Sari Saltik - Historical Figure

Historical Figure

According to the 17th-century traveller Evliya Çelebi, his real name was Mehmed, and he originated from Bukhara. According to 14th-century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta, Saltik was an "ecstatic devotee", although "things are told of him that are reproved by the Divine Law". He is considered by various sources a disciple of Mahmud Hayran, of Haji Bektash Veli, or of one of the successors of Ahmed ar-Rifa'i. In a fetwa by the 16th century Sheikh ul-Islam Ebu's-Su'ud Effendi, Sari Saltik is considered a "Christian monk" who became a skeleton by asceticism. Early 20th century historian Frederick Hasluck considered him a saint of a Tatar tribe from Crimea, which had brought his cult into Dobruja, from where it was spread by the Bektashis.

According to the 15th-century Oghuzname narrative, in 1261 he accompanied a group of Anatolia Turkomans into Dobruja, where they were settled by the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII to protect the northern frontier of the empire. The same source places him in Crimea after 1265, along the Turkomans transferred there by Tatar khan Berke, and after 1280 mentions him leading the nomads back to Dobruja. After the death of Sari Saltik, part of the Turkomans returned to Anatolia, while other remained and became Christians, becoming the ancestors of the Gagauz people. This migration has characteristics of a folk epic destan, and its historicity is doubted by some scholars.