Akshamsaddin (Muhammad Shams al-Din bin Hamzah, ) (1389 in
Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
– 16 February 1459 in
Göynük
Göynük is a town in Bolu Province in the Black Sea Region, Turkey, Black Sea region of Turkey. It is the seat of Göynük District.Bolu
Bolu is a city in northern Turkey, and administrative center of the Bolu Province and of Bolu District,Ottoman
Sunni Muslim
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Musli ...
scholar
A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...
,
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
saint
In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...
Abu Bakr al-Siddiq
Abd Allah ibn Abi Quhafa (23 August 634), better known by his '' kunya'' Abu Bakr, was a senior companion, the closest friend, and father-in-law of Muhammad. He served as the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruling from 632 until his d ...
. He was an influential
tutor
Tutoring is private academic help, usually provided by an expert teacher; someone with deep knowledge or defined expertise in a particular subject or set of subjects.
A tutor, formally also called an academic tutor, is a person who provides assis ...
and adviser to Sultan
Mehmed the Conqueror
Mehmed II (; , ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror (; ), was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481.
In Mehmed II's first reign, ...
. After completing his work with his master Sheikh
Hacı Bayram-ı Veli
Haji Bayram Veli () (1352–1430) was an Ottoman poet, Sufi saint, and the founder of the Bayrami Order.Levine, Lynn A. (editor) (2006) "Hacı Bayram Mosque (Hacı Bayram Camii)" ''Frommer's Turkey'' (4th edition) Wiley, Hoboken, New Jerse ...
Sufi
Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism.
Practitioners of Sufism are r ...
order. He discovered the lost grave of
Abu Ayyub al-Ansari
Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (, , died c. 674) — born Khalid ibn Zayd ibn Kulayb ibn Tha'laba () in Yathrib — was from the tribe of Banu Najjar, and a close companion (Arabic: الصحابه, ''sahaba'') and the standard-bearer of the Prophets and mes ...
(the
companion
Companion may refer to:
Relationships Currently
* Any of several interpersonal relationships such as friend or acquaintance
* A domestic partner, akin to a spouse
* Sober companion, an addiction treatment coach
* Companion (caregiving), a caregive ...
of
Muhammad
Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...
) in
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
preceding the
Siege of Constantinople
Constantinople (part of modern Istanbul, Turkey) was built on the land that links Europe to Asia through Bosporus and connects the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. As a transcontinental city within the Silk Road, Constantinople had a strategic ...
.
In addition to his fame in religious sciences and
Tasawwuf
Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism.
Practitioners of Sufism are r ...
, Akshemsaddin was popular in the fields of
medicine
Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...
and
pharmacology
Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur betwee ...
. There is not much reference to how he acquired this knowledge, but the Orientalist
Elias John Wilkinson Gibb
Elias John Wilkinson Gibb (3 June 1857 - 5 December 1901) was a Scottish orientalist.
Gibb was born 3 June 1857 in Glasgow, at 25 Newton Place, to Elias John Gibb and Jane Gilman. He was educated by Collier and matriculated from Glasgow Univers ...
notes in his work ''History of Ottoman Poetry'' that Akshamsaddin learned from Haji Bayram Wali during his years with him. Akshamsaddin was also knowledgeable in the treatment of
psychological
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
and
spiritual disorder
Spiritual is the adjective for the noun "spirit" ( animating force or supernatural entity).
Spiritual may also refer to:
Religion
*Spirituality, the quality or state of being spiritual, traditionally referring to a religious process of re-forma ...
s. Akshamsaddin mentioned the
microbe
A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic size, which may exist in its single-celled form or as a colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen microbial life was suspected from antiquity, with an early attestation in ...
in his work ''Maddat ul-Hayat'' (The Material of Life) about two centuries prior to
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek ( ; ; 24 October 1632 – 26 August 1723) was a Dutch microbiologist and microscopist in the Golden Age of Dutch art, science and technology. A largely self-taught man in science, he is commonly known as " ...
's discovery through experimentation:
Different sources claim that Akshemsaddin had seven or twelve sons; the youngest was the noted poet
Ḥamd Allāh Ḥamdī
Ḥamd Allāh Ḥamdī (born Göynük 853 AH/1449 CE, died Göynük 909 AH/1503 CE), was a Turkish poet, born at Göynük near Bolu.Fahi̇r İz, 'Ḥamdī, Ḥamd Allāh', in ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'', ed. P. Bearman and others, 2nd edn, 12 vo ...
.Fahi̇r İz, 'Ḥamdī, Ḥamd Allāh', in ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'', ed. P. Bearman and others, 2nd edn, 12 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1960–2005); .