Türkiye: Head of İsmailağa community passes away at 93

The İsmailağa community is one of Turkey's most prominent religious communities that was formed between 1954 and 1997 by Mahmud Ustaosmanoğlu.

“His Excellency Mahmud Effendi, my grandfather, has reached Allah,” Ustaosmanoğlu’s grandson announced on Twitter.

Mahmud efendi hazretleri dedem hazreti Allah’a vasıl oldular

— Muhammed Fatih Ustaosmanoğlu (@mfustaosmanoglu) June 22, 2022

A funeral prayer for Ustaosmanoğlu will be held at Fatih Mosque on Friday, June 24, after the Friday prayer.

Ustaosmanoğlu was born to a village imam in Miço (now Tavşanlı) village of the Of district in Türkiye’s northern Trabzon province. He became a hafiz under his father by the age of 10 and continued his madrasa education, gaining his ijazah by the age of 16. Afterwards he married his cousin and started his work as an imam.

In 1952, Ustaosmanoğlu met Ahıskalı Ali Haydar Efendi (Gürbüzler), a Naqshbandi sheikh who became his murshid. Ali Haydar Efendi appointed him as the imam of the İsmailağa Mosque in 1954. By the year 1960, Ustaosmanoğlu's life had its greatest turn after Ali Haydar Efendi's demise and he became the leader of the path (tariqa). In 1996, he retired as the imam of the İsmailağa mosque.

Ustaosmanoğlu tried to keep a low profile in the following years, especially after the 1997 military memorandum in Turkey. (ILKHA)