Architecture and Hagiography in the Ottoman Empire

The Politics of Bektashi Shrines in the Classical Age

Zeynep Yürekli

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781409411062
• eBook ISBN: 9781317179405
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: History

Based on a thorough examination of buildings, inscriptions, archival documents and hagiographies, this book uncovers the political significance of Bektashi shrines in the Ottoman imperial age. It thus provides a fresh and comprehensive account of the formative process of the Bektashi order, which started out as a network of social groups that took issue with Ottoman imperial policies in the late fifteenth century, was endorsed imperially as part of Bayezid II's (r. 1481-1512) soft power policy, and was kept in check by imperial authorities as the Ottoman approach to the Safavid conflict hardened during the rest of the sixteenth century. This book demonstrates that it was a combination of two collective activities that established the primary parameters of Bektashi culture from the late fifteenth century onwards. One was the writing of Bektashi hagiographies; they linked hitherto distinct social groups (such as wandering dervishes and warriors) with each other through the lives of historical figures who were their patron saints, idols and identity markers (such as the saint Hac? Bekta? and the martyr Seyyid Gazi), while incorporating them into Ottoman history in creative ways. The other one was the architectural remodelling of the saints' shrines. In terms of style, imagery and content, this interrelated literary and architectural output reveals a complicated process of negotiation with the imperial order and its cultural paradigms. Examined in more detail in the book are the shrines of Seyyid Gazi and Hac? Bekta? and associated legends and hagiographies. Though established as independent institutions in medieval Anatolia, they were joined in the emerging Bektashi network under the Ottomans, became its principal centres and underwent radical architectural transformation, mainly under the patronage of raider commanders based in the Balkans. In the process, they thus came to occupy an intermediary socio-political zone between the Ottoman empire and its contestants in the sixteenth century.

1

The Bektashis, their Shrines and the Ottomans

Before we turn to look at ‘architecture and hagiography’ as the title of this book promises, I must delineate the historical framework within which I want to show the buildings and texts. For without this framework, there would be little point in treating them in the same volume. Nor would it be possible to see the connections between the shrines of Hacı Bektaş and Seyyid Gazi. This chapter seeks to establish the social background of the legends and the built environment which will be examined in the rest of the book. After defining the Bektashi network and establishing the impact of the Ottoman–Safavid conflict on its development, I will focus on the relations between each shrine and the Ottoman authorities throughout the sixteenth century.

Who were the ‘Bektashis’?

Bektashi is a flexible term that has changed its meaning over time. Although it denotes a Sufi order, it also refers to a broadly conceived social affiliation that is shared by groups of Shiʿite villagers (Alevis) in Anatolia and the Balkans. They venerate Hacı Bektaş in their rituals and their community leaders include alleged descendants of the saint and his disciples. The term appears very seldom in pre-seventeenth-century texts but when it does, it is in reference to a particular Sufi group rather than such a social affiliation. The Bektashis as a distinct group first appeared in the chronicle of ʿAşıkpaşazade which was completed circa 1480, although the reference occurs in a digression which may have been added to the text up to a decade later. Here ʿAşıkpaşazade challenged the ‘Bektashis’ who claimed that Hacı Bektaş was associated with the foundation of the Janissary corps.¹

The next reference to the ‘Bektashis’ occurs in a treatise dated 1522, which was written by a Zeyni dervish who lived in Bursa and used the penname Vāḥidī. This orthodox-minded author treated them as one of eight groups of dervishes whom he considered deviants from the true Sufi path.² He described

1.1 Unorthodox dervishes, including Bektashis, taking part in a procession organized to celebrate a royal circumcision in 1582, Seyyid Lokman, Şehinşāhnāme, vol. 2, dated 1597, ms. Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Library, H. 1344 (fol. 78b right; 79a left).

them as clean-shaven and dressed in simple felt cloaks. They wore white caps made of twelve pieces of cloth stitched together. These appear to have been similar in shape to the red caps worn as a token of Twelver Shiʿite affiliation by the Turcoman supporters of the Safavids who were known as Kızılbaş, literally ‘Red-heads’. The Bektashi cap was decorated with a button made of what is referred to as ‘the Seyyid Gazi stone’. It was inscribed with the names of Allah, Muhammad and the first three of the Twelve Imams revered by Shiʿites (ʿAli, Hasan and Husayn). Vāḥidī argued that the Bektashis were insulting these names by putting them on their ‘impure’ heads. However great his respect for Hacı Bektaş, he clearly despised the Bektashis, apparently because of the Shiʿite nature of their practices and attire.

Vāḥidī was particularly critical of six groups of antinomian dervishes (Kalenderis, Abdals of Rum, Haydaris, Camis, Bektashis and Shems-i-Tebrizis) but considered the practices of two others (Edhemis and Mevlevis) relatively acceptable. In the course of the sixteenth century, the six antinomian groups became part of the Bektashi network,³ while the Mevlevis made peace with the Ottoman authorities and urban elites especially after the chief mufti Ebussuʿud (d. 1574) declared their patron saint, Celaleddin Rumi, to be orthodox.⁴ The differences between the six antinomian groups became progressively less apparent, at the same time as the term Bektashi came to denote a general antinomian religious identity. In the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, Count Marsigli (1658–1730) noted that Abdals, Haydaris and Shems-i-Tebrizis were similar to the Bektashis, differing only in details of attire.⁵

Although these sources refer to the Bektashis primarily as a dervish community, the lines dividing Sufi discipleship from cultural and political identity became increasingly blurred in the sixteenth century. The dervishes were just one part of the Bektashi network, which also included other groups that became marginalized in the process of the consolidation of the Ottoman empire. Among them were nomads forced into sedentary life, certain Turcoman tribes which were vulnerable to Ottoman pressure, Shiʿite villagers influenced by Safavid propaganda, Janissaries who were oppressed especially after giving their support to a potentially rebellious prince,⁶ and non-Muslims and recent converts in Anatolia and the Balkans.⁷

Perhaps the most active members of the Bektashi network were the raider (aḳıncı) commanders based in the Balkans, who seem to have been the primary group of patrons behind the remodelling of the shrines of Seyyid Gazi and Hacı Bektaş. They identified themselves as Gazis in the old tradition of devotion to warfare for the faith (ġazāʾ). As descendants of illust...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Note on Transliteration
• Introduction: Legends and Shrines
• 1 The Bektashis, their Shrines and the Ottomans
• 2 The Hagiographic Framework
• 3 The Remodelling of the Shrines
• 4 Architecture and Meaning
• Epilogue
• Appendix 1: Foundation Inscriptions in the Shrine of Seyyid Gazi
• Appendix 2: Foundation Inscriptions in the Shrine of Hacı Bektaş
• Bibliography
• Index