Battal Gazi

Seyyid Battal Ghazi is a mythical Muslim, saintly figure and warrior based in Anatolia (associated primarily with Malatya, where his father, Hüseyin Gazi, was the ruler ), based on the real-life exploits of the 8th-century Umayyad military leader Abdallah al-Battal. His attributed legends, which also form the bulk of the information available on the historic personality, later became an important part in Turkish folk literature.

His title Seyyid, as well as being an Arabic honorific, may refer, in the form "Seyyid", to family ties to Muhammad. The title of "Seyyid" or "Sayyid" often occurs at Alevism, and it is said that Battal Ghazi was an Alevi Muslim. Alevism is also described as spiritual shiism, or Sufi-shi'a.

Sources available on the historical personality of Abdallah al-Battal consist of legends often written in the mesnevi style, and which may comport historically correct elements or points that support each other, as well as contradictions. For example, he is cited as having participated in his twenties to the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople in 718, and the legends name his Byzantine enemy as Leon, which could be no other than Leo III the Isaurian, the Emperor during the siege. On the basis of this information, his date of birth is reckoned to be around 690-695 and there is a consensus among historians for accepting 740 as the year of his death, at the Battle of Akroinon. On the other hand, in one story Battal Gazi raids the Maiden's Tower and rides away from Üsküdar, on the city's Asian side, with the Emperor's treasures and daughter, an event that is not confirmed by any historical record.

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