Erdoğan attends funeral service of İsmailağa Jamia leader

ISTANBUL

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has attended the funeral service of Mahmut Ustaosmanoğlu, the leader of the İsmailağa Jamia of the Naqshbandi-Khalidiyya Ṭarīqah, who died early on June 23 at the age of 93.

“I was a student in Fatih [Istanbul’s district where the Jamia is centered]. We used to listen to him during Friday prayers and have conversations in Yavuz Sultan Selim Mosque,” Erdoğan said at the funeral ceremony held in the Fatih Mosque on June 24.

“He suffered a lot lately. We believe that he will be neighbor to the beloved [Allah] with the faith he had,” the president added.

Erdoğan, who called Ustaosmanoğlu “a man who devoted his life to Islam” in a message of condolence posted on Twitter on June 23, also gave obituary ads to Turkish newspapers on June 24.

Flying to the Aegean tourism hub of Marmaris to get the latest information about the wildfires early on June 24, the president caught up on the funeral at the last minute.

Local reports said thousands of İsmailağa Jamia followers filled the streets surrounding the mosque.

Ustaosmanoğlu was born in 1929 in the northern province of Trabzon. He became a hafiz by the age of 10 and gained his ijazah by the age of 16.