Adım Adım Amasya

Monuments of the city · Tomb

Akbilek Tomb

A small, plain building at the foot of Mount Karaman, west of the city. One of the students of the man buried inside became Şeyhülislam, the chief jurist of the empire.

d. 1524 Bahşi Halife Akbilek neighbourhood

To convey this man's greatness, Osman Fevzi Olcay finds a single sentence enough: “He is the teacher of İbn Kemal.”1 İbn Kemal — Kemalpaşazade — was the Ottoman Şeyhülislam, one of the greatest scholars of his age. He studied Qur'anic exegesis and hadith in Amasya, under this man.1, 2

The modest building you see stands over that teacher's grave.

📜 What do the documents say?

In his inscription his name appears as “Sonusalı Molla Bahşi Halife Hazretleri” (His Holiness Molla Bahşi Halife of Sonusa).3 He was born and raised in the sub-district (nahiye) of Sonusa in the district (kaza) of Erbaa, which at the time lay within the borders of Amasya.1, 3

Olcay takes care to explain that calling him “a man of Amasya” is no empty claim: in the administrative organisation of the time, places such as Erbaa, Niksar, Tokat, Çorum, Kayseri and Canik lay within Amasya's borders. Moreover, when he reached the age for study he came to Amasya and made it his home.1

Where did he study? He travelled to Arabia and took lessons from the foremost scholars of the day:1, 2, 3

  • İmam Süyûtî — one of the most prolific names in the Islamic sciences.
  • Şeyhülislam Zekeriya el-Ensârî
  • Şemseddin Muhammed es-Sehâvî — a scholar of hadith and history.

Then he returned to Amasya and, teaching without interruption for forty years, trained a great many people.1, 3 Olcay reports that Şakâyıku'n-Nu'mâniyye, one of the sources of the period, praises him as a man of creative intelligence and powerful memory.1

He died in Amasya in AH 930 / AD 1524.1, 2 He left two works: Mi'râcü'l-ulâ fî tefsîr-i Sûreti'l-İsrâ and Tenbîhü'l-gabî fî rü'yeti'n-Nebî.1, 2 He also had a small mosque (mescit) built in the Kazancı neighbourhood.2

The building you see is new

For a long time this was a simple grave with nothing but a head- and a footstone. In the 2000s Amasya Municipality built over it a tomb on a square plan, with a hipped roof crowned by a wooden lantern.2, 3

Don't confuse the two: the building is new, the man buried here is old. The five-hundred-year story told on this page is the story of the grave, not of the building. Olcay writes that he was buried in a small tomb on the road to the Akbilek vineyards, at the place called “Karaağaç Meydanı”.1

🗣️ What do the people say?

So why “Akbilek”? Bilek is the part of the arm between the hand and the elbow — that is, the part washed in the ritual ablution (ak means white, shining). The imam of the mosque next to the tomb told it to Ayşegül Şen like this:2

  1. In a sermon, Bahşi Halife was speaking of the virtues of the ablution.
  2. He was saying that the limbs washed in ablution would shine like light in the hereafter.
  3. Some of those present thought to themselves, “How can that be?”
  4. Saying “Like this,” Bahşi Halife opened his arms; the places he had washed in ablution lit up, bathed in light.
  5. That is why they called him “Akbilek”.

The same imam said that anyone coming to Amasya must see the Pirler Tomb, the Kurtboğan Tomb and the tomb of Bahşi Halife.2 He also passed on a second story: at the time of the Battle of Ankara, as Timur was advancing on Amasya, he was warned about the saints of the city; he said, “If there really is a saint here, let him gather two sacks of scorpions and send them to me.” Bahşi Molla gathered the scorpions with his blessed hands and sent them, and Timur gave up the attack.2

The dates don't match — and that matters

Battle of Ankara1402
Death of Bahşi Halife1, 21524
Time in between122 years

Bahşi Halife died 122 years after the Battle of Ankara.1, 2 So he cannot have been alive at the moment the story takes place. This is not a mistake but an example of how folk narrative works: a great event gathers around a great name. The person actually remembered alongside Timur in Amasya is someone else — Pir İlyas.

This page does not delete the story; it places the history beside it. Keeping the two apart is a way of respecting both.

While you are there, look for

Key facts

Buried here
Akbilek Bahşi Halife — in his inscription “Sonusalı Molla Bahşi Halife Hazretleri”3
Died
AH 930 / 1524, Amasya1, 2
Birthplace
Sonusa sub-district, Erbaa district — within Amasya's borders at the time1, 3
Teachers
İmam Süyûtî, Şeyhülislam Zekeriya el-Ensârî, Şemseddin Muhammed es-Sehâvî1, 3
Student
İbn Kemal (Kemalpaşazade) — studied exegesis and hadith with him1, 2
Works
Mi'râcü'l-ulâ fî tefsîr-i Sûreti'l-İsrâ; Tenbîhü'l-gabî fî rü'yeti'n-Nebî1, 2
Present building
2000s, Amasya Municipality — square plan, hipped roof, wooden lantern2, 3
Location
40.6487976, 35.8005733 — verified from an external source
In the book
Kültürel Miras Boyutuyla Amasya, p. 47

📍 Open on the map

Sources

  1. Osman Fevzi Olcay, Amasya Şehri (Amasya: Amasya Belediyesi, 2010), 54-55. — The “Akbilek Bahşi Halife” entry: his being İbn Kemal's teacher, his birth in Sonusa, his teachers, forty years of teaching, his death in AH 930 (1524), his burial place and his two works.
  2. Ayşegül Şen, Amasya Şehir Merkezindeki Dinî Ziyaret Yerleri (Yüksek Lisans Tezi, 2019), 57-58. — “3.9. Akbilek (Bahşi Halife) Türbesi”: the building's construction in the 2000s, İbn Kemal as his student, his death in 1524 and two works, his small mosque in the Kazancı neighbourhood; the “Akbilek” and Timur tales recorded from the mosque's imam.
  3. Kültürel Miras Boyutuyla Amasya (Amasya: Amasya Üniversitesi, BAP Projesi SEB-BAP25-0233, 2026), 47.
This page has no photograph. The book has no picture of this tomb. A current photograph will be added once it has been taken.