Kirdeci ʿAlī is known as the author of three religious stories (dāstān):
The Kesik Bāş Destānı, the Güvercin Destānı, the Ejderhā Destānı. The only information about his life is also given by
him in those stories. Nothing else is known about his life. He mentions the names of Mevlānā (Rūmī) (d. 672/1273) , Shams-i Tabrīzī (d. 645/1247 ?) and
Aḥmed Faḳīh (d. 618/1221 or 628/1230) in his works, which is often accepted as
evidence of his belonging to Mawlaw'īyya sect.
His name Kirdeci, meaning the maker of pitta bread/bread, might suggest his role as the baker
in a dervish convent. Vasfi Mahir Kocatürk argues that he lived between the
13th and 15th centuries [1200-1499 CE]
based on the general characteristics of the language used in his stories. This is emphasizes
by one of the manuscripts dated 1461 [1461 CE] where
the Ejderhā Destānı is included.
However, Halit Biltekin
has noted that there is an earlier manuscript dated 760 AH [1359 CE],
where another story by Kirdeci ʿAlīthe ʿÖmer b. Ḥaṭṭāb Destānı is included. So it might be possible to suggest that he was
active in 13th or 14th centuries [1200-1399 CE].
Although some other stories such as the Ḥikāye-i Delletü’l-Muḫtel,
the Ḥikāye-i Geyik and the Dāstān-ı İsmāʿil are usually included in the manuscripts containing the works mentioned
above, the attribution of these last three works to Kirdeci ʿAlī
is no clear, since his name doesn’t appear in those stories. Further, despite the fact that his name
appears in the works mentioned above, there is no way to be certain if Kirdeci is the person who is
simply putting in writing already existing folk stories or if he is the author of them.
This is a short mathnawi composed of 90-130 bayts about the prophet Muhammad’s
virtues and the 4th caliph of Islam Ali (b. Abi Talib) (35/656-40/661)’s braveness often told to
stimulate religious feelings among the Muslim population. The story is of a man who is decapitated and
whose body is eaten by a giant which also holds 500 Muslims captive in his well. When the prophet Muhammad
asks for a volunteer to go against the giant, Ali (b. Abi Talib) (35/656-40/661) steps forward, kills the giant
and saves everyone.
The work is written in mathnawi form, consisting of 31-43 bayts. In the story,
the angels Michael and Gabriel appearing in the forms of a pigeon and a falcon are
testing the prophet Muhammad to reveal his good
character and morality.
This is a mathnawi consisting of 113 bayts in which the 4th caliph of Islam Ali (b. Abi Talib) (35/656-40/661)
volunteers to fight a dragon however he cannot succeed because he forgets to ask for the blessings of God
and the prophet Muhammad. When he understands the mistake he made and asks for their blessing, he becomes
able to slain the dragon with his legendary sword Zulfiqar.
The work is written in mathnawi form, consisting of 31-43 bayts. In the story, the angels
Michael and Gabriel appearing in the forms of a pigeon and a falcon are testing the prophet Muhammad to reveal
his good character and morality.
This is a short mathnawi composed of 90-130 bayts about the prophet Muhammad’s
virtues and the 4th caliph of Islam Ali (b. Abi Talib) (35/656-40/661)’s braveness often told to
stimulate religious feelings among the Muslim population. The story is of a man who is decapitated and
whose body is eaten by a giant which also holds 500 Muslims captive in his well. When the prophet Muhammad
asks for a volunteer to go against the giant, Ali (b. Abi Talib) (35/656-40/661) steps forward, kills the giant
and saves everyone.
This is a short mathnawi consisting of 15 bayts in which the 2nd caliph of Islam Umar ibn Al-Khattab (13/634-23/644)
converts a Jewish community to Islam. Only one copy known of the work in which Kirdeci ʿAlī’s name can
be seen is published by Halit Biltekin
An anonymous mes̱nevī of 364 couplets narrating the adventures of a trickster woman named Delletü’l-Muḥtāl.
For this reason, Amil Çelebioğlu named the mes̱nevī Hikâye-i Delletü'l-Muhtel. The first part of the story narrates how she
manages to have two husbands ignorant of each other, both of them thieves. Kirdeci ʿAlī's name appears in one
of the last couplets of the work. A partial prose version of the story is found in a manuscript located at the library
of the Türk Dil Kurumu (MS A 142/36).
A mes̱nevī of 111 couplets on the spiritual levels of Abu’l- Dardāʾ al-Anşārī al-Khazrajī
and his wife, who are generally considered among the Companions (Ṣaḥāba). According to the story,
they lived in great poverty and had no wish for wealth. By miracle, the Prophet increased the size of their
house and their source of food, allowing them to give a feast to the Companions. He then shrank their house
to its original size and turned a marble column in their house into a source of milk and honey. Among the
three versions of the story in Turkish, the single extant manuscript of the version attributed to
Kirdeci ʿAlī includes only the name of ʿAlī and may thus be a misattribution. Another version
is the one written by Aḳsarāylı ʿĪsā
. A third version is part of the Menāḳıb-ı Mevlānā
written by Loḳmānī Dede in 910.
