The first sun of the new year

"If the first sun born in the new year does not light up my teacher's bedside, what use is that sun to me!"

These words belong to İbrahim Hakkı of Erzurum. They express the emotional reason behind a light mechanism he prepared, under eighteenth-century conditions, for İsmail Fakirullah, under whom he had studied in Tillo. When he set out from Erzurum to acquire knowledge, met his teacher, and arrived in Tillo, where he would spend a lifetime, he found waiting for him the accumulated knowledge and spiritual insight of centuries that was alive in Tillo in those days. Undoubtedly İbrahim Hakkı's own distinctive genius added a new dimension to this accumulation of knowledge and insight and enriched it, but an immensely rich soil that nourished his genius and allowed it to flourish was already there.

It is regrettable that not enough attention is paid to the existence, in these lands, of a madrasa tradition that made the emergence of such geniuses possible during the very period when Europe was living through its own Middle Ages.

The works that İbrahim Hakkı produced as the result of his multi-disciplinary scientific research during his time in Tillo sufficiently reflect what kind of accumulation of knowledge and insight existed in the madrasas of Tillo, even for that era. İbrahim Hakkı, who is said to have known the depths and events of space better than the streets of Tillo, was not only an astronomer; besides a universal discipline of knowledge covering all the sciences such as physics, metaphysics, literature and theology, of the kind seen in the classical generation of scholar-philosophers, he also possessed a strong dimension of spiritual insight. Although he may have been transmitted to later generations because he produced great works, it is important to note that this body of knowledge did not form out of thin air. It is well known that he received very important lessons especially from his teacher İsmail Fakirullah.

Truly, his relationship with Fakirullah constitutes an epic example of the place that the teacher-student, master-apprentice relationship occupies within the Islamic cultural tradition. Of course he did not take from his teacher only information or knowledge, as is the case or as happens these days. From the very first days of the long period of instruction that lasted years, the relationship he established with his teacher was not only a cognitive one but also an emotional and spiritual one. It can easily be said that this pair is among those who added teacher-student love to the kinds of love through its most beautiful example. Within a tradition that says "I would be the slave of one who taught me a single letter for forty years," it is a relationship that understood this slavery not as a debt or a burden but as a love from the heart, an attachment, a devotion. Could values such as surpassing the teacher, or advancing the lesson one has received by criticizing the teacher, emerge from this relationship? To those who might ask this, the performance displayed by İbrahim Hakkı himself constitutes the best answer.

To express this spiritual feeling toward his teacher, İbrahim Hakkı set up an interesting light mechanism. With a lens he placed on a hill to the east of Tillo, he managed to reflect the first light of the sun rising on 21 March and 21 September, the dates on which day and night are equal in the year, in such a way that it would illuminate his teacher's tomb. That the mechanism he built was in fact anything but simple, and required possessing extremely strong and precise knowledge of optics, physics and astronomy, was probably understood when, after nearly two hundred years, the mechanism was dislodged in order to be restored. For the lenses that were dislodged during this restoration in the early sixties could not be put back in place again despite all efforts. Thus the mechanism, which had worked without problems for almost 160 years after his death, became inoperative. For that reason, the "first light of the new year" event that İbrahim Hakkı had promised his teacher had not taken place for about fifty years.

After these fifty years, a seven-person scientific commission formed with the support of TÜBİTAK, at the end of very long work, succeeded in setting up the mechanism again and making it work. For this purpose, the light event, whose first trials last year ended successfully, is being watched and evaluated on 21-23 September under the leadership of the Siirt Governorship, within a framework in which topics such as "Tillo, Ulema, Madrasas, education, teacher-student relations" are also discussed.

In these events, now held for the second time this year, the light event was also watched collectively in the early hours of the morning with the participation of guests who came from all over Turkey.

Undoubtedly the light event is not merely a simple event of optical reflection. Very many meanings can be reflected from this event. Foremost among these meanings is a call to bear witness to the spiritual depth of the teacher-student relationship.

The people of Siirt in particular think that this special kind of love may have a very special resonance and message for Teachers' Day, celebrated every year on 24 November. The campaign carried out by Siirtliler.net is remarkable in this regard. Starting this year, the Siirt Governorship too will hold the award ceremony on Teachers' Day in Tillo, following the deep lesson inherent in the teacher-student relationship between İbrahim Hakkı and İsmail Fakirullah. Let us announce from here that the Honorable Minister of National Education is also expected to attend these ceremonies.