It is a national-religious symbol, especially in the Balkans. Sarı Saltuk appears as a veteran dervish who started the Islamization movement in the Balkans.
The first of the works that talk about Sari Saltuk's epic life is the 14th-century Travel Book of Ibn-i Batuta. About half a century after the death of Sari Saltuk, the well-known Arab traveler stopped by the city of Sogdak in Dest-i Kipchak on his way to Istanbul and arrived at the settlement called Baba Saltuk. He wrote that in these lands where the Turks lived, Baba Saltuk was perceived as having superhuman powers.
The most important work on Sari Saltuk's life is Saltuknâme, compiled and written by Ebu'l Hayr-ı Rumi at the end of the 15th century. It was written with the encouragement of Cem Sultan, who visited the tomb of Sari Saltuk in Babadağı and heard the miracles of Sari Saltuk from his followers and asked for them to be collected. Ebu'l-Hayr-ı Rumi completed this work in seven years.
Another work that sheds light on the life of Sarı Saltuk is Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli Velayetname. According to the Velayetname, Sarı Saltuk is a shepherd. One day, Hacı Bektaş comes out of the ordeal on Mount Arafat and comes to the spring called Zemzem Spring. He sees the shepherd, goes to him, and when he learns that his name is Sari Saltuk, he says, "Come on, we have released you to the land of Rum," and sends him to enlightenment.
Sarı Saltık (also spelled Sarı Saltuk, "the blonde", Ottoman Turkish: also referred as Sari Saltuk Baba or Dede) (died 1297/98) was a 13th-century Alevi Turkish dervish, venerated as a saint by the Bektashi Sufi Muslims in the Balkans and parts of Middle East as well as the mainstream Sunni Muslim community.
Another work that mentions Sarı Saltuk is Evliya Çelebi's Travel Book of the 17th century.
There are different opinions about the name Sarı Saltuk. According to Saltukname, his real name is Şerif Hızır. His father's name is Sayyid Hasan and his mother's name is Rabia. Sari Saltuk lived 99 years, was poisoned by his enemies, and then stabbed to death. Before he took his last breath, he killed his enemy who poisoned and stabbed him.
According to Evliya Çelebi's Travel Book, the real name of Sarı Saltuk is Muhammed Buhari. Ahmet Yesevi; He said, "I am Saltuk Muhammed, my Bektashi, I am sending you to Rum" and sends him to Anatolia.
His taking the name of Saltuk coincides with the period when he started jihad. In one of the battles, he defeated the Christian warrior named Alyon-ı Rumi and converted him to Islam; He establishes a close friendship with him and names him İlyas-ı Rumi. He, in turn, gives Şerif Hızır the name Saltuk, which means a very strong man in their language.
Sari Saltuk appears on the stage of history for the first time during the struggle for reign between the sons of Second Gıyaseddin Keyhusrev in Seljuk Anatolia under Mongol oppression and domination in the second half of the 13th century. Second Izzeddin Keykavus, who was defeated several times in a row by his brother Rükneddin Kılıçarslan, who had the support of the Mongol authorities, finally set foot in Constantinople in 1262, took refuge in the Byzantine emperor Mihail, who was his maternal relative, together with his family and close men.
After a long and struggling period, at the age of twenty-seven, Izzeddin and his relatives, stepped into the expatriate life never to return, and their relatives, after a two-year visit to Constantinople; were Tired of city life. Izzeddin states that he wants to allocate land for winter in winter and spring in summer and to settle there together by bringing Turkmen who are subject to him from Anatolia. Mihail accepts this wish and allows them to settle in Dobruca, which is located between the Byzantine and the Golden Horde-dominated Dasht-i Kipchak (now partly in Bulgaria, partly within the borders of Romania and on the Black Sea coast).
The appearance and historical role of Sarı Saltuk on the stage of history begins with this event. Sari Saltuk is the head of a large nomadic Turkmen tribe settled in Dobruca, which was allocated to them by the Byzantine Emperor Mihail. According to one view, this tribe is a branch of the Chepni Turkmen, and according to another view, it is a tribe from the Kipchak Turks.
It is highly probable that the Byzantine emperor allocated Dobruja to the settlement of Izzeddin and his Turkmens in order to protect his borders from the attacks of the Tatars in Deşt-i Kipchak and to secure himself by creating a buffer zone between them. However, after a while, Izzeddin and the Turkmens had to take shelter in the Golden Horde from Dobruca due to some events they were uncomfortable with, and they moved to Deşt-i Kipchak.
In the contemporary Byzantine chronicles, although the migration to Dobruja is mentioned; The fact that Sarı Saltuk is mentioned neither in these nor in the Seljuk chronicles is not because such a person does not actually exist; probably due to the fact that he lived in a nomadic environment at the time of the Dobruja migration, he did not become known by getting involved in some political struggles and conflicts. As a matter of fact, the same is true for Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli. For the same reason, he was not reflected in any official sources of his period.
Some historians such as Fuat Köprülü, Zeki Velidi Togan, and Faruk Sümer consider it very probable that the tribe that immigrated to Dobruca, including Sarı Saltuk, was the Çepni tribe, who we know participated in the Babaîs revolt in 1240.
Sari Saltuk, like other Turkmen fathers who lived in the Seljuk and Ottoman periods, should be both sheik and tribal leaders so that he can manage such a migration movement. It is already known that Turkmen's fathers carried the status of both tribal chieftain and sheikh.
The thing that comes to the fore the most in Sarı Saltuk's anecdotal personality is that he is a mujahid saint with a wooden sword. There is almost no place in the world where Sari Saltuk did not get angry. According to Saltuknâme, the places he visited are as follows: Western Anatolian lands, Thrace, Bulgaria, Romania, the places surrounding the Black Sea from the north and the Dasht-i Kipchak region, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Russia, Iran. Almost the entire old world, including Turkestan, Afghanistan, China, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Abyssinia, and Arabia.
It would be appropriate to say the following about the tombs of Sari Saltuk. It is reported in Saltuknâme and Vilayetname that he asked for seven coffins to be prepared before his death and bequeathed them to seven kings, each of them to be taken to his hometown. According to Evliya Çelebi, the seven tombs of Sarı Saltuk are located in Moscow, Poland, Danzing-Bohemia, Sweden-Lithuania, Edirne-Babaeski, Moldavia-Babadağı and Dobruca-Kaligra. However, due to the Yellow Salt Cult, which became widespread later on, the number of these shrines far exceeded the figure of seven. For this reason, many mausoleums of Sari Saltik are found in the Balkans and Anatolia.
The Yellow Saltuk Cult has become so widespread that, in the Christian world, Sarı Saltuk is recognized as a Christian saint as Aya Nikola, his tomb in Babaeski is considered to belong to Aya Nikola, his tomb in Kaligra is visited by both Muslims and Christians, We learn from the historian and archaeologist Frederik William Hasluck that the tomb shown in Korfo as belonging to Aya Spyridon was recognized by some Bektashis as the tomb of Sari Saltuk, and in some places, it was known as Aya Yorgi and Aya Naorum. Another expression of the prevalence of the cult of Sari Saltuk in the Christian world is that when they attack the enemy in wars, they mention the name of Sari Saltuk alongside the names of Meryem, Jesus, and Saint Nicolas and ask for help from him.