Esrârü’t-tâlibîn Adlı Risâlenin Yahyâ-yı Şirvânî’ye Aidiyeti Meselesi
The Issue of the Attribution of the Risāla Entitled Asrār al-ṭālibīn to Yaḥya Shirwānī

Summary/Abstract: This article focuses on the authorship of the treatise entitled al-Asrār al-tālibīn, which has many Arabic manuscript copies under various names in many libraries. In other words, the question “To whom does this treatise, which is attributed to different authors in the works of scholars and library records, actually belong?” constitutes the main subject of the article. This work has been attributed to different mystic figures such as 'Abd al-Qādir al-Ghaylānī, 'Ala al-Dīn 'Ali Samarkandī, Yusuf Ghūrānī, Sayyid Yayha Shirwānī, and Shirwānī's caliph Yusuf Ziyāeddin Muskurī. This article is based on the view that Asrār al-ṭālibīn, also known as Sırr al-asrār, cannot be attributed to ʿAbd alQādir al-Ghaylānī because it cites many mystic authors who lived after al-Ghaylānī, contains a separate chapter titled “On the explanation of the Khalwatī vīd,” and some other reasons. Again, since all the copies of Asrār al-ṭālibīn and many copies of Kashf al-asrār attributed to ʿAlā al-Dīn ʿAlī Samarqandī include the phrase “on the explanation of the Khalwādī vīd” at the beginning of the twenty-first chapter, and since ʿAlī Samarqandī's connection to the Khalwādiyya sect is not found in reliable books, it was concluded that Kashf al-asrār could not be by ʿAlī Samarqandī either. Those who attribute the work to Yusuf Ghūrānī have not provided any evidence. However, an examination of the work reveals that the work entitled Beyânu esrāri't-tālibîn fi't-tasawwuf, which is given as Yusuf Gūrānī's work in almost all copies of the aforementioned treatise, contains the phrase “about the explanation of Khalwatī vird” in its twenty-first chapter, It has been concluded that the attribution of the work to him is erroneous due to reasons such as the fact that Gūrānī did not have any initiation relation with the Khalwatiyya order and his name is not mentioned in the books in which the rical figures of the Khalwatiyya order are mentioned. The analysis of the evidence obtained as a result of the research and analysis shows that Asrār al-tālibīn, which is attributed to different names under different names but has the same content, is a work of Sayyid Yahya Shirwānī. Although this work has been attributed to some mystics ufis under different names in different periods of time, the comparative textual analysis of the content and the evidence presented clearly reveal that this treatise belongs to Yahya Shirwānī. The identification of the authorship of this work, which is rich in content and contains commentaries, is important in terms of eliminating a confusion of information. In this study, archival research, document analysis and comparative text analysis have been carried out and almost all available copies have been carefully examined. In addition, while scanning and analyzing the manuscripts of the mentioned treatise in libraries during the preparation of this article, it was observed that Shaykh Uwais and Shaykh Bālī Efendi of Sofia were attributed one copy each in the library records, but no record or manuscript indicating that it belonged to Shirwānī's caliph Yusuf Ziyāeddin Muskurī was found.

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