Aziz Mahmud Hudayi (1541–1628), (b. Şereflikoçhisar, d. Üsküdar), is amongst the most famous Sufi Muslim saints of the Ottoman Empire. A mystic, poet, composer, author, statesman and Hanafi Maturidi Islamic scholar,[1] he was the third and last husband of Ayşe Hümaşah Sultan, granddaughter of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.
Born of Hashemite ancestry[2] in Şereflikoçhisar in Central Anatolia, Aziz Mahmud Hudayi completed his studies in a medrese in Istanbul. He became the Sheikh of Sultan Ahmed I who constructed the famous Blue Mosque and so read the first Friday prayer there on its opening. He was also especially respected by Sultan Murad III. He is a descendant of Junayd of Baghdad, and, as a descendant of Husayn ibn 'Ali, can be called a sayyid.
He founded the Jelveti (Turkish: Celveti) order of sufis and served as a qadi (Islamic judge, kadi in Turkish) in Edirne, Egypt, Sham (Syria), and Bursa. A murid (disciple) and khalifah (successor) of Üftade Hazretleri of Bursa, he wrote about thirty works, seven of them in Turkish. Mustafa Gaibi, a prominent sufi from Ottoman Bosnia, was one of his disciples.
His supplication prompted many sailors of the Ottoman Navy to visit his grave before going out to sea:
He died in Üsküdar, Istanbul and was buried on a site which is now enclosed within a mosque complex that remains a site of pilgrimage and devotion.[3] By 1855 it was in ruins but was restored and expanded by Sultan Abdülmecid I.[3]
The small stone house in which he lived is a few miles away from the complex. The 19th-century Üsküdar-born artist Hoca Ali Riza painted a watercolour of the house standing alone in what was then countryside. A foundation named after him now maintains the house which has become the Çilehane Mescid overlooked by the large new Çilehane Cami. [4]
Along with Yahya Efendi, Telli Baba, and Yuşa (Joshua), Aziz Mahmud Hudayi is considered to be one of the Four Patron Saints of the Bosphorus.