In Vergili, a village also called Becirman in the Gercüş district of Batman, stands the tomb of Seyyid Bilal, which the provincial directorate calls the busiest centre of faith tourism in south-eastern Anatolia.
Seyyid Bilal is held to descend from the line of Hüseyin, grandson of the prophet Muhammed. The inscription in his tomb gives his life as 1132–1212. He spent part of his life in the Kerbela region and in 1154 moved from Bağdat to Vergili, then part of the sancak of Hasankeyf, where he lived until his death. From the start of the beylik period to the last years of the Ottoman sultanate rulers respected him, and Sultan Abdülhamit exempted the village where he is buried from taxes in recognition of the unity his message of peace, brotherhood and love had fostered.
Vergili is known across the country as the village of the seyyids and is regarded as sacred. It also keeps an old character, with many caves, historic hans and water mills around it. Every year in the second week of September commemoration days for Seyyid Bilal draw people to Becirman from all over Türkiye.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Batman as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 2.6 °C in January to 30.3 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in March (76 mm) and lightest in July (2 mm). Long-term means for 1952-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
