POLITICS and SUFISM in OTTOMAN THOUGHT

OSMANLI DÜŞÜNCESİNDE SİYASET ve TASAVVUF

AŞAĞIDAKİ METİN, OSMANLI DÖNEMİNDE YAŞAYAN TÜRK DÜŞÜNÜRÜ SARI ABDULLAH EFENDİ HAKKINDA JAPONYA’DA VERDİĞİM KONFERANSIN ÖTEDİR.

İngilizce Başlığın Türkçesi: ‘Osmanlı Düşüncesinde Siyaset ve Tasavvuf’

Bu özeti, hem bilgi hem de bir tebliğ/konferans özetinin nasıl hazırlanacağı hususunda öğrencilerime yararlı olabilir diye burada yayımlıyorum.

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ABSTRACT

POLITICS and SUFISM in OTTOMAN THOUGHT

Harun Anay, Ph.D.

e-mail: h_anay@hotmail.com

In my paper I would like to discuss the political aspects of Sufism and their contribution to the Islamic political thought mainly based on a manuscript book written in Ottoman Turkish. After classifying Islamic Political works and mentioning the importance of the Turkish books among them, the relation of Sufis and politics, and the place of Sufis in Ottoman intellectual and political life, I would like to present the contents of the manuscript on which I have been working to make a critical edition and evaluate the political ideas defended in it.

Politics has been widely interested by different groups of thinkers in Islamic Intellectual thought. In addition to the fuqaha, philosophers, theologians, the writter of the ethical books and the writers of the mirror for the princes, some sufi thinkers also can be considered as political thinkers. Among the sufis who wrote on Islamic political thought the writer of the Tadbir al-Nas’atayn ve Islah al-Nushatayn  has a special importance because of his ideas within that book. The book contains both sufistic and political ideas.

 Tadbir al-Nas’atayn ve Islah al-Nushatayn has been attributed to Sari Abdullah Efendi (b.1584-d.1660), who was an Ottoman Sufi, bureaucrat and poet. He served as tazkiraji, ra’is el-kuttab and various positions in Ottoman State. Among his works Dustur al-Insha, Nasihat al-Muluk Targhiban li Husn al-Suluk, Maslak al-Ussak, Maratib el-Vujud, Samarat el-Fuad fi al-Mabda’ ve al-Ma’ad and Javahir-i Bavahir-i Mathnavi can be mentioned. His main work Javahir-i Bavahir-i Mathnavi (vol: 1-5, Istanbul, 1870-1871), dedicated to Murad IV, is a Turkish translation of and a commentary on the first volume of Mawlana’s Mathnawi. Like most of his works in this commentary, Sari Abdullah followed Ibn Arabi’s ideas closely and interpreted Mathnavi according to his philosphy of the wahdat-i wujud (the unity of being).

Although dedication of the Tadbir al-Nas’atayn ve Islah el-Nuskhatayn to Sari Abdullah Efendi is not concrete, the political and sufistic ideas in this book are very close to the ideas of Sari Abdullah Efendi.

The book has been divided into two parts (bab). Part one is related to the worldly khalifate, and the second part to the spiritual khalifate or the perfect man (ruh, insan-i kamil). In the first part of the book, the writer discussed such political topics as the importance of khalifa (padishah, sultan or malik), the conditions of the khalifa, his justice; ministers (wazirs); qadis; the ra’ayas and the governing of the wars. In this part the writer has applied the Ottoman political and bureaucratic system to the Islamic political thought and presented it as an ideal political system.

The second part of the book is devoted mainly to the sufistic explanations according to the philosophy of the unity of being. The writer has divided the second part according to the first part of the book. Doing this, it seems that he applied the famous metaphor related to the relation between macrocosms and microcosms. So he tried to find all the positions and posts, existed in the worldly khalifate, in the perfect man (ruh). Based on this idea, according to him the soul is a khalifate in human body, wazir is intellect (aql), and so on.

Both in the first part and he second part of the book, the writer has followed the ideas of Ibn Arabi and in many places the works of Ibn Arabi have been referred to. So it can be easily understood that the writer of the book was one of the disciple of Ibn Arabi. But, despite Ibn Arabi has not been interested so much in politics; the writer of this book has tried to develop a new political thought applying Sufi thoughts and ideals to politics and political ideas to Sufism. From that point of view, this book can be considered one of the most important books in the history of Sufism and in the history of Islamic political thought.

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Harun Anay/08.12.2013

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