According to the 17th-century traveller Evliya Çelebi, his real name was Mehmed, and he originated from Bukhara.[2] According to 14th-century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta, Saltik was an "ecstatic devotee", although "things are told of him that are reproved by the Divine Law".[3] He is considered by various sources a disciple of Mahmud Hayran,[4] of Haji Bektash Veli,[5] or of one of the successors of Ahmed ar-Rifa'i.[6] Early 20th-century historian Frederick Hasluck considered him a saint of a Tatar tribe from Crimea, which had brought his cult into Dobruja, from where it was spread by the Bektashis.[7]