. Between 2012 and 2014, the mausoleum and complex were restored by Turkmenistan in accordance with their original form, and the site has since become one of the most visited places in the region.
Just as Eyüp Sultan represents a central spiritual figure in Istanbul and Khwāja Aḥmad Yasawī holds such a place in Turkistan, Najm al-Dīn Kubrā occupies a comparable position in Turkmenistan, particularly in Köneürgenç. As is well known, when the Turkmen communities living in Turkistan began to embrace Islam, they first opened their hearts to Khwāja Aḥmad Yasawī and then to Najm al-Dīn Kubrā; through this, they strengthened their spiritual journey. These three great scholars, just as in the past, continue today to provide spiritual leadership to the Turkic world.
Bibliography
Abū Saʿīd Abū’l-Khayr. Mane Babanın Kerametleri ve Halatları Hakkında [On the Miracles and Spiritual States of Mane Baba]. Edited by Ata Saryyev. Ashgabat: Miras Publications, 2005.
Hatamov, Jepbarguly. Türkmenistan’ın Orta Asırlar Tarihi [The Medieval History of Turkmenistan]. Türkmenabat: Türkmenabat Seyitnazar Seydi adyndaky TDMI, 2009.
Seyed Torabi, Seyed Asghar. “Ebû Saîd Ebu’l-Hayr ve Esrar El-Tevhid” [Abū Saʿīd Abū’l-Khayr and Asrār al-Tawḥīd]. İraniyat Dergisi.
Abū Saʿīd Abū’l-Khayr (Mane Baba). Rubağlar [Quatrains]. Edited by Gurbangözel Kömekova and Amandurdy Annadurdyyev. Ashgabat: Institute of Manuscripts, Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan; İlim Publishing House, 2012.
Tosun, Necdet. “Yûsuf el-Hemedânî.” In TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. 44.
Khwāja Yūsuf Hamadānī. Hayat Nedir? (Rutbetü’l-Hayât) [What Is Life? (Rutbat al-Ḥayāt)]. Translated by Necdet Tosun. Istanbul: İnsan Publications, 2000.
Ekayev, Orazpolat, and Övez Gündogdyyev. Doğunun Cevheri Merv [Merv, the Jewel of the East]. Ashgabat: Turkmen State Publishing House, 2012.
Algar, Hamid. “Necmeddîn-i Kübrâ.” In TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. 32.
Algar, Hamid. “Kübreviyye.” In TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. 32.
