Sufism Aiyub Palmer
St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology,
08/2024
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Sufism is concerned with a broad trend within Islamicate societies towards expressing how taṣawwuf, as a path of spiritual refinement, has impacted religious, social, and political modes of human ...endeavour. If we look at taṣawwuf more specifically, we can identify a vibrant discourse of thought and practice that purports to address a fundamental part of the religion of Islam, namely iḥsān (consummate spiritual practice). Sufis themselves see taṣawwuf as an aspect of the teachings of the Prophet Muḥammad, preserved and propagated by a community of believers from generation to generation. Others perceive taṣawwuf as the exploration of ethical considerations stemming from Islamic religious precepts, while yet others identity it as part of a debate within Islamicate societies around religious authority and the ideal religious leader. Regardless of which perspective on taṣawwuf is taken, it is a fact that taṣawwuf both developed early within Muslim societies and has fully integrated itself into the practice of Islam up to the present. Sufis developed complex social structures termed ṭarīqa (Sufi brotherhood) that, connecting the entirety of the Muslim world, often followed the path of trade routes. Sufis not only focused on spiritual concerns, but also entered into legal and theological debates within larger Islamic scholarly discourse. They fought wars of jihād and founded states and ruling dynasties. With the advent of modernity and the colonial conquest of Muslim majority lands, Sufis were at the forefront of defending their lands against European imperialism. In the post-colonial period, Sufis have faced challenges to their authority, both from political elites and Islamic modernists subscribing to Salafist ideology. Nevertheless, taṣawwuf continues to adapt and develop as a global phenomenon that has reached beyond Muslim majority lands, to serve the ethical, spiritual, and religious needs of all who seek solace in its teachings.
Rifâî tarikatına ait erkânnâme türündeki teliflerden günümüze ulaşanlar, XVIII. yüzyılın sonu ve XIX. yüzyıla ait eserlerdir. Rifâî erkânının İstanbul ve Anadolu’da ne şekilde icra edildiğini tespite ...imkân sağlayan bu eserler, tarikata bağlı zümreler için bir nevi el kitabı konumundadırlar. Tarikat merasimleri, seyrüsülûk usûlleri, hizmet mertebeleri, burhan ve devsiye kâideleri gibi konuları içeren bu teliflerin çoğunun Fütüvvetnâme şeklinde isimlendirilmesi, Rifâîliğin fütüvvet erkânına bağlı tarikatlardan biri olduğunun ilk işaretidir. Muhtevalarında da fütüvvete ayrı bir fasıl açıldığı; şed kuşatma, şerbet içirme ve mahfil açma gibi fütüvvet erkânına bağlı tarikatlarda bulunan unsurların yer aldığı görülmektedir. Şeyh Yâsin eş-Şâmî’ye (v. XVIII. yüzyılın sonu) ait Fütüvvetnâme-i Yâsin er-Rifâî ve Mehmed Tâhir Tophanevî’ye (v.1812) ait Minhâcü’l-Müridîn, bilinen en eski Rifâî fütüvvetnâmeleri olup, daha sonra yazılanlara da kaynaklık etmişlerdir. Özellikle Minhâc’ın ikinci faslında nakledilenler, Rifâîlik ile fütüvvet arasındaki bağı daha anlaşılır kılan nitelikte bilgilerdir. Makalede, eserin bu ikinci faslının muhtevası değerlendirilmiş ve kaynağının Seyyid Hüseyin ibn Seyyid Gaybî’ye (v. XV. yüzyıl) ait fütüvvetnâme olduğu tespit edilmiştir. İbn Gaybî fütüvvetnâmesinin Şiî unsurlara sahip bir fütüvvetnâme olarak değerlendirilmesi ve Abdülbâkî Gölpınarlı’nın, Rifâîliğin, fütüvvet ehlinin etkisiyle zamanla Alevî meşrep bir hâl aldığı iddiası, Rifâîlerle fütüvvet erbâbını yakınlaştıran sebeplerin neler olduğu meselesini ele almayı gerektirmiştir. Makalenin ikinci bölümünde, Rifâîlerle Şiî-Bâtınî-Alevî zümrelerin müşterek bir zeminde buluşmalarına sebep olabilecek bazı unsurlar, metinlere, tarihî hadise ve olgulara dayanılarak değerlendirilmiştir. Bu değerlendirme neticesinde, söz konusu unsurların Rifâîliğin kurulduğu dönemden itibaren mevcut olduğu ve tarikatın bu şekilde Anadolu’ya intikal ettiği görüşüne varılmıştır.
Osmanlı toplumunda 18. yüzyıl başlarından itibaren Avrupa ile artan ve geliştirilen ilişkiler sonucunda siyasette, ekonomide, sanatta ve sanatın en önemli dallarından biri olan mimarlık ve mimari ...dekorasyonda önemli değişiklikler olur. İstanbul’da sivil mimaride görülmeye başlanan duvar resimleri, güçlenen yerel aileler, ayanlar ve eşrafın etkisi ile Anadolu ve Balkanlarda hem sivil hem de dini mimaride yaygınlaşmaya başlar. Dinsel mimaride duvar resimlerine tüm Anadolu ve Balkanlarda rastlanabilir ancak en yoğun görüldüğü bölge Ege bölgesidir. Bölgenin kıyılarında İzmir ve Manisa’da, iç kesimlerde ise özellikle Denizli ve Afyonkarahisar illerinin köy ve kasaba camilerinde görülür. Bu çalışmada Afyonkarahisar ilinin güneydoğudaki Başmakçı ilçesinin merkezinde bulunan Recep Bey caminin mimarisi, iç mekânında bulunan kalem işi tekniği ile yapılmış nakışları, tasvirleri, yazı programı, tasvirlerin sahip olabileceği muhtemel ikonografik anlamları, yapıda bulunan tekke cihazları betimlemeleri de göz önüne alınarak tasavvuf kültürü açısından irdelenmiştir. Sade bir dış mimariye sahip camii moloz taş ve kerpiç ile kuzey- güney yönünde, dikine üç nefli, dikdörtgen planlı, düz ahşap tavanlı, ahşap direkli, kırma çatılı ve ana girişi kuzeyde mihrap ile aynı eksende olarak inşa edilmiştir. Yapının kitabesi olmadığından inşa tarihi bilinmemektedir. Camiyi sıra dışı kılan ise harim duvarlarına kalem işi tekniği ile yapılmış olan nakışları ve tasvirleridir. Eserin duvarlarında dinsel mekânlarda yüzyıllardır görülen bitkisel bezemelere ek olarak ağaçlar, iki ve dört minareli camiler, üzerinde kemer ve perde bulunan selsebilli havuz, mihrap nişine yerleştirilmiş olan perde ve kandil, sekiz kapılı beş katlı ve üzerine ters yerleştirilmiş bir tuba ağacı bulunan cennet, terazi ve makas, nefir, iftariyelik, tarak, tespih, mızrak, teber, yeşil ve kırmızı renkli sancak, Rifâi gülü, keşkül, Rifâi topuzları, mütteka, tac-ı şerifler, toplanabilir sofra gibi tekke cihazları, ibrik, saat betimlemeleri kullanılmıştır. Kalem işi bezemeler batı duvarında bulunan usta kitabesine göre “5 Muharrem 1310” (M. 30 Temmuz 1892) tarihinde “Hüseyin Arif” adlı bir usta tarafından yapılmıştır. Aynı duvarda bulunan çok sayıda tekke cihazı betimlemesi “Hüseyin Arif”in bir tekkeye bağlı olarak çalıştığını düşündürmektedir. Çalışmada, yapıdaki tekke cihazları betimlemeleri ve yazı programı ayrıntıları ile incelenerek ustanın Bektaşi ya da Rifâi olabileceği sonucuna varılmış, bu tarikatların birbirleri ile olan ilişkileri yanında fütüvvet teşkilatı ve ahilikle olan ilişkileri de incelenmiştir. Yapının kalem işi bezemeleri ve tasvirleri yer yer boyanmış ve kısmen zarar görmüş olsa da günümüze kadar özgün değerini koruyarak gelebilmiştir. Eser, sahip olduğu tasvirler ile bölgede yoğun olarak karşılaşılan küçük ölçekli köy ve kasaba camilerinin özgün bir örneği, sahip olduğu tekke cihazı betimlemeleri ile de tekke sanatının önemli bir temsilcisidir.
Background. Pahlavani and Zurkhaneh rituals have existed in Iran since the Parthian Empire. This martial art continued in the Islamic period and flourished due to cultural and social settings. A ...study on the evolution of this art specifies its prospering during the Qajar period as the Zurkhaneh became a common site in the urban context. Pahlavani martial arts play a significant role in depicting heroic behaviors and valiant tutoring and highlight unique architectural features and place emphasis on various cultural venues embedded within signs and symbols.Problem and Aim. The aim of this study is to portray what moral and cultural principles are applied to the structure and arrangement of the Zurkhanehs of the Qajar period. It also attempts to study the cultural and moral position of the Zurkhaneh within Iranian society. Recognition of the symbols and signs of this Pahlavani martial art can therefore acquaint us with the evolutionary process of the foundation of such institutions, and their cultural role, by analyzing concepts such as modesty, virtue and Futuwwa in the structure of the Zurkhanehs of Iran during the Qajar era. Methods. The present study investigates the issue under study via a descriptive-analytic methodology based on library resources and field observations.Conclusion. The findings of the research show that concepts of modesty, virtue, and Futuwwa are perceived in the Qajar Zurkhanehs of Tehran specifically in the way of entering and in the positioning of the Morshed and heroes.
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Abstract
The ethical treatise of ʿAḍud al-Dīn al-Ījī (d. 756/1355), al-Akhlāq al-ʿAḍudiyya, is a key work in the genre of Muslim philosophical ethics whose primary significance includes the numerous ...lengthy commentaries extant until today, which depict the ethical discourse over a long period of time from a wide range of Muslim settings. As a prominent Ashʿarī and Shāfiʿī scholar of the Īlkhānid era, al-Ījī's work played an important role in the continuation of the intellectual genealogy of writers on ethical philosophy, that includes Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna, d. 428/1037), Miskawayh (d. 421/1030), al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111), and al-Ṭūsī (d. 672/1274). As al-Ījī's ethics became prevalent within the realm of Ottoman scholarship, the impact of this treatise moved beyond Central Asia and Iran and into the Ottoman scholastic networks, where the commentaries on al-Akhlāq al-ʿAḍudiyya were studied. This article demonstrates facets of ethical philosophy during the tenth/sixteenth century by examining the commentary of a prominent Ottoman scholar of this era, namely Ṭaşköprüzāde (d. 968/1561), on al-Ījī's treatise on ethics.
ʿAli Akbar Khatāyi's Khatāynāmeh (Book of China), a detailed description of state and society in Ming China written in 922/1516, includes citations from the Kanz al-Haqāyeq (attributed to Mahmud ...Shabestari) and ʿAttār's Elāhināmeh. By citing these two texts at key points in his description of the Chinese government, Khatāyi articulates a radical political vision in which the civil officials, rather than the emperor, are the true rulers. Furthermore, by using the Kanz al-Haqāyeq as a portal text, and through frequent citations of other gnostic poetry, he crafts his own authorial presence by identifying his own text with fotovvat and gnosticism, and invokes a conceptual framework based on the thought of Ibn ʿArabi epitomized in his intertexts.
Remarks on Jane Hathaway’s "nostalgia" theory (see infra, n. 6) concerning the impression left by the Mamluk sultans left on historiography. Our remarks are based on manuscripts (especially the ...unpublished BNF arabe 3651) that did not become part of The Arabian Nights but help in understanding how that collection formed and took shape.
This article compares the contents of a 17th century futuwwa statute of Bosnian tanners with those of a similar document found in Albania, and assesses what implications these two documents together, ...and the similarities between them, have on the thesis about the existence of an Aḫī-Qādiriyya Sufi order in the Balkans, and wider in the Ottoman Empire.
Cette note compare le contenu d'un statut de futuwwa du xviie siècle des tanneurs bosniaques avec celui d'un document similaire trouvé en Albanie et évalue les implications de ces deux documents sur la thèse de la présence d'un ordre soufi Aḫī-Qādirī dans les Balkans et plus généralement dans l'Empire ottoman.
This article is in English.
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It was within the period between the second half of the thirteenth century and the early fourteenth century that the Northern Black Sea region started to get islamized. Solkhat, the administrative ...centre of the Golden Horde in the Crimea, played a crucial part in this process. The current paper is concerned with two closely related issues: the Anatolian diaspora and the development of the “Asia Minor” vector in the culture of Solkhat. According to some historical sources, the Seljuk expansion into the Crimea started as early as in the 1220s, when Hussam al-Din Chopan seized Sudak. The Seljuks built a garrison Mosque there and established the Sharia lows for a certain period of time. These actions, however, didn’t have a far-reaching effect. There is no evidence of the population being forced into Islam. When Hussam al-Din moved over to Rum, he left a garrison in Sudak to control the sea ports. The archeological findings in the Byzantine settlement of Khersones reveal a more diverse pattern of relationships with Islamic Anatolia. The findings include a substantial group of the Seljuk ceramics of the thirteenth century, coins and some other artifacts. I believe it is not unlikely that there was a small Islamic community in the Northern part of the city. It could have been destroyed during the period of the Seljuk expansion in the first third of the thirteenth century. The Turkic people of Anatolia started to penetrate the Eastern Crimea in great numbers in 1265. This process was influenced by the diaspora made up of the supporters of the ex-sultan of Rum, ‘Izz ad-Din Kaykaus (1246–1257). ‘Izz ad-Din’s Horde arrived in Crimea via Dobrudja in 1265, following their patron. This fact is mentioned in a historical compilation made by a Turkish author Yiaziyi-oglu Ali under sultan Murad (1421–1451), probably, in 1424. According to this compilation, which, in its turn, is based on the information provided by Ibn Bibi (the thirteenth century), the horsemen warriors arrived in the Crimea with their families. The new-comers settled outside the city, but Solkhat and Sut(d)ak were given to ‘Izz ad-Din, khan Börke’s son-in-law, as the ikta. Another finding from Belogorsk area (the Crimea) is a hanging lead seal bearing the titles of the three rulers of Rum between 1249 and 1237, ‘Izz ad-Din Kaykaus II, Rukn al-Din-Kilich Arslan IV and Allah ad-Din Kayqubad I. It means that the contacts between Rum and the administration of the Golden Horde were established at least as early as in the middle of the thirteenth century. After ‘Izz ad-Din’s death (circa 1280) the Seljuks of Sary Sultuk returned to Dobrudja. Between 1265 and 1280 Kemal Baba’s (Kemal Ata’s) cult arose in Crimea. Kemal Baba was a sufi sheikh, a follower of Sary Sultuk Saltuk-name 1987, s.136. He died in 1278 in Solkhat, and it could have been by Sary Sultuk’s order and to commemorate Kemal Baba that the sufi abode and the mausoleum were built there. They used to be a ziyarat, but none of them has survived until nowadays. The contacts with Anatolia can be traced in the iconography of the double-headed eagle on the puls of Solkhat bearing Talabuga khan’s tamga (1287–1290); images of a double-headed eagle can be seen on Janibek’s puls in the middle of the fourteenth century. When the Jochids chose Islam as their religion, they unconsciously followed the Great Seljuks’ experience. There were a number of reasons for that. The first one is the fact that they chose a Sufi-like branch. According to C.E. Bosworth, they did so because the Turcic people’s Islam kept some traces of Seljuk tradition and some other Shamanistic beliefs. This hidden Paganism is believed to explain not only the choice of the Sunnite branch of Islam, but also of its Hanafite Maddhab. Under Börke (1257–1267), who was the first khan to adopt Islam, the new doctrine couldn’t neglect the fact that the khan’s surroundings belonged to different cultural backgrounds: Tengrism, Shamanism, Buddhism, Nestorianism. According to J.S. Trimingham, ‘Sufism’s role was of considerable significance, not as a Way, but through its men of power, manifested also after their death from their tombs, many of whose structures were raised by Mongol rulers’. In 1334 the Arab traveler Ibn Batutta was in Solkhat where he met Abu Bakr Rumi, a sheikh from Asisa Minor, who wrote the Persian Sufi treatise Qalandar-name. A copy of Qalandar-name is being prepared for publishing by a group of scholars from Kazan, directed by Il’nur Mirgaleev. Abu Bakr was born in Akshehir (Anatolia), but apparently spent most of his life in Solkhat as the imam of one of the two jame mosques of the city. In his treatise poem he once refers to the ruler of Solkhat as ‘Seljuk’ – most probably, in order to flatter him. It is extremely important that the onomastic data from Solkhat often reveal the names of people belonging to the Seljuk Diaspora, whose fathers, according to nisbas, came from Anatolia, for example al-Kastamuni (the thirteenth century), al-Akhlati, at-Tokati, as-Sivasi, as well as Yaakub Konevi (1328), a sheikh from Otuz (the neighbourhood of Solkhat). Two more names worth mentioning here: those of the builders (architects) belonging to different generations of one and the same (?) family from Arbel (Irbil), the Northern Iraq. The first one is Abdul Aziz ibn Ibrahim al-Irbili, the author of the ‘Mosque od Uzbek’ (1314), whose name can be found in the dedicatory inscription on the portal. The name of the second one, Mahmud ibn Osman al-Irbili, is known from the keystone which we found in 1985 in the layer of destruction of a fifteenth century mausoleum. According to Ibn Battuta, the Sufi abodes (khanqahs) – centres of religious zeal and ‘schools’ where Sufi experience was taught – were founded by immigrants from Iraq, too. Thus, as we can see from the narrative sources, as well as from the names of the refugees from Anatolia and Northern Iraq, including those in the Crimea, the so called ‘minor migration’ was the second and, most probably, the main reason that the Seljuk ‘inoculation’ worked in the culture of the Islamic city communities. As to the materialistic component of life, the Seljuk influence can be traced in almost all the kinds of building and handicraft activities. The core of the Islamic Solkhat was formed between the first third of the fourteenth century and the second half of the fifteenth century. Its centre was the architectural ensemble of a madrasa and ‘the Mosque of Uzbek’, which was rebuilt on a new site. The new ‘Mosque of Uzbek’ repeated the portal, the mirhab and the main elements of the arcade of the original one, dating back to 1314. The mosque was obviously rebuilt closer to the Northern wall of the madrasa (built in the first third of the fourteenth century) in the late fifteenth century. In 1332–1333 Injebek Khatun, the mother of the Mongol ruler of the city, ordered and sponsored a new madrasa with four iwans and a portal of the Asia Minor style. The three-dimensional decorations of the mosque and the madrasa, including the two-level structure of the capitals, belong to the same tradition. Besides its didactical function, madrasa also served as a muvakkithane, that is, it was responsible for keeping prayer times. The Seljuk ceramics of Solkhat is represented by a series of glazed ceramics with under-glaze sgrafitto drawing. The most interesting finding is a bowl dating back to the first half of the fourteenth century. It shows a scene of a feast, where all the characters are exaggeratedly young, courageous and equal in their positions at the feast. The most natural idea is that they must be members of an association of young men who were called the fityan (sg. fata – ‘young man’, ‘youth’) in the Near East. Since the ninth century the fityan clubs were called futuwwa (‘young-manliness, chivalry). The ideas and the rites of the fityan penetrated Asia Minor under Izz ad-Dīn Kaykāwūs I (1210–1219), who was caliph an-Nasir’s son-in-law. The Seljuk tradition is also visible in the shape and decorations of two groups of rings. The first one comprises niello silver rings characterized by a stirrup-shaped outline with a flat diamond-shaped plate whose angles are decorated with fake settings without inlay. The second one is represented by a ring of goldish bronze dating back to the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries. Another group of findings is represented by the end plates of silver belt sets. Most of them were found in the barrows of Belorechinsk burial ground in Northern Caucasus. If we take into consideration the similarities between the decorations and the dragon-head motives of the end plates on one hand and those of the belt plate from Belorechinsk barrow, we’ll come to the conclusion that a new seam of artistic metalwork following the Seljuk tradition has been discovered not only in the Caucasus, but also in the Crimea. The fittings of Belorechinsk barrow №8 are among the most outstanding monuments of the kind. A similar belt set was discovered in 2005 in a male tomb in the central nave of the Mangup basilica (the Mountainous Crimea). The shooting belt (dated by Keldibek khan’s paiza at 1361) from the Simferopol treasure belongs to the same group of findings. I believe that this golden belt set, as well as a number of other findings, could have been made in Solkhat. These belt sets were ordered by the elite of the Golden Horde (including those in Solkhat), and the Simpheropol treasure itself belonged to the ruler of Solkhat, Kutlugh Buga. Let me remind you that it was his mother, Injebek Khatun, who invited a building crew in the early 1330s to build the madrasa in Solkhat. Thus, our findings from the South-Eastern Crimea and the Northern Caucasus mostly dating back to the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries demonstrate that the Seljuk cultural and artistic traditions were kept in the towns and regions of the foothills of the Northern Caucasus. These traditions were brought by the Islamic diaspora from Anatolia during
Les textes publiés dans le présent volume représentent une contribution aux débats portant sur l’origine de la mystique en terre d’islam, en particulier du soufisme, et sur son évolution lors des ...premiers siècles de l’ère hégirienne. La difficulté de l’approche est double : celle de comprendre des origines par nature éloignées et imprécises, et celle d’aborder un phénomène personnel et fuyant comme l’est la mystique. Cette question des origines demande une relecture des textes les plus anciens et une prise de distance par rapport aux idées reçues tant dans la tradition musulmane que dans les milieux universitaires. Il s’agit de savoir comment sont apparus au fil des siècles des hommes et des femmes considérés comme des Maîtres et comment le rapport entre eux et ceux qui sollicitaient leur enseignement et leur compagnie s’est établi et formalisé. Les enjeux sont essentiels : ils touchent à la définition de l’autorité religieuse, à la légitimation de l’entreprise mystique et à la validité et à la reconnaissance de son discours.Le choix de cette thématique – le rapport entre Maîtres et disciples – permet d’aborder les questions de l’enseignement, de la formation et de la transmission de l’expérience mystique. C’est précisément autour de l’exercice et de la nature de ce rapport que se construiront tous les groupes mystiques musulmans, soufis ou non. Mais il nous entraine au cœur d’un paradoxe : l’expérience mystique n’est-elle pas en effet, par définition, personnelle, non reproductible à l’identique et, partant, intransmissible ?