Balım Sultan (Bālım Sulṭān, 862 (or 878)-922/1457-8 (or 1478)-1516-7) was the founder of the Bektaşi (Bektāşī) Ṣūfī order, its pir-i sanisi ( pīr-i thānīsi , second spiritual leader), and its first official şeyh (shaykh) . He is accepted by the Bektaşis as the second spiritual leader of Bektaşism after Hacı Bektaş-i Veli (Ḥāccī Bektāş Velī, d. 669/1270). No biographical source exists from his time. All that is known about him rests on oral and written traditions created later within the order, and these contain