Sheikh Zahid Gilani and Other Azerbaijani Sufis in Nurbahş Kuhistani’s Silsile-i Evliya

The paper evaluates Nurbahş Kuhistani and Silsile-i Evliya, who lived in the 15th century. In his work, Nurbahş Kuhistani deals with Azerbaijani sufis, in which he includes names and short biographies. It is given about other Sufis who lived in the same geography and time zone as Sayyid Nesimi. This information aims to understand how Sheikh Zahid and other Sufis emerged in a geography of knowledge. Identifying the names of many Sufis from Azerbaijan, drawing attention to the Sufis that exist in their life and culture environment will contribute to the understanding of the Sufi thought and cultural environment. Thus, the aim of this study is to determine the personalities of the Azerbaijani Sufis from a broader perspective. In this form, the declaration and its source are also important in terms of being the first work about the Sufis of Azerbaijan. The introduction of the book as a new literature on the history of Azerbaijani sufi points to another importance of the paper. Nurbahş Kuhistani (d. 869/1464), on the other hand, is a great Sufi, who carried out activities around the philosophy of Sufism. Nurbahş Kuhistani, whose sect called Nurbahşiyye, was spread in Khorasan and Azerbaijan and had many disciples. Nurbahş Kuhistani included 254 sufis in his Arabic work Silsile-i Evliya. While these sufis were recorded to the cities of Azerbaijan such as Tabrizi, Shirvani and Bakuyi, they also gave Sufi schools which they were famous with in the form of Halveti and Ardabil. Keywords: Sheikh Zahid, Nurbahş Kuhistani, Azerbaijan, Silsile-i Evliya.