The prominence of Sufism and Sufi brotherhoods as socio-cultural phenomena in urban and rural spheres of early modern community life in Anatolia, Iran, and North Africa is being investigated today from several perspectives. The period beginning with the 1453 Ottoman Conquest of Constantinople and the Safavid Shah Ismail’s rise to power in ca. 1500s witnessed escalating regional rivalries for political supremacy among competing Muslim polities—Ottomans, Akkoyunlu, the Safavids, and the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria. In this politically charged environment, rife with millennial expectations, Safavid Shah Isma’il’s model of charismatic and divine rulership, based on the idea of uncontested spiritual authority as an effective medium to legitimate sovereign power, found receptive audiences and inspired many with political ambitions. As mystical orders became visible models of social and religious organization, affiliation with mystical piety came to designate the politically powerful. Charismatic Sufis began to gain prominence not solely as sources of spiritual guidance but also for their legitimation of politically active figures. At times, they began to vie for political recognition. I argue that the formation of this phenomenon is better understood with a closer look at how individuals with Sufi affiliations appropriated the available sources of literary inspirations and spiritual heritage to fit into their ‘worldly’ agendas to create distinctive forms of piety. The life and career of ?brahim-i Gül?eni (d. 1534 C.E.), known in modern scholarship as the renowed?Acem?-Halveti Sufi, the founder of the Gül?eniye order of dervishes, is a case in point. The mystical literature of the Gül?eniye order, the majority of which is attributed to Gül?eni, helped inspire an expanding follower base in Anatolia and Egypt—which was the final destination for permanent settlement ca. 1510. The poetry produced by the Gül?eniye dervishes—which remains largely unexplored in its historical context—gives evidence of visible shifts from themes of pure mystical love to one promoting a decisively urbanized agenda, emphasizing the order’s inclusivity and the spiritual qualities of its founder. By examining the roots of Gül?eni’s inspirations and heritage, I wish to contribute to our understanding of the fluid nature of mystical piety and the experimental tone of discourse. My aim is to show how mystical discourse was utilized, adapted, and transformed by Gül?eniye dervishes to legitimate social renown for the order, to promote its founder’s saintly status and exert political influence in 16th and 17th century Egypt