There was, however, no noteworthy nomad rebellion against the authority of the Ottoman state until about 1500, when the nomads and semi-nomads, for whom Ottoman rule had become a distant and alien entity, finally found a focus for their political discontent. This happened at the accession of Sheikh Ismail, of the Safavid order of dervishes, to the Persian throne as Shah Ismail I (1501), in whose state nomad groups were allowed a considerable political role. The Safavids, descended from Sheikh Safi al-Din Ishaki (1252-1334), initially resided in the town of Ardabil in western Iran. But in the fifteenth century the ancestor of Shah Ismail, Sheikh Cunayd, emigrated to Anatolia. There, among a group of nomads, already heterodox from a conventional Sunni Islam point of view, he began to preach an extreme version of the Shia. In the sermons of Sheikh Cunayd and later in those of Ismail himself, Ali, the son in law and nephew of the Prophet Muhummad, was accorded a cosmic significance which far exceeded his historical role. As the religious leaders of extreme Shiite nomads, the Safavid gained the support which Shah Ismail was then able to use in seizing political power.
Marginalized in the Ottoman state, the nomads of Anatolia often gave their support to the newly-emerged Safavid dynasty. One of the resulting rebellions, that of Sahkulu (1511-12), represented a real threat to the Ottoman State, which still only had a fragile grip on Anatolia. This situation brought about a change in the attitude of the Ottoman sultans towards the heterodox religious practices of many nomads and recently settled villagers. In earlier times, the Ottoman sultans had largely concentrated on expansion at the expense of their Christian (i.e. Byzantine, Serbian or Albanian) neighbors. In the process they exhibited considerable tolerance towards the heterodoxy of many of the dervish sheikhs who fought at the frontier along with their nomadic or semi-nomadic followers. This changed with the arrival on the scene of the Safavids; in the sixteenth century the Ottoman Sultans became militant fighters for Sunni beliefs and practices.
These circumstances probably prompted Sultan Bayezid II (reign:1481 - 1512) to encourage the devish order of the Bektashis to guide the nomads towards Sunni Islam. To this end he sponsored the enlargement of certain lodges belonging to the order, such as those located in the small town of Osmancik in northern Anatolia or else in Hacibektas itself. However, in order to communicate with the nomads, the dervishes had to adapt to their way of thinking, and, as a result accepted some of the beliefs they had been sent out to combat. Moreover, heterodox dervishes - that is, those suspected of sympathizing with the Shiite Safavids - were subject to violent persecution in sixteenth century Anatolia. Many of them sought refuge amoung the well established and therefore less threatened Bektashi dervishes.In this way an order which was still more or less Sunni in character around 1500, metamorphosed in the course of a single century into a spiritual community dominated by Shiite conceptions.
ref: Faroqhi, S (2007). Subjects of the Sultan (pg 23-24) London: I.B Tauris & Co Ltd.
Who is the unbeliever? The one (who is) ignorant of (spiritual) master’s faith. Who is the corpse? The one (who is) unaware of the (spiritual) master’s soul.
(ref: Masnavi Book II - 3325)
17th Century Commentary by Anqaravi:
“The unbeliever [kâfir] exists both according to the Way [tarikat] as
well as to the Law [sharî`at]. The unbeliever, according
to the (religious) Law, is someone who completely denies God and
everything which is on the side of God (such as) the prophets and
messengers and whatever appears from them. And according to the
people of the Law, any time someone denies on the inward (level)
but affirms on the outward (level), they call him a believer [=
because the Law judges who is a Muslim by what he says and
does].
However, the people of the Way, who are Truth-seeing
(and) don’t rely only on the speech and actions of someone, don’t
(automatically) recognize him as a believer. But among them an
unbeliever is someone who is unaware of the faith of the spiritual
master– who is the inheritor of the Prophet– and (who) remains
deprived of having a faith like the faith of the spiritual master.”
In 1538 there was a sea battle between the Ottomans and the Portuguese near the Indian port of Diu. Notable success remained elusive and, from the 1540’s onwards, expansion towards the Indian Ocean was pursued with rather less vigor. Nevertheless, the rulers of the principality of Atjeh in northern Sumatra, who wanted the sultan’s help in their own fight against the Portuguese, were granted military support in the form of cannons and gunners. Independently of such ‘military missions’, Ottoman firearms specialists also seem to have found their way to the Indian subcontinent. Moreover, the Ottoman sultans made occasional pious donations to mosques on the west coast of India, for instance in the town of Calicut. Since most of the merchants active in the Indian Ocean at that time were already Muslims, such donations may have been inspired partly by the desire to create a political basis for the Ottoman sultans among these people. In the end, however, it was not the Ottomans, but rather the Mughal rulers of Delhi and Agra who brought the trade center of western India under their control.
On both sides, the conflict between the Ottomans and the Portugese, who had themselves experienced economic and political difficulties in the second half of the sixteenth century, was seen as a religious matter. The Portugese saw themselves as the patrons of Catholic missions, and their settlement in the Indian port of Goa was soon used as the base for missionary activities in the Far East. During their expansion in southern Asia, the Portuguese kings and their officials always saw Muslim rulers and traders as their main enemies. Meanwhile, the Ottoman sultans, in their capacity as protectors of Islam, were approached by the rulers of Atjeh for support. Ottoman rulers also saw ‘religion and state’ (the formula used in many official documents) as indivisable.
ref: Faroqhi, S (2007). Subjects of the Sultan (pg 38-39) London: I.B Tauris & Co Ltd.
A Culture of Sufism: Naqshbandis in the Ottoman World, 1450-1700 (S U N Y Series in Medieval Middle East History) (Hardcover)
Book Description
A Culture of Sufism opens a window to a new understanding of one of the most prolific and enduring of all the Sufi brotherhoods, the Naqshbandiyya, as it spread from its birthplace in central Asia to Iran, Anatolia, Arabia, and the Balkans between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. Drawing on original sources and carefully aware of the power of modern paradigms to obscure, Le Gall portrays a Naqshbandiyya that was devotionally sober yet not demysticized and rigorously orthodox without being politically activist. She argues that the establishment of this brotherhood in Ottoman society was not the product of political instrumentality. Instead the Naqshbandi dissemination is best explained in reference to a series of little-appreciated organizational and cultural modes such as proclivity to long-distance travel, independence from specialized Sufi institutions, linguistic adaptability, commitment to writing and copying, and the practice of bequeathing spiritual authority to non-kin.
From the Publisher
Unearths the history of the Naqshbandiyya, one of the most widespread and enduring Sufi brotherhoods.
About the Author
Dina Le Gall is Assistant Professor of History at Lehman College, The City University of New York.
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Subjects of the Sultan: Culture and Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire (Paperback)
Product Description
To date no book has explored the day-to-day life of the common people during the centuries of Ottoman rule. Suraiya Foroqhi here explores the urban world of the Ottoman lands from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century. She describes the social significance of the popular arts and crafts of the period and examines the interaction among the diverse populations and classes of the Empire. She also brings to life the banalities associated with everyday life, such as bathing, the market, loving and grieving–all explored for the first time.
Book Description
Suraiya Foroqhi here explores the urban world of the common people living under Ottoman rule from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century. She describes the social significance of the popular arts and crafts of the period and examines the interaction among the diverse populations and classes of the Empire. She also brings to life the activities of everyday life, such as bathing, the market, loving and grieving–all explored for the first time.
