The most splendid and famous guild parades in Istanbul were held in the 16th and 17th centuries; of those guild parades, the parade of 1638 definitely was the largest and most spectacular in terms of participants This event is elaborately described in the first volume of Evliyâ Çelebi’s Seyahatnâme, In this paper I wish to briefly consider one previously neglected aspect of this text: Evliyâ’s more or less detailed discussion of the pīrs, the guild patrons. I will begin with a general overview about how Evliyâ introduces these pīrs ; next, I will discuss the longer stories or legends about these pīrs which Evliyâ narrates – though there are not many, unfortunately. Then I will highlight the most significant themes of these stories to show why particular individuals were chosen as pīrs for certain guilds. Finally, I will briefly summarize the similarities and differences between these pīrs and the patrons of the Christian guilds of Europe.