For the population of the Ottoman Empire, the death of the long lived Sultan Süleymân, the only ruler most had known, ushered in a period of growing instability. The impending arrival of the Muslim millennium in 1000/1591, and the political and economic tensions unleashed by the Ottoman Empire's growing pains only added to the social and religious tensions of the age. For the nascent following of the Şacbâniye order in Kastamonu, the uncertainty was doubly pronounced given the illness and death of Şacbân-ı Veli shortly after Süleymân. Despite these challenges, the core membership of the order rallied around its leaders and principles, and a disparate group of several successors to Şacbân's legacy emerged who succeeded in maintaining his legacy. These figures had more direct connections with Şacbân's hagiographer, cÖmer el-Fuɔâdî, and their relationships with him developed on a much more personal level than Fuɔâdî could claim with regard to Şacbân himself. Still, a careful reading of Fuɔâdî's narrative of the post-Şacbân era suggests that by the time he acceded to the leadership of the Şacbâniye in 1012/1604, the order's development still remained uneven in character, and the legacy of its founder was under threat as it receded into an increasingly distant past.