The Transformation of Muslim Mystical Thought in the Ottoman Empire: The Rise of the Halveti Order, 1350-1650

353 Pages·2010·2.23 MB·English

by  John Curry

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The Transformation of Muslim Mystical Thought m in the Ottoman Empire
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The Rise of the Halveti Order, 1350–1650 n
The Rise of the Halveti Order, 1350–1650
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John J. Curry f

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One of the more poorly understood aspects of the history of
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the Ottoman Empire has been the flourishing of Sufi mysticism li
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under its auspices. This study tracks the evolution of the Halveti

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order from its modest origins in medieval Azerbaijan to the
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emergence of its influential S¸acbâniyye branch, whose range s
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extended throughout the Empire at the height of its expansion. i
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With careful reconstruction of the lives of formerly obscure l
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figures in the order’s history, a complex picture emerges of the h
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connections of Halveti groups with the Ottoman state and
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society. Even more importantly – since the S¸acbâniyye branch of g
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the order grew out of the towns and villages of the northern t

Anatolian mountains rather than the major urban centres – this in

work has the added benefit of bringing a unique perspective to t
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how Ottoman subjects lived, worked and worshipped outside e

the major urban centres of the Empire. Along the way, it sheds O
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light on less-visible actors in society, such as women and t
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artisans, and challenges widely held generalisations about the m
activities and strategies of Ottoman mystics. a
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John J. Curry is an Assistant Professor of Near Eastern and m
Islamic History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. p
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ISBN 978 0 7486 3923 6 h
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Edinburgh University Press J
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22 George Square C
Edinburgh EH8 9LF u
www.euppublishing.com rr
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Jacket image: ‘Visit to a dervish’. Page from
Khvarazmi, Makhzan al-Asrar, dateable 1610–1615,
copied by Ali Rida-yi Abbasi, Safavid Isfahan E
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© Topkapı Palace Museum in
b John J. Curry
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Jacket design: Michael Chatfield rg
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THE TRANSFORMATION OF
MUSLIM MYSTICAL THOUGHT IN
THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
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This work is dedicated to:
Professor Carl Petry
for his support and introducing me to the fi eld of
Islamic studies so many years ago
and
the late Professor S¸inasi Tekin
for without his tireless endeavors to teach a generation
of new scholars the secrets of Ottoman Turkish, this
book could never have been written
rahmet olsun canına
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THE
TRANSFORMATION
OF MUSLIM
MYSTICAL
THOUGHT IN THE
OTTOMAN EMPIRE
The Rise of the Halvet˙I Order,
1350–1650
John J. Curry
Edinburgh University Press
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© John J. Curry, 2010
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh
www.euppublishing.com
Typeset in JaghbUni by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and
printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 3923 6 (hardback)
The right of John J. Curry to be identifi ed as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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CONTENTS
List of Maps and Figures vii
Abbreviations for Frequently Cited Works in the Text viii
Acknowledgments xiii
Note on Transliteration xvi
Map 1 xvii
Map 2 xviii
INTRODUCTION: ON THE STUDY OF OTTOMAN MYSTICAL
TRADITIONS 1
PART I. THE RISE AND SPREAD OF THE HALVETİ ORDER
FROM ITS ORIGINS THROUGH THE ELEVENTH/
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
INTRODUCTION 15
1 EARLY SUFISM AND THE ORIGINS OF THE HALVETİ PATH,
C. 900–1400 21
2 THE GREAT EXPANSION: FROM REGIONAL ORGANIZATION
TO FAR- FLUNG NETWORK, C. 1400–1600 50
PART II. THE EVOLUTION OF A HALVETİ SUB- BRANCH: THE
LIFE AND CAREER OF S¸AʿBÂN-I VELİ AND HIS
FOLLOWERS IN THE KASTAMONU REGION
INTRODUCTION 89
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vi The Transformation of Muslim Mystical Thought
3 ECHOES OF A DISTANT PAST: S¸AʿBÂN- I VELİ’S EARLY LIFE
AND CONVERSION TO SUFISM 93
4 GENESIS OF A SUB- BRANCH: S¸AʿBÂN- I VELİ’S STRUGGLES
IN KASTAMONU 108
5 AN UNEVEN LEGACY: THE SUCCESSION TO S¸AʿBÂN- I
VELİ TO THE END OF THE TENTH/SIXTEENTH CENTURY 156
PART III. DEFENDING THE CULT OF SAINTS IN ELEVENTH/
SEVENTEENTH- CENTURY KASTAMONU:
TRANSFORMING THE S¸AʿBÂNİYE ORDER UNDER ʿÖMER
EL- FUʾÂDÎ
INTRODUCTION 197
6 ʿÖMER EL- FUʾÂDÎ AS SUFI ASPIRANT AND
HAGIOGRAPHER: THE ROAD TO S¸AʿBÂNİYE SUCCESSION 199
7 INSCRIBING THE S¸AʿBÂNİYE ORDER ONTO
KASTAMONU’S LANDSCAPE 223
8 THE POLITICAL AND DOCTRINAL LEGACY OF ʿÖMER
EL- FUʾÂDÎ 268
CONCLUSION: WHAT CAN THE S¸AʿBÂNİYE TEACH US
ABOUT TRANSITIONS IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD OF
WORLD HISTORY? 292
Appendix I 299
Appendix II 303
Works Cited and Further Reading 305
Index of Persons 321
Index of Places 326
Index of Subjects 328
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MAPS AND FIGURES
MAP 1 THE MIDDLE EAST xvii
MAP 2 TURKEY xviii
FIGURE 1 INTERIOR OF THE S¸AʿBÂN- I VELİ MOSQUE IN
KASTAMONU, TURKEY 9
FIGURE 2 THE ENTRANCE TO THE S¸AʿBÂN- I VELİ COMPLEX 90
FIGURE 3 THE TOMB OF SEYYID AHMED SÜNNETÎ EFENDİ 95
FIGURE 4 THE TOMB OF HAYREDDÎN TOKÂDÎ 102
FIGURE 5 THE COMPLEX OF BENLİ SULTAN IN THE VILLAGE
OF AHLAT NEAR MT İLGÂZ 113
FIGURE 6 THE INSCRIPTION OVER THE S¸AʿBÂN- I VELİ
MOSQUE 226
vii
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Abbreviations FOR FREQUENTLY CITED
WORKS IN THE TEXT
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(İstanbul: Gül Matbaası, 1983).
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S¸aʿban- ı Veli ve Külliyesi (Ankara: Turk Hava Kurumu Basımevi,
1991).
AK- IM Knysh, Alexander, Islamic Mysticism: A Short History (Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 2000).
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Câmileri ve Diğer Dînî- Sivil Miʾmârî Yapıları. ed. Ahmed Nezih
Galitekin (İstanbul: İs¸aret Yayınları, 2001).
BGM M artin, B. G., “A Short History of the Khalwati Order of Dervishes,”
in Nikki R. Keddie (ed.), Scholars, Saints, and Sufi s: Muslim
Religious Institutions Since 1500 (Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press, 1972), pp. 275–305.
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Deposition of the Ottoman Sultan Osman II (1618–1622),” unpub-
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CAMA Seyyid Seyfullah Kazım b. Nizâmeddîn (d. 1009/1601). Câmiʿüʾl-
Maʿârif, İstanbul: Süleymaniye Ktp. MS Haci Mahmud Efendi 2335.
CF- MA Fleischer, Cornell, Bureaucrat and Intellectual in the Ottoman
Empire: The Historian Mustafa Âlî (1541–1600) (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1986).
CHVS Çavusoğlu, Semiramis, “The Kadızadeli Movement: An Attempt of
S¸erîʿat- Minded Reform in the Ottoman Empire,” unpublished Ph.D.
thesis, Princeton University, 1990.
viii
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Abbreviations ix
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Power (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).
DİA Türk Diyanet Vakfı İslam Ansiklopedisi, 2nd edn.
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Niyâzî-i Misrî (1618–1694),” unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Harvard
University, 1999.
EI2 Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edn.
EI3 Encyclopaedia of Islam, 3rd edn.
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Suhrawardî and the Rise of the Islamic Mystical Brotherhoods
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Türkiye Türkçesi ile Tercümesi, ed. Orhan Yavuz (Ankara: Kültür
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1020/1591–1611) (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1983).
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Nuruosmaniye Lib., MS 2293.
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Nuʿmâniye (S¸ekâʾik- i Nuʿmâniye ve Zeyilleri), vol. 1, ed. Abdullah
Özcan (İstanbul: Çağrı Yayınları, 1989).
IJMES International Journal of Middle East Studies
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Within the Halveti Order in the 16th and 17th Centuries,” in Hasan
Celâl Güzel et al. (eds), The Turks, vol. 3 (Ankara: Yeni Türkiye,
2002), pp. 912–20.
JC-H WS C urry, John J., “‘Home is Where the Shaykh Is’: The Concept of
Exile in the Hagiography of İbrâhîm- i Güls¸eni,” Al- Masâq: Islam
and the Medieval Mediterranean 17:1 (2005), 47–60.
JC-I PP C urry, John J., “The Intersection of Past and Present in the Genesis
of an Ottoman Sufi Order: the life of Cemâl el- Halvetî (d. 900/1494
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JESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
JMIAS Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society
JP- DO Paul, Jürgen, Doctrine and Organization: The Khwâjagân
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Das Arabische Buch, 1998).
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