“George B. Nutting: Letter to the Missionary Herald (Turkey, 1860) and Baha Said Bey: Alevi Communities in Turkey: Alevism in Convents and Alevism within Society (Turkey, 1926),” in: Religious Dynamics under the Impact of Imperialism and Colonialism 2016 (original) (raw)
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Formation of Kızılbaş Communities in Anatolia and Ottoman Responses, 1450s-1630s
International Journal of Turkish Studies, Vol. 20, Nos. 1&2, 2014, pp. 21-48., 2014
The development of Kızılbaş Islam in Anatolia and the early modern Ottoman bureaucracy’s role in the persecution of Kızılbaş communities have been the subject of sustained scholarly interest. While scholarship from the 1960s through the 1980s explained Ottoman policies against the Kızılbaş in the context of mere security concerns, revisionist historians, who have dominated the field since the 1990s, have approached the topic from new, yet problematic, angles. Not only have the new approaches reduced the relationship between the Ottomans and the Kızılbaş to a policy of persecution, but they also have presented the state’s creation of a Sunni “orthodox” identity for its subjects as a reason for these repressive policies. In contrast to these one-dimensional explanations for the Ottoman central authority’s “never-ending struggle against rebellious heretics,” I argue that a more complex relationship between İstanbul and its Kızılbaş subjects led to wildly varying Ottoman state policies, ranging from financial support for the Safaviyya order and the Kızılbaş subjects of the empire to execution of the same populations. A more precise examination of primary sources, focused mainly on Ottoman imperial decrees (or mühimmes), reveals three main dynamics that explain this complexity: the Ottomans’ relationship with the Safavids and the issues of Kızılbaş tax evasion and conversion.
Book Review: The Kizilbash/Alevis in Ottoman Anatolia: Sufism, Politics and Community
International Journal of Kurdish Studies, 2020
The academic monograph The Kizilbash/Alevis in Ottoman Anatolia recently published in the Edinburgh University Press series “Edinburgh Studies on the Ottoman Empire,” has all of 400 pages. The book’s Turkish-born author Ayfer Karakaya-Stump is at present a university professor at William and Mary University, Williamsburg Virginia, USA. It is apparent from her book that she has meantime visited Turkey in her quest to understand the current beliefs and ritual of the Alevi Turkish community in the now secularized state of Turkey. She attempts to trace the origins of the Alevis and why they are currently known as “Alevi” (followers of Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law), but were earlier on known as “Kizilbash.” She ultimately describes the Kizilbash as “followers of Shah Ismail.”
Alevism-Bektashism From Seljuks to Ottomans and Safavids; A Historical Study
Alevilik-Bektaşilik Araştırmaları Dergis, 2018
Alevi-Bektashi is one of the significant orders which was formed in Anatolia in 13th AD. Haj Bektash Veli, as the founder of the order, migrated to Anatolia from the focal point of Sufism, Khorasan. Probably Haj Bektash Veli was the caliph of Baba Elyas Khorasani, who was the leader of the Baba’i uprising that shook the foundations of the Seljuks in Anatolia in the first half of the 13th century. Eventually, the Seljuks could defeat them by the Frankish forces aid. Loss of his brother in the battle was enough for Haj Bektash to avoid a new military confrontation with the Seljuks, however, followed the intellectual path of the Baba’is in the rest of his life. Many factors such as the religious beliefs of Turks in the pre-Islamic era, the prevailing Sufi thoughts in Anatolia and Christianity affected the Bektashis during their long history. The backbone of the order was the cultural and religious tolerance that found several adherents in Anatolia. In Ottoman era Bektashiya became the official order that spiritually led the Jannissaries. Alevi-Bektashi also was influenced by other streams of thoughts such as Hurufis and the shi’i propaganda of the Safavid sheikhs. This article by historical approach examine the formation of Alevi-Bektashi order and clarifies how they were influenced and then had their impact on the history of Iran and Turkey. Anahtar Kelimeler: Alevi-Bektashi, Anatolia, Haj Bektash Veli, Seljuks, Safavid.
Die Welt des Islams, 2001
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 89.206.117.185 on Sun150 years ago, the utopia of the Protestant American missionaries in Turkey consisted in an almost millenarian belief in a new social and symbolic order, promoted not by a miraculous deus ex machina but by their own evangelistic, educative and civilizing efforts. Penetrating all the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire, the carriers of this impressive Puritan model of successful work, self-confident behavior and the socioreligious subversion of the existing order made a major impact on the Christian minorities and on other communities heterodox to the authoritative islamic orthodoxy-groups which thought there would be much to win and little to loose if fundamental change took place.