The Ottoman Empire: a Historical Encyclopedia [2 Volumes]

by Kia, Mehrdad;

  In the 17th century, when coffee drinking spread among the masses, many Sufi lodges, especially in the Balkans, set aside a special room, known as the kahve ocağu, for the preparation of coffee (Clayer: 222). Larger tekkes also could include baths, libraries, and meeting rooms (mosafer odasi, meydan odasi), along with special cells or chambers set aside for the şeyh and dervishes (hücerat) of the order. Other small spaces, generally without windows, were intended for spiritual seclusion (halvet odasi, halvethane, çilehane [chilehhane]) (Clayer: 222). Even larger Sufi lodges and hospices contained actual homes and apartments for the family of the şeyh. Some of these larger lodges were attached to a mosque and an immaculately maintained garden. Dervish lodges were not, therefore, limited to places of worship. They were also housing complexes and living quarters where people carried out the normal routines of life. As late as 1885, 1,091 men and 1,184 women lived in 260 tekkes in Istanbul (Clayer: 219).

  In earlier Ottoman times, lodges and hospices established and run by Ahis, or semireligious/semimystical fraternities in Anatolia, provided food, shelter, and hospitality to all travelers regardless of social background. As the North African traveler Ibn Battuta described, the Ahis built hospices and guesthouses and furnished them with rugs, lamps, and other household items (Ibn Battuta: 419). During the day the members of the brotherhood worked to gain their livelihood. After the afternoon prayer they combined their earnings to buy food and other necessities for the hospice (Ibn Battuta: 419). Should a traveler appear, they served him food and gave him lodging, while Quran readers recited the holy book. If no traveler arrived, the members of the brotherhood assembled, ate, and after eating sang and danced (Ibn Battuta: 420). In the later Ottoman period, many Sufi convents followed the same traditions and practices, providing food, lodging, and hospitality to travelers from far and near. Regardless of the era, a Sufi lodge could be expected to provide a bowl of soup for those who entered its doors. As a consequence, the lodge’s cauldron remained on the boil day and night, a symbol of the tekke’s hospitality. Likewise, in every lodge, devout dervishes—barefoot and bareheaded, and dressed in rough, patched woolen cloaks—pursued a life of poverty, withdrawal, isolation, and quiet meditation.

  Some early Ottoman sultans were followers of Sufi masters, who participated in various Ottoman military campaigns and provided the sultan and his forces with spiritual support and guidance. Their alliance with the Ottoman state allowed Sufi brotherhoods to establish themselves in the Balkans. Given such close interaction and association with various Sufi orders, it should not be surprising that the Islam of the early Ottomans, and the gāzis who supported them, lacked the theological sophistication typical of the Muslim ulema who dominated the mosques and seminaries of Anatolia’s urban centers. The Islam of the gāzis was simple, personal, unorthodox, and mystical (Inalcik: 186). An early account of the rise of Osman, the founder of the Ottoman state, recounts how he received a blessing from a prominent Sufi leader, Şeyh Edebali, who handed Osman the sword of a gāzi and prophesized that his descendants would rule the world (Inalcik: 55). When Osman died, the ceremony that decided the succession of his son to the throne took place at a zaviye, a hospice for travelers run and managed by dervishes (Inalcik: 55).

  As Ottoman power increased and established itself in the urban centers of Anatolia, where Sunni Islam dominated the Muslim community’s social and cultural life, the Ottoman state increasingly became identified with the official Islam of the ulema. Despite this, Sufi traditions and practices were never abandoned, and mystical orders continued to enjoy great popularity and respect, which allowed them to sustain their prominent role in the everyday lives of many Muslims within the Ottoman Empire.

  In fact, their popularity and mass appeal may have been what allowed Sufi mystics and dervish leaders to lead several major uprisings against the Ottoman state. For example, the revolt of Şeyh Bedreddin in 1416 against the authority of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed I (r. 1413–1421) brought the empire to the brink of extinction. Şeyh Bedreddin had studied the mystical writings of such prominent philosophers and Sufi writers as Ibn Arabi (1165–1240). He had come away with the belief that the world was ancient, without a beginning, without an end, and not created in time (Inalcik: 189). If the physical world disappeared, the spiritual world also would disappear; the process of creation and destruction was eternal. In fact, this world and the next were, in their entirety, imaginary concepts (Inalcik: 189). The revolutionary Şeyh Bedreddin rejected the concepts of heaven and hell, as well as the day of judgment and the physical resurrection of the body. He dismissed the idea of any difference between Muslims and non-Muslims. He allowed his followers to drink wine and advocated for distribution of land among them, including impoverished peasants. Ultimately, the ulema accused him of ignoring Islamic law and denounced him as a heretic. Ottoman troops crushed Şeyh Bedreddin’s revolt, and he was executed by order of Sultan Mehmed I.

  Bedreddin’s disciples, however, continued to preach. One of them, Börklüce Mustafa, organized his own revolt against the Ottoman government when he instigated an uprising among Turkoman tribal groups in western Anatolia. Börklüce taught that all things, except for women, were to be considered common property (Inalcik: 190). As had Bedreddin, he rejected the idea of inequality between Muslims and Christians and declared that Muslims who called Christians infidels were themselves infidels. As it had done with Bedreddin, the Ottoman government sent its forces against the rebellious Sufi şeyh, and he was captured and executed together with hundreds of his followers.

  See also: Popular Culture: Bektaşi Order; Mevlana Celaledin Rumi and the Mevlevi Order

  Further Reading

  Aščerić-Todd, Ines. Dervishes and Islam in Bosnia: Sufi Dimensions to the Formation of Bosnian Muslim Society. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2015.

  Çaliș-Kural, B. Deniz. Șehrengiz, Urban Rituals and Deviant Sufi Mysticism in Ottoman Istanbul. London and New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2016.

  Clayer, Nathalie. “Life in an Istanbul Tekke in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries According to a ‘Menakibname’ of the Cerrahi Dervishes.” In The Illuminated Table, the Prosperous House: Food and Shelter in Ottoman Material Culture. Edited by Suraiya Faroqhi and Christoph K. Neumann. Würzburg: Ergon in Kommission, 2003.

  Curry, John J. The Transformation of Muslim Mystical Thought in the Ottoman Empire: The Rise of the Halveti Order, 1350–1650. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010.

  Ibn Battuta. The Travels of Ibn Battuta. Translated by H. A. R. Gibb. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962.

  Inalcik, Halil. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300–1600. Translated by Norman Itzkowitz and Colin Imber. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1973.

  Le Gall, Dina. A Culture of Sufism: Naqshbandis in the Ottoman World, 1450–1700. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005.

  Lewis, Bernard. Istanbul and the Civilization of the Ottoman Empire. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.

  Lewis, Raphaela. Everyday Life in Ottoman Turkey. London: B. T. Batsford, 1971.

  Masters, Bruce. “Sufism.” In Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, edited by Gábor Ágoston and Bruce Masters, 539–541. New York: Facts On File, 2009.

  McCarthy, Justin. The Ottoman Turks: An Introductory History to 1923. London and New York: Wesley Longman Limited, 1997.

  Ocak, Ahmet Yas’ar. “Sufism, Sufis, and Tariqahs, Private Dervish Lodges.” In Ottoman Civilization. Edited by Halil Inalcik and Günsel Renda, two volumes. Istanbul: Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture Publications, 2003.

  Özdemir Nutku, “Sinf.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam, edited by C. E. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W. P. Heinrichs, and G. Lecomte, 646–647. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997.

  Shaw, Stanford J. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.

  REBELS, REFORMERS, AND

  REVOLUTIONARIES

  Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi (1808–1883)

  Abd al-Qadir al-Ja
zairi (also spelled Abd el-Qadir or Abd el-Kader or Abdelkader) is one of the greatest heroes of the Algerian people in the 19th century. He emerged as the religious, political, and military leader of Algeria’s resistance against French colonialism after the country was invaded and occupied in 1830.

  Abd al-Qadir was born on September 6, 1808, near Mascara, a town in northwestern Algeria. His father, Muhieddine (Muhyi al-Din), was a member of the Qadiriyya (Kadiriyya) Sufi order. Abd al-Qadir grew up and studied at his father’s zaviye. A zaviye served as a hospice run and managed by the members of a Sufi order. He received a traditional Islamic education, which included grammar, as well as the basics of Islamic theology and jurisprudence. He also memorized the Quran, which earned him the title hafiz (a person who knows the Quran by heart).

  In 1826 Abd al-Qadir and his father went on the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca required of a Muslim at least once in his or her lifetime. After performing the hajj the father and son visited Baghdad, Damascus, and Cairo. In Egypt Abd al-Qadir saw firsthand the impact of the modernizing reforms introduced by Mehmed Ali (Muhammad Ali), the ruler of the country.

  In 1830 Algeria was invaded by France. In response, a holy war (jihad) was declared against the European Christian invaders. Initially Abd al-Qadir’s father, Muhyi al-Din, was designated as one of the leaders of the jihad. When Muhyi al-Din begged off because of old age and ailing health, the leadership of the movement was assumed by his son, Abd al-Qadir, who was elected as the Commander of the Faithful (amir/emir) and the leader of the holy war against France in 1832.

  The power and prestige of Abd al-Qadir was the greatest in Oran in northwestern Algeria, where he managed to rally the tribes of the region around the flag of holy war against the French invaders. After two years of warfare the French grudgingly agreed to negotiate a peace treaty with the Algerian amir. France’s strategy was to restore order in Oran, while at the same preventing the anti-French movement from spreading from the northwest to the rest of the country. The peace treaty allowed Abd al-Qadir to extend his authority over the tribes of northwestern Algeria.

  Becoming increasingly unhappy with the results of their peace treaty with Abd al-Qadir, the French resumed hostilities in 1834, but they suffered a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Macta in 1834. Defeat at the hands of Abd al-Qadir only hardened the French resolve to pacify the Algerian population. Though the French scored a number of military successes, political opinion in France was becoming increasingly more skeptical about the wisdom of colonizing Algeria. In 1837 a new French general negotiated a second treaty with Abd al-Qadir. The Treaty of Tafna, signed in May 1837, only expanded and strengthened Abd al-Qadir’s power, making the Algerian leader the unchallenged master of Oran. By the end of 1838 his authority reached Kabylie in northern Algeria and as far south as the Moroccan border.

  Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi, between 1860 and 1883. (Library of Congress)

  Peace with France was short-lived. The conflict between Abd al-Qadir and the French forces erupted in late 1839. Abd al-Qadir was successful in his confrontations with the French until 1842. Beginning in that year, the French adopted a scorched earth policy, attacking rural and tribal communities and brutalizing the local population. The French were determined to make the indigenous population suffer for their support of Abd al-Qadir. They also cut off Abd al-Qadir’s access to Moroccan territory, where he had sought refuge to reorganize his forces. In August 1844 the French defeated a Moroccan army at the Battle of Isly, forcing the sultan of Morocco to promise that he would expel Abd al-Qadir and his armies if they entered his territory again.

  Abd al-Qadir surrendered to the French on December 21, 1847. Initially the French had promised that upon surrendering Abd al-Qadir would be allowed to leave Algeria for either Alexandria in Egypt or Acre in present-day Israel. The French, however, reneged on their promise and transferred Abd al-Qadir to France, where he, his family, and a group of his followers lived in detention and under house arrest for the next five years.

  In October 1852 the then president of France, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, released Abd al-Qadir. He was promised an annual salary of 100,000 francs in return for taking an oath to never again cause war and bloodshed in Algeria. Soon Abd al-Qadir left France for the Ottoman Empire, where he settled in Bursa in present-day western Turkey. In 1855 Abd al-Qadir moved to Damascus, where he settled in the Amara district of the ancient city. He devoted much of his time to reading and writing books and essays. Most of his works focused on theology, philosophy, and Sufism, but he also delved into other topics, such as horses.

  In July 1860 a violent conflict that had erupted between the Druze and Maronite communities in Mount Lebanon spread to Damascus. The local Druze attacked the Maronites and other Christians in Damascus, killing over 3,000 civilians. Abd al-Qadir intervened and sheltered a large number of Christians, including the members of various European diplomatic corps and missionary groups such as the Sisters of Mercy, in his own house. After the end of the riot the news of Abd al-Qadir’s prominent role in rescuing the Christian population of Damascus reached the outside world, and an outpouring of appreciation and recognition of his humanity, generosity, and compassion followed. The French government awarded Abd al-Qadir the Grand Cross of the Légion d’Honneur and increased his pension to 150,000 francs. He also received the Order of the Mecidiye (Mejidiye) First Class from the Ottoman government, the Order of Pius IX from the Vatican, and the Grand Cross of the Redeemer from the government of Greece. In 1865 Abd al-Qadir was received by Napoleon III in Paris with pomp and ceremony; the old foe of France was now the most respected guest of the French emperor.

  Abd al-Qadir died in Damascus on May 26, 1883. He was 75 years old. In 1965, after gaining independence from France, the newly established government of Algeria recovered the ashes of Abd al-Qadir and placed them in the El Alia cemetery in a suburb of Algiers.

  See also: Beys and Pashas: Mehmed Ali; Mustafa Reșid Pasha; Empire and Administration: Tanzimat; Sultans: Abdülmecid; Mahmud II

  Further Reading

  Al-Djazairi, S. E. French Invasion-Algerian Resistance (1830–1871). n.p.: MSBN Books, 2015.

  Bouyerdene, Ahmed. Emir el-Kader: Hero and Saint of Islam. Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2012.

  Brower, Benjamin C. A Desert Named Peace: The Violence of France’s Empire in the Algerian Sahara, 1844–1902. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.

  Churchill, Charles Henry. The Life of Abdel Kader, Ex-sultan of the Arabs of Algeria. Berkeley: Reprint from the Collections of the University of California Libraries, 1867.

  Kiser, John W. Commander of the Faithful: The Life and Times of Emir Abd el-Kader. Rhinebeck, NY: Monkfish Book Publishing, 2008.

  Lorcin, Patricia. Algeria and France, 1800–2000: Identity, Memory, Nostalgia. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2006.

  Marston, Elsa. The Compassionate Warrior: Abd El-Kader of Algeria. Bloomington, IN: Wisdom Tales, 2013.

  Sessions, Jennifer E. By Sword and Plow: France and the Conquest of Algeria. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011.

  Abduh, Muhammad (1849–1905)

  An Egyptian author, journalist, scholar, and jurist who is considered one of the most influential Muslim reformist intellectuals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Abduh was one of the founders of the Salafiyya movement, the reform movement that sought to demonstrate the compatibility of Islam with rational and scientific thought.

  Abduh was born in a village in the Nile Delta area in 1849. After receiving his primary education in his village, he attended the mosque school in Tanta, 94 kilometers (58 miles) north of Cairo. After completing his education in Tanta, he moved to Cairo to attend al-Azhar University, one of the most important centers of Islamic learning in the world. He completed his studies at al-Azhar in 1877.

  It was in Cairo in 1872 that Abduh met the Iranian revolutionary thinker, activist, orator, and philosopher Sayyid Jamal al-Din Afghani, who preached Islamic unity (Pan-Islamism) against European encroachment and al
so advocated for reformation in Islam. Afghani arrived in Cairo in March 1871 after being expelled from Istanbul for delivering a controversial presentation on prophecy in Islam. The Iranian thinker, who concealed his Iranian and Shia origins and claimed to be a Sunni Afghan, began to live and teach in Cairo. Through his lectures on mysticism, Islamic history, philosophy, and jurisprudence, Afghani attracted a large following among young Egyptians hungry for new ideas, as well as for political and social change. One of these young scholars was Muhammad Abduh, who emerged as Afghani’s most faithful disciple and collaborator. Afghani’s lectures alarmed British officials, who convinced the Egyptian authorities to expel him from the country in 1879. Abduh also was exiled from Cairo.

  In 1880 Abduh was appointed the editor of the Egyptian government’s official gazette. He used his new position to advocate for social, educational, and religious reforms, as well as for resistance to British and French intervention in Egypt. In 1882 armed conflict erupted between the nationalist movement, led by the Egyptian army officer Urabi Pasha, and the British. Abduh was accused of supporting Urabi Pasha. After Urabi Pasha and his supporters were defeated and the British occupied Egypt, Abduh was sent into exile.

  In 1884 Abduh left Egypt for France. In Paris he joined his mentor, Afghani. During their stay in Paris Afghani and Abduh published a newspaper called al-Urwat al-Wuthqa (The unbroken chain), which also carried the French title Le Lien Indissoluble (Browne: 9). Afghani and Abduh also engaged French intellectuals in debates about the compatibility of Islam with science, arguing that in sharp contrast to Judaism and Christianity, which were hostile to scientific thought, Islam was compatible with rationalism, scientific thinking, and progress.

  After he left France Abduh visited England and Tunisia. He eventually traveled to Lebanon, where he taught for three years. In 1888 Abduh was allowed to return to Egypt. Back in Egypt, he began a new career as a judge and a jurist. He gradually abandoned his revolutionary ideas and anti-British stance. The British authorities expressed their appreciation for his new conciliatory approach by supporting his appointment as the mufti (the highest ranking Muslim jurist and legal expert, who is empowered to give rulings on religious matters) of Egypt in 1899. In his new position as the mufti of Egypt, Abduh introduced a number of social and religious reforms. He also continued to lecture at al-Azhar University.