page_title: Otman Baba
section_title: Cult complex
hierarchical_section_title: Otman Baba / Legacy / Cult complex
caption_attribution_description: English: Türbe of Alevi saint, Otman baba, in Teketo, Bulgaria Български: Тюрбе на алевийския светец Отман баба в Текето, България
context_page_description: Otman Baba was a 15th-century dervish who traveled throughout the Ottoman Empire, acquiring a following among heterodox Muslims in Bulgaria after 1445 that has developed into his veneration as a saint. After Otman Baba's death, a pilgrimage complex grew around his grave in the present-day Bulgarian village of Teketo, which was made a museum during communism. The hagiography of Otman Baba, written by his disciple Küçük Abdal and regarded by his followers as a canonical text, maintains that Otman Baba performed miracles that proved his superiority to other dervishes and Ottoman authorities, particularly Sultan Mehmed II. Straying from orthodox Islamic tenets, Otman Baba asserted his unity with God and his mastery of divine secrets—as the embodiment of monotheistic religious figures such as Muhammad, Jesus, and Moses.
context_section_description: Although Otman Baba had rejected Mehmed II's offers to build him a tekke, the mystic's followers developed a cult complex around his grave, located at the southeastern part of the Hızırilyas hill in the Haskovo-region village of Teketo.  Evliya Çelebi reported a cloister near the Maden dere riverbank and credited Sultan Bayezid II for the construction of the tekke, which included a heptagonal refectory, shaped like a dervish cap and associated with the yediler (cult of the seven). Architectural historian Stephen Lewis also proposes the yediler symbolism of the seven-sided refectory—the türbe (mausoleum)—which he classifies as an early sixteenth-century Ottoman funerary monument, observing its domed structure and ashlar masonry. Gramatikova notes, however, that in 1492 Sultan Bayezid II blamed Otman Baba's followers in Thrace for an assassination attempt on him and ordered their exile to Asia Minor. Nevertheless, the complex became a pilgrimage site for Otman Baba's followers, Muslim locals, and the Romani—who, according to Ottoman documents, have venerated the türbe since at least 1568. Bulgarian scholar Markoff attributes the continued prominence of Otman Baba's cult complex among Bulgarian miracle-seekers to its museum status during communism and protection during the Revival Process.
caption: The türbe of Otman Baba in Teketo, Bulgaria
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