Khwaja Ahmad Yasavi

Ahmad Yassawi
Born	1093
Died	1166
Region	Central Asia
School	Sufism
Main interests	Fiqh and Hadith

Khawaja Ahmad Yassawi or Ahmed Yesevi (Arabic: أحمد يسوي‎‎, Uzbek: Ahmad Yasaviy, Аҳмад Ясавий, ئەحمەد يەسەۋىي; Kazakh: Ахмет Ясауи, Axmet Yasawï, احمەت ياساۋئ; Turkmen: Ahmet Ýasawy, Ахмет Ясавы, آحمِت يَسَویٛ; Turkish: Ahmet Yesevi; born in Sayram in 1093, and died in 1166 in Turkestan City; both cities are now in Kazakhstan), was a Turkic poet and Sufi, an early mystic who exerted a powerful influence on the development of Sufi orders throughout the Turkic-speaking world. Yasavi is currently the earliest known Turkic poet who composed poetry in Middle Turkic. Ahmed Yesevi was a pioneer of popular mysticism, founded the first Turkic Sufi order, the Yasawiyya or Yeseviye, which very quickly spread over Turkic-speaking areas. He was an Hanafi scholar like his murshid, Yusuf Hamdani.

Yassawi's father was named Ibrahim. At age seven, when he was orphaned by the loss of his father, Yasawi was raised by another spiritual father, . By age seven, Ahmad Yasawi had already advanced through a series of high spiritual stages and then, under the direction of Arslan Baba, the young Ahmad reached a high level of maturity and slowly began to win fame from every quarter. His father Shaikh Ibrahim had already been renowned in that region for performing countless feats and many legends were told of him. Consequently, it was recognized that, with respect to his lineage as well, this quiet and unassuming young boy, who always listened to his elder sister, held a spiritually important position.

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