Emīr Sulṭān was born in Bukhara, probably around 770 AH [1368-1369 CE]. His father Seyyid ‘Alī, known also as Emīr Külāl, was an established Sufi in
Bukhara. The most probable tradition regarding his sayyid
status is the tracing of his lineage to İbrāhīm b. Imām Mūsā al-Kāẓim. Emīr Sulṭān’s father died when
he was seventeen or eighteen, after which he embarked on a pilgrimage journey together with other Sufis from
Bukhara and traveled to
Bursa after spending time in Medina and Baghdad. He arrived in
Bursa during the reign of Bayezid I (d. 805 AH [1403 CE])
, whose daughter Ḫundī Ḫātūn
he eventually married.
In Bursa, Emīr Sulṭān’s fame spread quickly. Several traditions
tell us that he had close relations with leading scholars of the time, including Mollā Fenārī (d.834/1431). During the
invasion of Bursa by Tīmūr’s army, Emīr Sulṭān was brought before
Tīmūr,
who gave him the choice of accompanying him to Samarkand, but
Emīr Sulṭān
preferred to return to Bursa. Emīr Sulṭān
supported Murād II (d. 855/1451) in his battle for the throne and
took part in the siege of Constantinople by Murād II
(825 AH [1422 CE]) together with five hundred of his dervishes.
The tradition of investing sultans with the sword began with Emīr Sulṭān, who for the
first time invested either Bayezid I or Murād II. After
Emīr Sulṭān’s death, which probably took place in 833 AH [1429 CE], sultans
continued to pay their respects to him, whose help they sought in battle. Himself a proponent of ghaza, the
favours Emīr Sulṭān bestowed upon soldiers during and after his life played a large part in hagiographical tradition.
Regarding Emīr Sulṭān’s Sufi affiliation, several conflicting accounts exist, the most likely of which traces
his lineage back to
Najm al-Dīn Kubrā (d. 618/1221). We can thus say that Emīr Sulṭān was a member of the Kubrawiya order.
On the other hand, among his several hagiographies, those authored by his immediate successors trace
Emīr Sulṭān’s Sufi lineage to ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib via the Twelve Imams. These accounts, along
with the fact that Emīr Sulṭān wore a twelve-gored cap with a green turban suggest that he was a Twelver Shi’ite.
After his death, many poetic works in praise of Emīr Sulṭān were composed. One such work, the Şefā‘at-nāme by Pīr Muḥyiddīn Muḥammed (fl. Sixteenth century), was misattributed to
Emīr Sulṭān by manuscript library catalogues due to its entitlement as
Kitāb-ı Emīr Sulṭān.
