İbrahim Hakkı Erzurumi

Ibrahim Hakki Erzurumi (18 May 1703 – 22 June 1780), a popular Turkish Sufi saint of the Ottoman Empire from Erzurum in eastern Anatolia who was a polymath, mystic, poet, author, astronomer, physicist, physician, psychologist, sociologist, philosopher, Hanafi Maturidi Islamic scholar and encyclopedist.

Life and Works

Having lost his mother and later his father at an early age, Ibrahim Hakkı was raised by his uncle who educated him for a while. He met the Ottoman Sultan Mahmut I at Istanbul in 1747. He returned to Erzurum, and was continuously interested in religious and scientific matters. Having written 15 books in the manzum and regular styles and a great number in Turkish, Arabic, and Persian languages, amongst Ibrahim Hakki's most important works are the Divan and Marifetname.

In 1756 he published Marifetnâme (Book of Gnosis), a compilation and commentary on astronomy, mathematics, anatomy, psychology, philosophy, and Islamic mysticism. It is famous for containing the first treatment of post-Copernican astronomy by a Muslim scholar ('ālim). Marifetname contains tasawwuf knowledge along with a wide range of general scientific and encyclopedic knowledge. Completed in 1757, the book was written in the language of the layman. According to the author, it was compiled from 400 books.

Marifetname is a first in the explanation of observational astronomy of the Solar System by a scholar in a book. An English translation was published in 2010. which is derived from a hadith qudsi.

His most popular poem, which was composed into a religious hymn, is Hak Şerleri Hayr Eyler, The Truth (God) Makes Evils Turn Out Good.