Balım Sultan

He is considered the primary personality in the Bektashi Order after Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli (Haji Bektash) and is regarded as the “Second Pir” (pīr-e ṯānī or second elder).

The genealogy of Balïm is a contested matter, but most versions seek to link him to the miraculously begotten sons of Ḥājī Bektāš, Ḥabīb and Ḵeżr Lāla, as a reinforcement of his spiritual descent from the founding elder of the order.

[2] He was a follower of a Bektashi convent in northeastern Greece before being appointed by sultan Bayezid II to the Pīr Evi, the mother tekke in Sulucakarahöyük (near Kırşehir) in 1501.

[5] Ranks in the hierarchy established to Balïm were the following: ʿāšeq, moḥebb, darvīš, bābā, ḵalīfa, and mojarrad.

If he advanced to the rank of darvīš, he would be told to let his beard grow, be given the Bektāšī tāj to wear, and be assigned one of several menial tasks in the tekka.