Akshamsaddin

Akshamsaddin (Muhammad Shams al-Din bin Hamzah, {{langx|tr|Akşemseddin}}) (1389 in Damascus – 16 February 1459 in Göynük, Bolu), was an influential Ottoman Sunni Muslim scholar, poet, and mystic saint.

Biography

He was the grandson of Shahab al-Din al-Suhrawardi and a descendant of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq.{{cite web|url=https://sijjada-bakria.com/en/blog/2017/05/28/sheikh-aq-shams-al-din-akshamsaddin/|title=Sheikh Aq Shams Al-Din (Akshamsaddin)|publisher=Sijjada Bakria|website=sijjada-bakria.com|archive-url=https://archive.today/20220519043426/https://sijjada-bakria.com/en/blog/2017/05/28/sheikh-aq-shams-al-din-akshamsaddin/|archive-date=19 May 2022}} He was an influential tutor and adviser to Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror.[http://www.wdl.org/en/item/8824/ A Part of the Eyoub (i.e., Uyüp) Cemetery, I, Constantinople, Turkey]{{Cite web |url=http://dergipark.ulakbim.gov.tr/abuifd/article/view/5000114392 |title=Sûfîlere Yöneltilen Tenkitlere Bir Cevap: Akşemseddin ve Def'U Metâini's-Sûfiyye İsimli Eseri |access-date=2015-07-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911120505/http://dergipark.ulakbim.gov.tr/abuifd/article/view/5000114392 |archive-date=2017-09-11 |url-status=dead }} After completing his work with his master Sheikh Hacı Bayram-ı Veli, he founded the Shamsiyya-Bayramiyya Sufi order. He discovered the lost grave of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (the companion of Muhammad) in Constantinople preceding the Siege of Constantinople.Murtaza Gürsoy: Meşhur Eyüp Sultan (The famous Ayyub Sultan), pp. 179-180Ibn Athir: Usudul Ghaba (Lions of the Jungle), v. 2, p. 90Al-Istiab, v. 1, p. 151

In addition to his fame in religious sciences and Tasawwuf, Akshemsaddin was popular in the fields of medicine and pharmacology. There is not much reference to how he acquired this knowledge, but the Orientalist Elias John Wilkinson Gibb notes in his work History of Ottoman Poetry that Akshamsaddin learned from Haji Bayram Wali during his years with him.Elias John Wilkinson Gibb: History of Ottoman Poetry. London, 1900-1909, v. 3, p. 138 Akshamsaddin was also knowledgeable in the treatment of psychological and spiritual disorders.Taşköprülüzâde: Şakayık-ı Nûmâniye, v. 1, p. 147.Nezihe Araz: Anadolu EvliyalarıNişancızâde Muhammed bin Ahmed: Mirat-ı Kâinat, p. 556Emir Hüseyin Enîsî: Menâkıb-ı Akşemseddin, p. 12İslam Ansiklopedisi, v. 1, p. 320 Akshamsaddin mentioned the microbe in his work Maddat ul-Hayat (The Material of Life) about two centuries prior to Antonie van Leeuwenhoek's discovery through experimentation:

{{cquote|It is incorrect to assume that diseases appear one by one in humans. Disease infects by spreading from one person to another. This infection occurs through seeds that are so small they cannot be seen but are alive.Taşköprülüzâde: Shaqaiq-e Numaniya, v. 1, p. 48Osman Şevki Uludağ: Beş Buçuk Asırlık Türk Tabâbet Tarihi (Five and a Half Centuries of Turkish Medical History). Istanbul, 1969, pp. 35-36}}

Different sources claim that Akshemsaddin had seven or twelve sons; the youngest was the noted poet Ḥamd Allāh Ḥamdī.Fahi̇r İz, 'Ḥamdī, Ḥamd Allāh', in Encyclopaedia of Islam, ed. P. Bearman and others, 2nd edn, 12 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1960–2005); {{doi|10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_2668}}.