Tomb of Gul Baba in Istanbul

We are at the Gül Baba Tomb, which was restored by the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality in 2016 and turned into a center of faith and is located in the Hacı Bayram region.

Gül Baba, one of the Khorasan saints, was a poet Bektashi dervish who lived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Although his exact date of birth is not known, it is highly probable that his real name in the records was Cafer. He was known as ‘Gül Baba, Gül Dede’ because he always carried a rose on his hat. According to Evliya Çelebi, he was from Merzifon, and according to new documents, he was from the İlegüp village of Uluborlu district of Isparta province. He was sent to Budin in 1531 upon the invitation of Suleiman the Magnificent, established a lodge, and quickly became the darling of the Buda (Budin) people with his Bektashi tolerance. He was martyred in the Budin war on September 1, 1541.

One of the wisdoms of Gül Baba, who also has a tomb in Hungary, was the discovery of his existence in Ankara. During road opening works in 1961, when the legs of the road opening vehicle grader were stuck at a certain point and did not move even an inch despite all the efforts, the authorities, who did not know what to do, forwarded the situation to higher authorities. The then Ankara Governor and Mayor Brigadier General İrfan Baştuğ personally accompanied him and went up to the operator using the grader and gave the order to move, but the authorities, who were astonished by the fact that the giant construction machine could not move even an inch, its thick legs were bent double, decided to stop the work for a few days. When the part where the grader leg could not even move was opened with difficulty by the workers, human bones were encountered and Gül Baba was found inside the grave. Hodjas were immediately called from the Hacı Bayram Mosque and the grave was closed with prayers. The area around the grave was secured, repaired and turned into an open tomb.

The tomb of Gül Baba, one of the important figures and a symbol of Turkish-Hungarian friendship, was opened in 2016 with the efforts of the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and the participation of Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş, Former Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Melih Gökçek, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Hüseyin Yayman and SOS Foundation Honorary President Nevin Gökçek, and still receives great interest from visitors today.

Photo Source: https://www.evliyalar.net/gul-baba-beyoglu/