Mahmut Ustaosmanoğlu

Mahmut Ustaosmanoğlu (born 1929), usually referred to as Mahmut Efendi and known to his disciples as Efendi Hazretleri, is a Turkish Sufi Sheikh and the leader of the influential İsmailağa jamia of the Naqshbandi-Khalidiyya Ṭarīqah centred in Çarşamba, Istanbul.

Mahmut Ustaosmanoğlu
Born	1929 (age 90–91) Tavşanlı (Miço village), Of, Trabzon, Turkey
Occupation	Leader of the İsmailağa jamia of Naqshbandi-Khalidiyya Ṭarīqah
Awards	35 The Muslim 500 most influential

Early life

Ustaosmanoğlu was born to a village imam in Miço (now Tavşanlı) village of the Of district. He became a hafiz under his father by the age of 10 and continued his madrasa education, gaining his ijazah by the age of 16. Afterwards he married his cousin and started his work as an imam.[1]

Naqshbandi order

In 1952, Ustaosmanoğlu met Ahıskalı Ali Haydar Efendi (Gürbüzler), a Naqshbandi sheikh who he became his murshid. Ali Haydar Efendi appointed him as the imam of the İsmailağa Mosque in 1954.[2] By the year 1960, Ustaosmanoğlu's life had its greatest turn after Ali Haydar Efendi's demise and he became the leader of the path (tariqa). In 1996, he retired as the imam of the İsmailağa Mosque.[2]

After 1996

Ustaosmanoğlu tried to keep a low profile in the following years, especially after the 1997 memorandum, but his relations came under public spotlight with a series of internal strife in the sect. His son-in-law Hızır Ali Muratoğlu was murdered in 1998 and in 2006, a retired imam named Bayram Ali Öztürk was murdered in the mosque and the man who stabbed him to death was lynched by the congregation.[3][4][5]

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is known to maintain close relations with Ustaosmanoğlu and a prosecution from 2007 to 2009 including wiretapping led to Erdoğan himself.[6] Erdoğan paid a highly publicised visit to Ustaosmanoğlu the night before the presidential election in 2014.[7]

The Khalid’îyyah - İsmailağa Jamia - Ṭarīqah silsila

Main articles: Khalidiyya, İsmailağa, Jamia, Ṭarīqah, and Silsila

#	Name	Buried	Birth	Death
17	Khwaja Muhammad Baha'ud-Dīn Naqshband Bukharī	Qasr-e-Aarifan, Bukhara, Uzbekistan	4 Muharram 718 AH[8] (8/9 March 1318 C.E)	3 Rabi al-Awwal 791 AH (2/3 March 1389 C.E)
18	Khwaja Ala'ud-Dīn Attar Bukhari, son-in-law of (17)	Jafaaniyan, Transoxiana (Uzbekistan)		Wed 20 Rajab 804 AH (23 February 1402 C.E)
19	Khwaja Yaqub Charkhi	Gulistan, Dushanbe, Tajkistan	762 AH (1360/1361 C.E)	5 Safar 851 AH (21/22 April 1447 C.E)
20	Khwaja Ubaidullah Ahrar	Samarkand, Uzbekistan	Ramadan 806 AH (March/April 1404 C.E)	29 Rabi al-Awwal 895 AH (19/20 February 1490 C.E)
21	Khwaja Muhammad Zahid Wakhshi	Wakhsh	14 Shawwal 852 AH (11/12 December 1448 C.E)	1 Rabi al-Awwal 936 AH (3/4 November 1529 C.E)
22	Khwaja Dervish Muhammad, son of sister of (21)	Asqarar, Uzbekistan	16 Shawwal 846 AH (17/18 February 1443 C.E)	19 Muharram 970 AH (18/19 September 1562 C.E)
23	Khwaja Muhammad Amkanaki, son of (22)	Amkana, Bukhara, Uzbekistan	918 AH (1512/1513 C.E)	22 Shaban 1008 AH (8/9 March 1600 C.E)
24	Khwaja Muhammad Baqī Billah Berang	Delhi, India	5 Dhu al-Hijjah 971 or 972 AH (14 July 1564 / 3 July 1565)	25 Jumada al-Thani 1012 AH (29/30 November 1603 C.E)
25	Shaikh Ahmad al-Farūqī al-Sirhindī, Imām Rabbānī	Sirhind, India	14 Shawwal 971 AH (25/26 May 1564 C.E)	28 Safar 1034 AH (9/10 December 1624 C.E)
26	Imām Khwaja Muhammad Masum Faruqī, 3rd son of (25)	Sirhind, India	1007 AH (1598/1599 C.E)	9 Rabi al-Awwal 1099 AH (13/14 January 1688 C.E)
27	Khwaja Muhammad Saif ud-Dīn Faruqī, son of (26)	Sirhind, India	1049 AH (1639/1640 C.E)	19 or 26 Jumada al-awwal 1096 AH (April 1685 C.E)
28	Sayyid Nur Muhammad Badayuni	Delhi, India		11 Dhu al-Qi'dah 1135AH (12/13 August 1723 C.E)
29	Shaheed Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janaan, Shams-ud-Dīn Habībullāh	Delhi, India	11 Ramadan 1111 AH (2/3 March 1700 C.E)	10 Muharram 1195 AH (Fri 5 January 1781 C.E)
30	Khwaja Abdullah Dehlavi, alias Shah Ghulam Ali Dehlavī	Delhi, India	1156 AH[9] (1743 C.E)	22 Safar 1240 AH (15/16 October 1824 C.E)
31	Mawlānā Muhammad Khâlid-i Baghdâdî	Damascus, Syria	Sharazur, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq (1779 C.E)	(1827 C.E)
32	Abd Allah-i Mücâvir fi-Balad-î'l-Lâh, alias Abd Allah-e Macca-e Erzincanī	Mekke-i-Mükerreme	Mekke-i-Mükerreme ?	?
33	Shaykh Mustafa İsmet Garibu'l-Lâh, alias Grand Sheikh Affandy	Çarşamba, Fatih-Istanbul, Turkey	Ioannina, Ottoman Empire	1289 AH
34	Khwaja Khâlil-i Nûr-u Allah Zaghrawi		Zara, Sivas, Ottoman Empire
35	Khwaja Ali Rezâ al-Bazzâz Affandy	Tekke Camii, Bandırma, Balıkesir Province-Ottoman Empire	Bulgaria	1330 AH
36	Khwaja Ali Haydâr Affandy,	Sakızağacı cemetery, Istanbul, Turkey	Akhaltsikhe, Batumi-Ottoman Empire 1288 AH
37	Khwaja Mahmut Ustaosmanoğlu		Tavşanlı - Of, Trabzon, Turkey (1929 C.E)

References

1. Biyografi.net
2. Mahmut Efendi Hazretleri k.s.
3. Ahmet Şık, Niyazi Dalyancı, habervesaire.com, 18 February 2010, Warfare between judiciary and government Archived 2014-08-19 at the Wayback Machine
4. Hurriyet Daily News, 12 September 2006, Questions arise in Turkish Parliament over Ismailaga Mosque murder
5. Today's Zaman, 5 March 2012, No progress in imam Bayram Ali Öztürk’s murder case in five years
6. Today's Zaman, 28 April 2013, Cihaner may tell commission about how he wiretapped PM Archived 2014-08-19 at the Wayback Machine
7. Erdoğan’dan Mahmut Ustaosmanoğlu'na sürpriz ziyaret
8. Faiz Naqshband (Urdu Translation): Malfuzat of Shah Ghulam Ali Dehlavi, p.46 Archived 2012-03-08 at the Wayback Machine
9. Faiz Naqshband (Urdu Translation): Malfuzat of Shah Ghulam Ali Dehlavi, p.325 Archived 2012-03-08 at the Wayback Machine