Teachers of the Public, Advisors to the Sultan

310 Pages·2017·1.7 MB·English

Teachers of the Public, Advisors to the Sultan:
Preachers and the Rise of a Political Public Sphere
in Early Modern Istanbul (1600-1675)
Citation
Gurbuzel, Sumeyra A. 2016. Teachers of the Public, Advisors to the Sultan: Preachers and the
Rise of a Political Public Sphere in Early Modern Istanbul (1600-1675). Doctoral dissertation,
Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
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Teachers of the Public, Advisors to the Sultan:
Preachers and the Rise of a Political Public Sphere in Early Modern Istanbul
(1600-1675)

A dissertation presented
by
Sumeyra Aslihan Gurbuzel
to
The Committee on Middle Eastern Studies
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the subject of
History and Middle Eastern Studies

Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
May 2016
© 2016 Sumeyra Aslihan Gurbuzel
All rights reserved
Dissertation Advisor: Professor Cemal Kafadar Sumeyra Aslihan Gurbuzel

Teachers of the Public, Advisors to the Sultan: Preachers and the Rise of a Political Public
Sphere in Early Modern Istanbul (1600-1675)

Abstract
This dissertation focuses on preachers as key actors in the rise of a political public sphere in the
early modern Ottoman Empire. Recently, literature on the political importance of corporate
bodies and voluntary associations has transformed the understanding of the early modern
Ottoman polity. Emphasis has shifted from the valorization of centralized institutions to
understanding power as negotiated between the court and other stakeholders. My dissertation
joins in this collective effort by way of studying preachers, and through them examining the
negotiation of religious authority between the central administration and civic groups. I depict
preachers as “mediating” religious power between the elite and the non-elite, and between the
written and the oral cultures. I argue that the production of religious doctrine and authority took
place at this intermediary space of encounter.
This study of early modern Islam with reference to the frame of public sphere has two
main implications. Firstly, I present a “preacher-political advisor” type in order to demonstrate
that the critical potential of religion was preserved in a new guise. Secondly, I show that informal
circles of education gained primacy in the seventeenth century, giving rise to the
vernacularization of formal sciences. The close reading of the manuscript sources left by
preachers and their pupils also constitutes the first systematic exploration of the intersection
between orality and literacy, and an important contribution to the study of Ottoman popular
culture.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------iii

Table of Contents -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------iv

Dedication ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------vii

Acknowledgments ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------viii

INTRODUCTION: “THE THEATER OF THE CITY:” DEFINING THE EARLY
MODERN OTTOMAN PUBLIC SPHERE ------------------------------------------------------------ 1

I. One Preacher, Many Questions: Emir İştibí (d. 1015/1606) ------------------------------------ 4
II. Seventeenth Century Historiography and an Intermediate “Third Realm” ------------------- 8
III. “Public Sphere”: A Note on Terminology and Historiography ----------------------------- 19
IV. Preachers as Public Agents or Instrumental Fundamentalists? : An Evaluation of the
Secondary Literature on Preachers --------------------------------------------------------------------- 24

V. Chapters and Sources -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 32

CHAPTER I: HOW TO BECOME A PREACHER IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
OTTOMAN EMPIRE: INFORMAL SULAHA NETWORKS and UPWARD SOCIAL
MOBILITY--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 39

I. Sources ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 43

II. The äulaóÀ as an Indigenous Identity Marker: A Social Group of Intermediaries Between
the State and Society -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 51

III. Preachers and Upward Mobility: To Whom Did the Mosques Belong? ------------------ 60

IV. Expressions of Belonging In the Public Sphere ---------------------------------------------- 74
CONCLUSION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 83
iv
CHAPTER II: THE LAWGIVER AS ADVISEE: SULAHÁ AND THE
TRANSFORMATION OF OTTOMAN POLITICAL CULTURE ------------------------------ 84

I. Sources ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 89

II. Advice from “Hızır”s of the Age: Sulaha and the Assertion of Moral Authority -------- 101

III. Sulaha as Intermediaries Between the Public and the Ruler ------------------------------ 111

CONCLUSION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 123

CHAPTER III: SERMON AND SLOGAN: PREACHERS AND THE PRODUCTION OF
PUBLIC CRITIQUE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 126

I. Preaching “According to People’s Capacities”: Popular Culture and Preaching --------- 132
II. An Advice to Memorize: ‘Ömer FuÀdí (d. 1636)’s Public Instruction Through Poetry - 140
III. Who Read a Versified NasihatnÀme? : An Inquiry into the Reception of Versified
Counsel --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 151

CONCLUSION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 177

CHAPTER IV: PREACHERS, INFORMAL LEARNING, and THE
VERNACULARIZATION of FORMAL SCIENCES -------------------------------------------- 180

I. Learning at the Mosque and Lodge: The Education of a Preacher ---------------------------- 187
II. Partial Literacies ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 196
III. Languages and Rhetoric in Practice: Sufis, Preachers, and Poets ------------------------ 198
IV. The Vernacularization of Rhetorical Sciences ---------------------------------------------- 201
CONCLUSION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 223

v
CHAPTER V: KNOWLEDGE AND AUTHORITY: PREACHERS AND THE
TRANSMISSION OF MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE ----------- 225

I. Vernacular Medical Works and the Transmission of Experience --------------------------- 229

II. Healing Practices at the Mosque and the Lodge: Medical Knowledge in Practice ------- 246
III. Pragmatic Authority at the Mosque ---------------------------------------------------------- 259
CONCLUSION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 264
CONCLUSION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 266

BIBLIOGRAPHY ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 269

I. REFERENCE WORKS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 269
II. PRIMARY SOURCES ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 270
III. SECONDARY SOURCES -------------------------------------------------------------------- 275

vi
In loving memories of

Denizciğim Aksoy

(1984-2012)

and

Mohammed Shahab Ahmed

(1966-2015)

vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Finally! I will not conceal my pride and relief at finishing the very long engagement that
is graduate school. I am genuinely grateful for this academic tradition of writing
acknowledgments, since it has allowed me to realize how fortunate I have been. My conversion
to the historian’s path, which took place nearly a decade ago, took place not because of a dream
but because of a dream diary. Reading Cemal Kafadar’s brilliant introduction to the dream logs
of a sixteenth century Sufi woman changed my conception of what history could be. I am
grateful for the many seminars and one-on-one conversations with Professor Kafadar, which
have shaped not only my knowledge of the Ottoman world, but created in me an awareness of
the many fine points of the historian’s craft. Working with Ann Blair has been a wonderful
opportunity; she has been an unwavering source of support and guidance. Finding my way and
staying on it would have been much more of a challenge had it not been for her advice. Her
responsible, diligent scholarship and her openness to a multitude of fields is one I would like to
emulate in my future academic life. Dana Sajdi has been a life saver, always providing the right
insight at the right juncture. It has been a privilege to work closely with her, a scholar whose
work I have always admired both in content and in style. I have also learned a great deal from
working with Khaled al-Rouayheb, not only about Islamic thought but also about academic rigor.
viii
The research that this dissertation is based on has been made possible by the support of a
number of institutions. A research fellowship at the Research Center for Anatolian Studies in
2012-2013; a Scaliger fellowship at Leiden Rare Books Collection in 2013, a research fellowship
at the Orient Institut İstanbul in 2013-2014, and a visiting residence at the Center for the Study of
Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) in Hamburg in Fall 2014, have helped me carry out my research
while finding platforms in which I could share my work with other scholars. I am particularly
thankful to Raoul Motika and Michael Friedrich for their generosity and hospitality at the
CSMC. The staff at Süleymaniye Library, İstanbul University Rare Books Collection and Ankara
Vakıflar Arşivi have also been very helpful during my research.
I thank many friends and colleagues who have kept me company during the past years. I
thank Aytuğ Şaşmaz and Akif Yerlioğlu, who came to my rescue at a trying time and restored
my faith in true friendship. I have thrived on the joy they brought into my days during the past
year. Moreover, the readiness with which Akif and Aytuğ were willing to engage with the details
of my thinking and writing process has been priceless. I could say the same thing for Ardeta
Gjikola, who has been my go-to person for honest feedback on anything and everything. She has
always inspired me as a source of wisdom and unending intellectual excitement. Nir Shafir has
been an exemplary colleague and a wonderful friend. Tülün Değirmenci and Pınar Özgüner
brought the gift of an excellent year in İstanbul in 2012-2013. Janina Karolewski made my
Integration into Hamburg not only smooth, but also delightful. I would also like to thank the
invaluable friendships and collegiality of Rositsa Atanasova, Nilay Karahan, Eugenia Kermeli,
Zeke-Sasha-Naia Mazur, Nergiz Nazlar, Meredith Quinn, Arafat Razzaque, Kathryn Schwartz,
Yavuz Sezer, Melis Taner, Nihal Terzi, Gülşah and Berke Torunoğlu, Ekin Tuşalp-Atiyas, Deniz
Türker, and Hilal Uğurlu. Hakan Köklü and Ayşegül Yönet have brought tremendous joy to my
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