Fleet K. The Cambridge History of Turkey: Volume 1, Byzantium to Turkey, 1071-1453
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their acceptance of Islam, for Gazan Han’s conversion and official recognition
of Sunnism in 1296 speeded up the spreading of this new religion among the
nomadic Mongol tribes. These tribes, who had followed their shamanist way
of life since their arrival on the Anatolian steppe, generally likened the Turko-
man babas to their own shamans, as Fuad K
¨
opr
¨
ul
¨
u said, and for this reason
they started to convert to Islam through the Turkoman babas whom they felt
close to, and began gradually to settle on the land.
The vibrant Sufi environment of medieval Turkey: the entry
and spread of Sufism in Anatolia
After the completion of the conquest of a large part of Anatolia and the
stabilising and strengthening of the political and social environment, that is,
approximately from the beginning of the thirteenth century, the dervishes
and s¸eyhs, members of various Sufi movements and tarikats, entered Anatolia
and began to settle. These Sufis found there a favourable environment for
the spreading of Sufism, while the political leaders in turn received valuable
spiritual support which strengthened their presence and legitimised them in
the eyes of the population.
These mystics, Sufis, s¸eyhs and dervishes coming from a different circle and
with a different outlook, speaking different languages and wearing different
clothes, came in with the nomadic waves discussed above, and settled. Those
from the towns settled in urban centres, and those from rural regions, in the
countryside. Thus both high (urban) and popular (rural) Sufism began to be
brought into the Anatolian lands from other parts of the Islamic world. High
Sufi circles generally had a strong moral character in which the understand-
ing of ascetism (z
¨
uhd ve takva) was very influential. Only Mevlana would be
an exception to this. In this context we should call to mind among others
Muhieddin
˙
Ibn Arabi (d. 1241), his successor Sadreddin Konevi (d. 1274), and
their disciples, and the members of the Kadiriye and the Rifaiye tarikats.
86
A further Sufi group was that which was known as Horasani because
the majority of its members followed a Sufi understanding that was dom-
inant in Transoxiana, Iran and particularly in the region of Horasan. Fuad
K
¨
opr
¨
ul
¨
u stressed the important fact that this group at one time had a
great influence in the Middle East, and in particular among the Sufi move-
ments in Anatolia. The extent of this influence was such that even today
many Turkish families link their own roots to this region. There were
86 A. T. Karamustafa, ‘Origins of Anatolian Sufism’, in Sufism and Sufis in Ottoman Society,
ed. A. Y. Ocak (Ankara, 2005), pp. 67–96. The article gives a new and interesting picture
of the roots of Anatolian Sufism.
390
Social, cultural and intellectual life, 1071–1453
many different Sufi trends present in this group. Among its most famous
proponents were Evhadeddin Kirmani (d. 1237), who came to Anatolia
and lived there, Fahreddin Iraki, the father of Mevlana Bahaeddin Veled
(d. 1238), Burhaneddin Tirmizi (d. 1240) and Necmeddin Razi (Daye) (d. 1256).
The s¸eyhs and dervishes associated with various tarikats which were part
of these Sufi movements were active in important centres of the period such
as Ahlat, Erzurum, Bayburt, Sivas, Tokat, Amasya, Kırs¸ehir, Kayseri, Konya
and in the neighbouring regions, and created a very lively Sufi environment in
Turkey in the thirteenth century. These captivating figures,wanderingthemar-
kets dressed in their unusual clothing and with their remarkable appearance,
preaching, singing religious songs, organising animated religious ceremonies
in the tekkes and zaviyes which they established, and expounding novel ideas
about creation, God, humanity and the universe, must have greatly attracted
the attention of the people.
This process resulted in the emergence of a ‘popular’ Islam which, centred
on saint cults and emphasising saintly exploits, legends and beliefs known in
medrese circles as superstition (hurafe) or heresy (bid‘at), differed from medrese
Islam based on fıkıh (fiqh, Islamic canonical jurisprudence). The interpretation
and practice of these two forms of Islam, as in every Muslim country, both
co-existed and competed over the centuries. It is obvious that Anatolia could
not remain unaffected by this sociological process which occurred in a similar
way in all the lands into which Islam spread. The Balkan conquests in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries took with them the same understanding
of Islam, which was then enriched by new elements from this region. This
popular Islam, centred on a saint cult, is still strong in Turkey today where it
retains the same characteristics.
Tarikats and Sufi circles
It would not be too much of an exaggeration to say that Sufism, which we have
shown to have been entirely brought from outside into medieval Turkey with
the migrations at the beginning of the thirteenth century, included nearly
all the Muslim groups in that period and alone represented Islam. In other
words, Islam in Anatolia meant Sufism. The Mongol occupation of Central
Asia and, shortly afterwards, of Iran and Iraq unsettled many mystics, Sufi
s¸eyhs and dervishes, and drove them into Anatolia which was made attractive
to them by the Anatolian Seljuk state’s establishment and development there.
The most important of these groups were the urban Sunni tarikats of Central
Asian origin such as the K
¨
ubreviye and Yeseviye, and of Iraqi origin such as the
S
¨
uhreverdiye and Rifaiye. The tarikats of these countries, which were able to
391
ahmet yas¸ar ocak
appeal to both rural and urban circles, such as the Hayderiye, Kalenderiye and
Vefaiye, the majority of which remained outside Sunnism, also surged into
Anatolia.
87
This second group of tarikats was much better able to establish itself among
the numerous nomadic caravans driven forward by the Mongol invasions, and
among the rural sections of the Turkoman communities in the thirteenth
century because, as these people had either only recently accepted Islam or,
because of their semi-nomadic way of life, were only superficially Islamised,
they had been unable to assimilate to Islam to the extent that the settled
population had. In any case, for these people Sufism probably meant little
more than a form of social life, rather than being a means of attaining any
mystic goals. The great majority of them, such as the Vefaiye, Kalenderiye and
Hayderiye, were tarikats which could easily accommodate the local pre-Islamic
beliefs and traditions.
K
¨
ubreviye, an important urban Asian tarikat founded by the important Sufi
Necmeddin K
¨
ubra (d. 1221), was brought into Anatolia by famous individuals
such as Sadeddin Hamevi, who had been intellectually raised by Necmeddin
K
¨
ubra, Seyfeddin Bakharzi and Baba Kemal-i Hocendi.
88
These men escaped
before the Mongols and took refuge in Anatolia together with their disci-
ples. Among them we should note in particular Necmeddin Razi (Daye) and
Bahaeddin Veled who were largely responsible for the spread of the K
¨
ubreviye
in Anatolia.
Necmeddin Razi came to Kayseri where he met Alaeddin Keykubad I. From
there he moved to Sivas where he wrote his famous work Mirsad al-‘Ibad.
Bahaeddin Veled settled first in Karaman, and then moved to Konya where he
remained until his death. Bahaeddin Veled, who was a very respected scholar,
aroused much interest there and had many disciples. He was particularly
influential over his son Celaleddin Muhammed, especially in relation to Sufi
87 For the Haydariye and Kalenderiye see K
¨
opr
¨
ul
¨
u, ‘Anadolu’da
˙
Isl
ˆ
amiyet’, pp. 299–302;
A. Y. Ocak, Osmanlı
˙
Imparatorlu
˘
gu’nda Marjinal S
ˆ
uf
ˆ
ılik: Kalander
ˆ
ıler (Ankara, 1999); A. T.
Karamustafa, God’s Unruly Friends: Dervish Groups in the Later Period, 1200–1550(Salt Lake
City, 1994); Karamustafa, ‘Origins of Anatolian Sufism’; A. Y. Ocak, ‘The Waf
ˆ
a’
ˆ
ıtar
ˆ
ıqa
(Waf
ˆ
a’iyya) During and After the Period of the Seljuks of Turkey: a New Approach to
the History of Popular Mysticism in Turkey’, M
´
esogeios 25–26 (2005), 209–48.
88 For Necmeddin K
¨
ubra and the K
¨
ubreviye see Lami’
ˆ
ıC¸ elebi, Nafahat Al-Uns (Istanbul,
ah 1270), pp. 475–9; Taqi al-din Subki, Tabaqat al-Shafi‘iyyat al-Kubra, vol. V (Beirut,
n.d.), p. 11; Haririzade Kemaleddin, Tibyanu Vasail al-Hakaik,S
¨
uleymaniye K
¨
ut
¨
uphanesi
(
˙
Ibrahim Efendi), no. 432, vol. III, ff. 79–85; H. Corbin, L’homme
de lumi
`
ere dans le soufisme
iranien, 2 vols. (Paris, 1971), i,pp.95–147; M. Mole, ‘Les Kubrawis entre Sunnisme et
Shiisme aux VIIIe et IXe si
`
ecle de l’H
´
egire’, in Revue des
´
Etudes Islamiques 29 (1961),
61–142;E.G.Browne,A Literary History of Persia, vol. II (Cambridge, 1956), pp. 491–4;H.
Algar, ‘Kubr
ˆ
a’, EI2, v,pp.299–301.
392
Social, cultural and intellectual life, 1071–1453
education.
89
The very widespread view that Celaleddin Muhammed encoun-
tered Sufism after he came to know S¸ems-i Tebrizi and through his influence
is incorrect. Celaleddin Muhammed himself acknowledges in the work of
Eflaki (author of Manakib al-Arifin, written for Mevlana’s grandson Ulu Arif
C¸ elebi) the extent to which his father Bahaeddin Veled was an influence on
him. Bahaeddin Veled had at least as wide a circle of followers as his halife (an
officially ordained successor or deputy of a Sufi s¸eyh) Burhaneddin Muhakkık-ı
Tirmizi who came with him from Balkh.
The Sufi tarikat which was established by Abu Najib al-Suhrawardi (d. 1167)
and was developed and spread by his nephew Shihab al-din Abu Hafs ‘Umar
al-Suhrawardi (d. 1234), possessed a strong Sunni character and was widespread
and developed in Anatolia. Among the works written by Shihab al-din Abu Hafs
‘Umar al-Suhrawardi, ‘Awarif al-Ma‘arif won great renown and became one of
the most widely read Sufi works in Anatolia. It had considerable influence on
Sufi works written in Turkey both at that time and later.
90
Even if these urban
tarikats which represented high Sufism were not as widespread in Anatolia as
the Rifaiye and Kadiriye, yet the books written by their founders very much
influenced high Sufi circles and were textbooks for centuries.
Two important tarikats, the Naks¸ibendiye and Halvetiye, which again had
Central Asian origins and Sunni leanings, were added in the later centuries
to those tarikats coming from outside. These played a very important role in
political, social and religious spheres in the beylik and Ottoman periods, both
in Anatolia and in the Balkans, and have survived until today.
91
Alongside these tarikats which came into the region from outside, new
tarikats developed in Anatolia from the end of the thirteenth century. Among
these one of the most striking was the Mevleviye, or Celaliye as it was known
at that time. This tarikat began to spread quickly in the Turkoman beyliks
in the west of Anatolia after the death of Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, thanks
to the considerable efforts in the fourteenth century of his son Sultan Veled
89 Eflaki, Man
ˆ
akib al-‘Arif
ˆ
ın, ed. Tahsin Yazıcı, 2 vols. (Ankara, 1959), I, pp. 48, 176.
90 For Shihab al-din Suhrawardi and his tarikat see Lami’i C¸ elebi, Nafahat al-Uns,pp.526–7;
H. Ritter,‘Die vier Suhravardi’, DerIslam 25 (1938), pp. 36–8; A. Hartmann, ‘al-Suhravard
ˆ
ı’,
in EI2, ix,pp.778–82.
91 For the Naks¸ibendiye see the articles by Hamid Algar in Naqshibandis: cheminements et
situation actuelle d’un ordre mystique musulman, ed. M. Gaborieau, A. Popovic and Th.
Zarcone (Istanbul and Paris, 1990). See also D. Le Gall, The Ottoman Naqshbandiyya in
the Pre-Mujaddidi Phase (Michigan, 1996); Naqshibandis: cheminements et situation actuelle
d’un ordre mystique musulman, ed. Gaborieau et al. For the Halvetiye see in particular H. J.
Kissling, ‘Aus der Geschichte des Chalvetijje-Ordens’, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlan-
dischen Gesellschaft 103 (1953), 233–89; N. Clayer, Mystiques,
´
etat et soci
´
et
´
e: les Halvetis dans
l’air balkanique de la fin du XVe si
`
ecle
`
a nos jours (Leiden, 1994); F. De Jong, ‘Khalwat
ˆ
ıyya’,
in EI2, iv,pp.991–3.
393
ahmet yas¸ar ocak
and grandson Ulu Arif C¸ elebi. This urban tarikat, which gained influence
in the Ottoman Empire only after the mid-fifteenth century, showed great
development in the seventeenth century and experienced the most successful
period of its history in this and the following centuries.
92
Another local tarikat which was at least as important in the history of
Anatolia as the Mevleviye and was even more widespread in the rural areas
was the Bektas¸i, which developed in a completely different environment and
with a totally different social base, and had a different Sufi outlook. This tarikat
was not linked directly to either the time or outlook of the thirteenth-century
Turkoman s¸eyh Hacı Bektas¸-i Veli from whom it took its name. Beginning
from the period when it was officially established in the sixteenth century, it
was one of the most influential tarikats in the Ottoman period in rural and
even urban sectors of Anatolia and the Balkans.
93
The influential Sufis of medieval Anatolia
Muhieddin
˙
Ibn Arabi and vahdet-i v
¨
ucud (monism)
After a period in the Seljuk capital Konya, Muhieddin
˙
Ibn Arabi settled in Dam-
ascus at the invitation of the Ayyubid prince al-Malik al-Ashraf in 1223 and lived
there until his death in 1241. It was here that he wrote a part of his works.
94
The
ideas of V
¨
ucudiye or vahdet-iv
¨
ucud (wahda al-wujud) (monism), whichfirst began
to appear in the doctrines of Sufis such as Bayazid Bistami (d. 874) and Junayd
Baghdadi (d. 910) and which reached a turning point with the famous pro-
nouncement ‘ana al-haqq’ (I am the truth) of Mansur-e Hallaj (d. 922), became
a systematic theosophic definition thanks to Muhieddin
˙
Ibn Arabi, even if he
92 See S
ˆ
akib Dede, Safina-i Nafisa-i Mawlawiyan, 3 vols. (Cairo, ah 1283); A. G
¨
olpinarlı,
Mevl
ˆ
an
ˆ
a’dan Sonra Mevlev
ˆ
ılik (Istanbul, 1953); E. Vitray-Meyerovitch, Mystique et po
´
esie
en Islam: Djal
ˆ
al-ud-D
ˆ
ın R
ˆ
um
ˆ
ı et l’Ordre des Derviches Tourneurs (Paris, 1972); T. Yazıcı and
F. De Jong, ‘Mawlaw
ˆ
ıyya’, in EI2, vi,pp.883–8. See also Franklin D. Lewis, Rumi: Past
and Present, East and West: the Life, Teaching and Poetry of Jal
ˆ
al al-Din Rumi (Oxford, 2000).
For an overview of the tarikats in Anatolia and the Balkans in the thirteenth to fifteenth
centuries see O. T
¨
urer, ‘General Distributions of the Sufi Orders in Ottoman Anatolia’,
in Sufism and Sufis in Ottoman Society, ed. Ocak, pp. 219–60; N. Clayer and A. Popovic,
‘Les turques dans les Balkans a l’
´
epoque ottomane’, in ibid.,pp.261–78.
93 Apart from the references given in note 81 above, see S. Faroqhi, Der Bektaschi Orden in
Anatolien (vom sp
¨
aten f
¨
unfzehnten Jahrhundert bis 1826) (Vienna, 1980); A. Popovic and G.
Veinstein (eds.), Bektachhiyya:
´
etudes sur l’ordre mystique des Bektachis et les groupes relevant
Hadji Bektach (Istanbul, 1995); R. Tschudi, ‘Bekt
ˆ
ash
ˆ
ıyy
a’, EI2, i,pp.1161–3.
94 For Muhieddin
˙
Ibn Arabi see the following important works: A. E. Afifi, The Mystical
Philosophy of Muhyid D
ˆ
ın Ibnul Arab
ˆ
ı (Cambridge, 1939); O. Yahiya, Histoire et classification
de l’œuvre d’Ibn Arab
ˆ
ı, 2 vols. (Damascus, 1964); H. Corbin, L’imagination cr
´
eatrice dans le
soufisme d’Ibn Arab
ˆ
ı (Paris, 1958); M. Chodkievicz, Le sceau des saints: proph
´
etie et saintet
´
e
dans la doctrine d’Ibn Arab
ˆ
ı (Paris, 1986); M. Chodkievicz, Un oc
´
ean sans rivage (Paris, 1992);
W. C. Chittik, Ibn Arabi’s Metaphysics of Imagination: the Sufi Path of Knowledge (Albany,
1989). See also A. Ates¸, ‘Ibn al-‘Arab
ˆ
ı’, in EI2, iii,pp.707–11.
394
Social, cultural and intellectual life, 1071–1453
never used this term. The idea of vahdet-i v
¨
ucud, often incorrectly confused
with pantheism, was in essence a very complicated idea and difficult to explain.
It can be summarised roughly as meaning that everything in the universe is
a manifestation of God who is the single creator, and since existence is God,
all existence is in truth nothing other than his existence. This system, which
attained a broad synthesis as a result of Muhieddin
˙
Ibn Arabi’s knowledge of
philosophy, calligraphy, religious law (fıkıh), hadith, tesfir (commentary on the
Quran), literature and various occult sciences of the time, became so influ-
ential that it affected not just the Sufi understanding of the period but also
Sufi interpretation in almost the entire Islamic world down to today. For this
reason it is probably correct to define Muhieddin
˙
Ibn Arabi as the greatest Sufi
of all time.
Apart from his two very well known works Fusus al-Hikam and al-Futuhat
al-Makkiyya, his treatises (risale) and his other works which numbered around
a hundred, later works attributed to him also appeared. Even if Muhieddin
˙
Ibn Arabi was accused in his own time of atheism (zendeka ve ilhad) by Islamic
ulema and a section of conservative Sufis and was even remembered as the
most infidel s¸eyh (el-S¸eyh el-Ekfer) because the expressions in his works are
obscure and difficult to understand, he was popularly known as el-S¸eyh el-
Ekber (the greatest s¸eyh) and every section of the population showed great
respect towards him, as people do even today. It was his adopted child and
halife (caliph, successor), the famous thirteenth-centurySufi Sadreddin Konevi,
who secured fundamental prestige for Muhieddin
˙
Ibn Arabi in Anatolia and
ensured the spreading of his thought by making it comprehensible through
the commentaries he wrote on his works.
95
Owing to the efforts of Sadreddin
Konevi,the thought of this great Sufi influenced all Sunni and heterodox circles
in Anatolia in the Seljuk period and had a significant impact on both the elite
circles and the popular classes.
Together with Sadreddin Konevi, others too represented the vahdet-i
v
¨
ucud school of thought in Anatolia, among the best-known of whom were
M
¨
ueyyed
¨
uddin el-Cendi, Sadeddin el-Fergani and Afifeddinel-Tilemsani.They,
and the disciples they trained, opened zaviyes in important cultural centres of
the period such as Konya, Sivas and Erzincan, and spread the vahdet-i v
¨
ucud
school of thought through their training of disciples, commentaries on the
works of the s¸eyhs and the composition of their own works. The Middle East
thus quickly came under the influence of this school of thought, which moved
95 Lami’
ˆ
ıC¸ elebi, Nafahat Al-Uns,pp.632–4; O. Ergin, ‘Sadraddin el-Kunaw
ˆ
ı ve Eserleri’,
S¸arkiyat Mecmuası 2 (1957), 63–90; W. C. Chittik, ‘Sadr al-D
ˆ
ın K
ˆ
unaw
ˆ
ı on the Oneness of
Being’, International Philosophical Quarterly 21 (1981), 171–84.
395
ahmet yas¸ar ocak
from there into other areas. But for us what is fundamentally important is that
the thought of Muhieddin
˙
Ibn Arabi did not remain restricted only to the high
echelons of Sufism, but was also successful in influencing popular Sufism, and
the success of such a complex theosophic system as vahdet-i v
¨
ucud should be
stressed.
TheimpactofMuhieddin
˙
IbnArabi’sthoughtwas, moreover,feltbeyondthe
various Sufi and popular circles,
96
for, thanks to its not being well understood
and being interpreted in an extreme fashion as akin to pantheism (thus giving
further reason for its absorption into the confused ideology of various popular
movements, the most typical of which was the sixteenth-century Melami
movement), it remained influential throughout the entire Ottoman period.
97
The Melami tarikat continues to exist and retains a Sufi character which still
has its supporters among some intellectual circles in Turkey today.
Mevlana Celaleddin Muhammed Rumi and divine love (ilahi as¸k) Another
Sufi understanding which attracted a great following in Anatolia was that of
Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi (d. 1273) who turned the vahdet-i v
¨
ucud into an exu-
berance of divine love which became the centre of his Sufi vision. Although he
was a member of the school of thought of Muhieddin
˙
Ibn Arabi, his popularity
was far greater, for among all the Sufis of the Islamic world, it is Mevlana about
whom most has been said and written.
As a child, MevlanaCelaleddin Rumifledfrom Balkh with his father, Bahaed-
din Veled, to the Hejaz and on to Anatolia to escape the Mongol invasions.
He received a good education in the important centres of learning of the time,
such as Damascus and Aleppo, and became an expert in the science of the
Shari‘a and particularly in the field of fıqh. He also received a Sufi education
from his father. While he developed his own Sufi understanding, the type of
education he received without doubt had a considerable influence, and it was
as a result of this that he developed an understanding which remained faithful
to Sunni Islam.
98
96 On this subject see H. Z.
¨
Ulken, ‘
´
Ecole vudjudite et son influence dans la pens
´
ee turque’,
Weiner Zeitschrift f
¨
ur der Kunde des Morgenlandes 62 (1969), 195–208; M. Tahrali, ‘A General
Outline of the Influence of Ibn ‘Arab
ˆ
ı on the Ottoman Era’, JournaloftheMuhy
ˆ
ıal-D
ˆ
ın
Ibn ‘Arab
ˆ
ı Society 26 (1999), 43–54; M. Chodkievicz, ‘R
´
eception de la doctrine d’Ibn ‘Arab
ˆ
ı
dans le monde ottoman’, in Sufism and Sufis in Ottoman Society, ed. Ocak, pp. 97–120.
97 See A. Y. Ocak, Osmanlı Toplumunda Zındıklar ve M
¨
ulhidler Yahut Dairenin Dıs¸ına C¸ıkanlar,
3rd edn (Istanbul, 2003), pp. 251–327.
98 For Mevlana and his Sufi thought see R. A. Nicholson, Rumi: Poet and Mystic, 1207–73
(London, 1950); A. G
¨
olpinarlı, Mevl
ˆ
an
ˆ
a Cel
ˆ
aledd
ˆ
ın (Istanbul, 1959), p. 328; B. Firuzanfer,
Zindagani-iMawl
ˆ
an
ˆ
aJal
ˆ
alal-d
ˆ
ınMuhammad, 3 vols. (Tehran, ah
1354); Vitray-Meyerovitch,
396
Social, cultural and intellectual life, 1071–1453
While teaching in Konya in the early days of his career, Mevlana devoted
himself to mysticism, influenced by an enthusiastic dervish called S¸ems-i
Tebrizi and no doubt affected also by his father’s teaching. His own natu-
ral attraction to mystic learning must also have played a part, for without
this the teachings of S¸ems-i Tebrizi and his father would not have found such
fertile soil. Indeed, this is clear throughout the well-known Mevlevi source,
the Manakib al-Arifin.
Mevlana’s inclusive ideology and his sincere lifestyle deeply influenced both
the Muslim and non-Muslim populace, and attracted the high administrative
circles, including the ruler of the time, and the intellectual groups. He is
also known to have established close friendships with well-known Sufis of the
period such as Sadreddin Konevi. His circle thus gradually widened, his Sufi
understanding spread throughout Seljuk Anatolia, and he rose to the level of
being a holy man (veli) revered not just by members of the upper echelons
but also by sectors of the population which had different understandings of
Islam.
Although works such as the Mesnevi (Masnevi), Divan-i Kabir, Fihi ma fihi
and Ruba’iyyat, which made the Sufi understanding and thought of Mevlana
known, were written in Persian, the influence of his thought was not restricted
to the upper echelons of the period but, thanks to important Sufis such as
Yunus Emre and As¸ık Pas¸a, was also highly influential among Turkoman cir-
cles. The famous Turkoman Sufi poet of the fourteenth century, As¸ık Pas¸a,
who defended the use of Turkish as opposed to Persian and Arabic in Ana-
tolia, made much use of the thought of Mevlana in his work Garibname and
showed a great appreciation of him. Yunus Emre, too, talks of him with great
admiration.
Hacı Bektas¸-ıVeli, YunusEmreand As¸ık Pas¸a Another important Turkoman
Sufi of Seljuk Anatolia who lived in the same period as Mevlana was Hacı
Bektas¸-ı Veli (d. 1271). The fact that he hardly appears in any source of the
period indicates that he was not widely known in his lifetime. He owes his
fame today to the Bektas¸i tarikat, which bears his name but was actually
founded at the beginning of the sixteenth century, although its roots are much
older. It is highly likely that, beginning in the fourteenth century, Hacı Bektas¸-ı
Veli was enveloped in a totally legendary identity and that when the tarikat
was established this very widespread legendary character was attached to it.
Mystiqueetpo
´
esieenIslam; A.Schimmel, The TriumphalSun:aStudyofthe Works of Jalaloddin
Rumi (Albany, 1993); A. Bausani, ‘Djal
ˆ
al al-D
ˆ
ın R
ˆ
um
ˆ
ı’, in EI2, ii,pp.404–8.
397
ahmet yas¸ar ocak
Today the Bektas¸is and the Kızılbas¸ in Anatolia revere him and hold him sacred
not as a historical figure but as a legendary one.
99
For them Hacı Bektas¸-ı Veli
is ‘Ali’s reincarnation.
100
Yunus Emre (d. 1310) was also an important Sufi who left his mark on
Sufism in Anatolia in the Seljuk period and who had a wide influence both
in his lifetime and in the following centuries. In contrast to Mevlana, he was
raised and lived in the countryside. According to Fuad K
¨
opr
¨
ul
¨
u, this great
Turkoman s¸eyh was a follower of Ahmed-i Yesevi (d. 1167) in Anatolia.
101
The period of Yunus Emre’s youth coincides with the old age of Hacı Bektas¸-
ı Veli. His works entitled Divan and Risalat al-Nushiyye have survived to this
day,
102
as have the works of poets who, inspired by his influence and by the
admiration they had for him, imitated his style. Like Mevlana, Yunus Emre
was a follower of the vahdet-i v
¨
ucud school of thought of Muhieddin
˙
Ibn Arabi
and, thanks to his poetry making this idea easily understandable, he played an
important role in the history of Sufism in Anatolia. He was also considerably
influenced by Mevlana.
As¸ık Pas¸a was a very interesting Sufi in the context of the period in which
he lived, when medieval Turkey had yet to overcome the social, political and
religious upheavals it was experiencing. He was the only Sufi Turkoman from
the descendants of Baba
˙
Ilyas who rose in revolt against the Anatolian Seljuk
administration in 1240. He received a good education and was highly influenced
by the Sufi environment created by important Sufis such as Mevlana, Yunus
Emre and Ahi Evren. It is possible that he felt insecure throughout his life
owing to political suspicion of his family’s past. As will be seen below, he was
vehemently against the widespread use of Persian and Arabic in Anatolia and
strongly advocated writing in Turkish. It was this attitude which led to the
writing of the substantial Garibname.
103
99 On this subject see in particular M
´
elikoff, Hadji Bektach.
100 The only scholar to examine this subject in detail is I. M
´
elikoff, ‘La divinisation de ‘Al
ˆ
ı
chez les Bektachis-Alevis’, in From History to Theology: Ali in Islamic Beliefs, ed. A. Y. Ocak
(Ankara, 2005), pp. 83–110.
101 See K
¨
opr
¨
ul
¨
u, T
¨
urk Edebiyatında
˙
Ilk Mutasavvıflar,pp.278–357. This work is still the first
and most scholarly biography of Yunus Emre. For other detailed, scholarly biographies
see A. G
¨
olpinarlı, YunusEmreveTasavvuf(Istanbul, 1961; repr. 1992); T. S. Halman, The
Humanist Poetry of Yunus Emre (Istanbul, 1971); Halman (ed.), Yunus Emre and his Mystical
Poetry, 2. vols. (Bloomington, 1989). Although there are today many works in Turkish
on Yunus Emre, most of them are of an amateur and apologetic character.
102 Of the many editions of Yunus Emre’s work, the best critical editions to date are Yunus
Emre Divanı, ed. M. Tatc¸ı,3 vols. (Ankara, 1990); Yunus Emre, Ris
ˆ
alat al-Nushiyya ve Divan,
ed. A. G
¨
olpinarlı (Istanbul, 1965).
103 For As¸ık Pas¸a and his works, and for bibliography, see F.
˙
Iz, ‘Ashik P
ˆ
ash
ˆ
a’, EI2, i,pp.689–
99;As¸ık Pas¸a, Garib–N
ˆ
ame,
ed.
Kemal Yavuz, 4 vols. (Ankara, 2000).
398
Social, cultural and intellectual life, 1071–1453
Sufism and popular Islam
There is no doubt that among the most important social and cultural trans-
formations in the history of Islam was the spreading of organised Sufi tarikats
and their influence on the popular understanding of Islam. The most obvious
sign of this was the extensive spread of saintly cults among the people almost
everywhere throughout the Islamic world, and their dominance over literate,
‘Quranic’ Islam. The existence of one or several saints’ t
¨
urbes in almost every
town and village in most Islamic countries is very striking. Islam in Turkey
was no exception to this historical reality and such t
¨
urbes are still to be found
in all settlements of Anatolia today. The t
¨
urbes of famous holy men who had
died in towns and villages where their t
¨
urbes were located became identified
with the place itself. This was one of the typical characteristics of settlement
units in Anatolia. A large number of these t
¨
urbes date to the medieval period
and usually indicate the first Muslim settlements in Anatolia.
104
They are thus
important from a historical point of view.
Combining all aspects of the Islam of the population which had been in the
Anatolian towns and villages for centuries, exhibiting Islamic characteristics
and incorporating the remains of pre-Islamic beliefs and cults, the t
¨
urbes can
be seen as a centre of religious life. The face of popular Islam was different
from that of the mosque. That to be found in the mosques was closer to the
Islam of the book (the Quran); that in the t
¨
urbes was closer to the pre-Islamic
beliefs and practices or even those outside Islam. For this reason, the ulema
in Anatolia, as in other Muslim countries, initiated a ‘cold war’ from Seljuk
times to the present against this popular Islam which they called superstition
and heresy (hurafe and bid‘at). But this was a war the ulema never won.
Every t
¨
urbe had its own origins, customs, rules of conduct and purpose
for which it was visited going back beyond the Middle Ages.
105
These were
taken more seriously than some Islamic commands and prohibitions, for those
who visited the t
¨
urbes both expected help from the saintliness of the holy man
whose t
¨
urbe it was, and feared any harm which might befall them. For this
reason, most of those who did strictly adhere to the precepts of Islam were
very careful not to violate the sanctity and privacy of the t
¨
urbe.
104 This subject has been carefully researched by F. V. Hasluck who used a wealth of data
to be found in his work, Christianity and Islam under the Sultans of Konya, 2 vols. (Oxford,
1929). See also Vryonis, Decline of Medieval Hellenism, passim. For the Ottoman period
the article of
¨
O. L. Barkan, ‘
˙
Istil
ˆ
a Devrinin Kolonizat
¨
or T
¨
urk Dervis¸leri ve Z
ˆ
aviyeler’,
Vakıflar Dergisi 2 (1942), 279–353, is very important.
105 H. Tanyu, Ankara ve C¸ evresinde Adak ve Adak Yerleri (Ankara, 1965), gives interesting and
contemporary examples.
399