Conqueror Sultan Mehmed's mentor: Who is Akshamsaddin?

(1389-1459) Ottoman scholar. He had an extraordinary effect on the army during the capture of Istanbul. His real name is Sheikh Mehmed Şemseddin bin Hamza. He was born in Osmancık. He died in Göynük. According to the sources from his age, his father is Hamza from Şahabeddin Sühreverdi. After completing his primary education in Amasya, he went to Aleppo; He stayed for a while and returned to Ankara to get a hand from Hacı Bayram Veli, whose fame he had heard. After the death of Hacı Bayram Veli, he founded the Bayramiye Sect, inspired by him. Sultan Murad II, who was also affiliated with Bayramiye, summoned Akşemseddin to Edirne Palace and assigned him to train his son Şehzade Mehmed [Fatih]. He stayed with Sultan Mehmed until the capture of Istanbul. The fact that he spread the belief that the conquest of Istanbul was an order of God and a longing for a prophet had a great impact on the warriors. After the war ended successfully, he said that in a dream he had, he was shown the place where Eba Eyyubu'l-Ensari, one of the prophet's relatives, who were in the Arab army that had been besieging Istanbul before, was shown to him, and he ensured the establishment of the district called Eyub Sultan.

Akshamsaddin (Muhammad Shams al-Din bin Hamzah, Turkish: Akşemseddin) (1389, Damascus – 16 February 1459, Göynük, Bolu), was an influential Ottoman Sunni Muslim scholar, poet, and mystic saint.

Akşemseddin/Akshamsaddin (Turkish spelling) stayed among the relatives of Mehmed II in the palace for a while after the capture of Istanbul. He was forced to leave the palace and Istanbul as a result of the provocations of religious scholars who were pro-shariah and opposed to Sufism; He did not return to Istanbul until his death.

His life-long work is twofold. One includes medical subjects within the framework of the scientific possibilities of its age. In this regard, he focused on drug making, healing, and health protection, following the scientific tradition that started from the First Age and continued throughout the Middle Ages. He applied the method of making use of plants and roots in medicine. The plants he used and the method of making medicine were thought to be his own invention; whereas, Dr. Adnan Adıvar, by comparing the sources in his work titled Science in the Ottoman Turks, revealed that this was wrong and that this information was transferred from a book later translated from Paracelsus and presented as Akşemseddin's.

Akşemseddin's influence lasted for ages due to the Bayramiye Sect, of which he was the second founder, and spread over a wide area. The fact that extraordinary events about him are included in the books written about Akşemseddin, later on, is the natural result of the method used by the Anatolian people to keep a loved one alive. A neighborhood and a street in Fatih District in Istanbul were named Akşemseddin. Although it is seen that there are poems written in the name of Akşemseddin in some sources, it is understood that they do not have the characteristics of the middle of the 15th century in terms of language.