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Shaykh Bālī-Efendi on the ṣafavidsY1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Extract
The contents of the document which forms the main subject of the present article are somewhat slender and cannot be appreciated outside the context of the struggles between the Ottomans and the Safavids for the incorporation of the Turkman tribes settled in the territories separating their states. Many points of the situation await further investigation and our summary will be as brief as the complicated subject admits.
The home of the Ottoman dynasty was in the north-western corner of Anatolia, but, by the middle of the fourteenth century, the Turks had crossed over to the northern side of the Straits and the Balkan territories became the nursery of the Ottoman empire.
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- Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , February 1957 , pp. 437 - 450
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- Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1957
Footnotes
This article forms No. 13 in my ‘Turkmeniea’ series.
References
page 437 note 2
See J. H. Mordtmann, Dewshirme in El; I. Uzunçarǵili in Islam Ansiklopedisi, II, and recently
Wittek, P., ‘ and
’, BSOAS, XVII, 2, 1955, 271-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Professor Wittek admits (p. 275) that the ḥanafl law of the Ottomans left no loophole for such unusual practice, but he reminds us of the existence of such a loophole in the shafi‘ite law (p. 277), although in the meantime he quotes the Turkish law forbidding the application of the shāfi'ite rite in the diyār-i Rūm (sic), etc. One wonders whether there exist positive facts or texts showing that the Ottoman government ever sought any theological grounds for their practice. On the other hand are there any indications that the heads of the Ottoman religious organization (whose rite had no loopholes for the devshirme) ever protested against this ‘brutal offence against the status of the dhimmīs’ ? If not, the presumption would be that the ghāzī state was little hampered by theology, and that the doctors of law were ready, or obliged, to endorse the ‘raison d'etat’. These considerations are not foreign to the subject of the present article. [As a means of recruitment the devshirme was preceded by the practice of converting and enslaving a part of the Christian prisoners captured by the ghāzīs.]
page 438 note 1 The term ‘État centralisé’ which Käprülü, M.F., Les origines de I'Empire Ottoman, 1935, 78 Google Scholar, applies to the Seljuk state must be understood cum grano salis. He himself, p. 101, refers to ‘les beyliks des marches’. The easy disintegration of the state also indicates the complexity of its structure; cf. Wittek, , ‘Deux ehapitres de l'histoire des Turcs de Roum’, Byzanticm, XI, 1936, 297.Google Scholar
page 438 note 2 cf. the present-day retrospect on the Turkman tribes by Professor Käprülü, see op. cit., 57: ‘xabsolument étrangères à la notion d’État, ne connaissant aucun ordre social hors celui de la tribu … ces masses indisciplinées, dès que le mécanisme administratif se relâchait un peu, devenaient aussitüt un élément de troubles et d'anarchie’, etc. For the ‘visiting cards’ left by these tribes in the toponymy of Anatolia see Refik, A., Anadoluda Türk aṡiretleri, Istanbul, 1930.Google Scholar
page 438 note 3 Wittek, P., ‘De la défaite d'Ankara …’, BEI, 1938, 1, p. 7 Google Scholar: ‘Avec ses troupes d'élite, les janissaires, formées de captifs tombés tout jeunes aux mains des ghazis, au coura des razzias en pays Chrétiens, et avec les auxiliaires que les princes balkaniques … devaient lui amener personnellement, Bayezid disposait d'une supériorité écrasante sur ées émirats (d'Anatolie)’; cf. Wittek, Byzantion, xi, 312 Google Scholar, on the resentment of the poet Ahmedi against Sultan Bayazid's action in Anatolia.
page 438 note 4 Köprülü, M.F., Anadoluda Islamiyet (1922, unfinished), p. 89 Google Scholar. A Venetian report of 8 April 1514 estimates the number of shī'ites in Asia Minor at ‘four-fifths of the whole of Anatolia’, see Jorga, N., Gesch. d. Osm. Reichs, II, 327.Google Scholar
page 438 note 5 On the revolts in 1416 of Badr al-;dīn and his associates Börklüje-Muṡṭtafā and Torlaq Hū-Kamāl, see Hammer, , GOR, 1840, 1, 293 Google Scholar; Babinger, , Schejch Bedr ed-din, 1921 Google Scholar, and Babinger, , ‘Der Islam in Kleinasien’, ZDMG, LXXVI, 1922, 126-56Google Scholar. See also the important critical review of Babinger's thesis in Köprülü-zade's, M.F. ‘Bemerkungen z. Religionsgeschichte Kleinasiens’, Mitteilungen z. Osmanischen Geschichte (Wien), I, 1922, 203-22Google Scholar, and especially Şerefeddin Yaltkaya, M., Bedreddin in I si. Ansiklopedisi (which sums up the contents of the monograph by the same author, Istanbul, 1924).Google Scholar
page 438 note 6 With some exaggeration, Gibbons, H.A., The foundation of the Ottoman Empire, Oxford, 1916, 280 Google Scholar, enumerates 26 large and small amirates in Anatolia. The book of the American author, despite its many mistakes and misunderstandings, still represents a considerable amount of work and new ideas.
page 439 note 1 The history of the early Aq-qoyunlu was written by Abū-Bakr Tihrānī. A copy of his Tārīkh-i Diyārbakriya (incomplete at the end) was discovered in Iraq, and it is to be hoped that Dr. F. Sümer (Ankara) will succeed in bringing out an edition of it.
page 439 note 2 Hinz, W., Irans Aufstieg zum Natianalstaate, 1936, 25 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See Minorsky, , Persia in 1478-90, 1957.Google Scholar
page 440 note 1 ‘Those loving the shah’, but with a hint at the ‘Shah of Sanctity’ (shāh-i vilāyat), i.e. 'Alī.
page 440 note 2 See Minorsky, , Tadhkirat al-mulūk, 1942, 30, 189 Google Scholar, and Minorsky, , ‘La Perse au 15-me siècle’, Rome, 1957.Google Scholar
page 440 note 3 It was reserved to our generation to establish in 1914 a clear delimitation of the Turco-Persian frontier line based grosso modo on the seventeenth century status quo, though Persia, in her later negotiations with Turkey, made some additional concessions and gave to Turkey the territory including Mt. Lesser Ararat.
page 441 note 1 See the diplomatic correspondence of the time in Ferīdūn-bey's collection and its abstract in Browne, E.G., LHP, iv, 67-9 and 73-5.Google Scholar
page 441 note 2 For the edification of his Turkman supporters he wrote it in Turkish. See Minorsky, , ‘The poetry of Shāh Ismā'il’, BSOAS, X, 4, 1942, 1006a-53a.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 441 note 3 See al-Suwaydī, 'Abdullāh, Kitāb al-ḥujjaj al-qat'iya bi-ittifāq al-firaq al-islāmiya, Cairo, 1329.Google Scholar Russian resume by Professor Schmidt, A.E. in V. V. Bartoldu, Tashkent, 1927, 69–107 and 532.Google Scholar
page 441 note 4 Called Skaytan-quli by the Turks.
page 441 note 5 See Ahsan al-tavārīkh, 125, 128, 134.
page 441 note 6 Idris Bidlīsī, Selīm-nāma, B.M. Add. 24,960, ff. 68b–70b. As noted by E. G. Browne, LHP, IV, 72, the Persian historians do not mention this melancholy event.
page 441 note 7 Pechevi was a native of Pecs in Hungary. Born in 982/1574 he died in 1061/1650, or a few years earlier. A part of his career was spent in Temeshvar. See Babinger, GOW, 1927, 192–5.
page 442 note 1 ‘Un interrogatoire d'hérétiques musulmans (1619)’, Jour. As., 1919, avril, 281–93.
page 442 note 2 See Hammer, GOB, 1840, II, 197, 246, 350, 848: from March 1545 to October 1553 and from 28 September 1555 to 9 July 1561 when he died.
page 442 note 3 Shaqā'iq al-nu'māniya, Cairo, 1310, II, 64; German transl. by O. Rescher, Galata, 1927, 332.Google Scholar
page 442 note 4 He must not be confused with the native of Tire (in Aydin) Serkhosh Bali-efendi, who died in 981/1573 and lies buried near Qurshunlu-türbe, see Pechevi, I, 465–6, and the continuation of Tashkōprü-zadé by ‘Alī Mīnīq, German transl. (by Rescher), Stuttgart, 1934, 73.
page 442 note 5 The Turkish translation, completed in 995–1586, 30 years after the composition of the original work, was printed in Constantinople in 1269/1852, pp. 251–2.
page 442 note 6 This name seems to be of Caucasian (Daghestanian) origin > Alkhas, though perhaps remotely connected with Arabic al-Khāṡṡ.
page 443 note 1 Aḥsan al-tavārīhh, years 953/6/1546–9; Tarikh-i Pechevi, I, 267–83; already at that moment Pechevi (I, 273) refers to the dissatisfaction of Suleyman with the rough proceedings of his protégé Alqāṡ; Sharaf-nāma, i, 85–6 and II, 198: none of the Persian amirs, whom Alqās had promised to bring over to the Ottoman side, joined the sultan.
page 443 note 2 Thus spelt throughout, for Khūnkār < Khwandkār.
page 444 note 1 The accepted Persian pronunciation is Tahmāsib (Turkish influence ?).
page 444 note 2 Shaykh Ṣafī was a highly respected shaykh, but proofs of his appurtenance to the children of the Prophet are lacking, see BSOAS, xvi, 3, 1954, 518 Google Scholar. See recently Falsafī, N., Zindagānī-yi Shāh 'Abbās 1, 1332/1953, 3–4, 157–9.Google Scholar
page 445 note 1 Enjek, , see Tarama sōzlügü, i, 1943, 267, 269.Google Scholar
page 445 note 2 This is pure invention. Shaykh Ṣafī (1252–1334) was succeeded by his son, the highly respected Ṣadr al-dīn (1305–92). The latter's son Khwāja ‘Alī acted as the head of the order down to 1427. His son and successor Ibrāhīm, known as Shaykh-shāh, died in 1447. During the minority of his son Junayd, his brother Ja‘far b. Ibrāhīm became the locum tenens, and it was he who, in agreement with Jahānshāh Qara-qoyunlu, expelled Junayd from Ardabil.
page 445 note 3 Probably in general meaning. But see below, p. 449, the particular sect designated by this name.
page 446 note 1 As mentioned above, Junayd was the son of Ibrāhīm Shaykh-shāh, of whose ghazā nothing is known. When after a six years' absence Junayd returned to Ardabil, his position with Jahanshah became again intolerable. He had to leave Ardabil and went on a ghazā to the Caucasus, but on 4 March 1460 lost his life in a clash with the troops of the shīrvānshāh Khalīl whose territory he was crossing.
page 446 note 2 Tarlama sozlügü, I, 105: üşüşmek.
page 446 note 3 Ḥaydar was born in Diyārbakr when his father had gone to Ardabil and Shirvan in 1459–60. Ḥaydar was brought up by his mother's brother Uzun-Ḥasan, who later gave him in marriage his own daughter (born of the princess of Trebizond)!
page 447 note 1 A repetition, or an alternative draft kept in Bālī-efendi's papers.
page 447 note 2 Ḥaydar was sent to Ardabil after Uzun-Ḥasan Aq-qoyunlu defeated Jahānshāh Qaraqoyunlu (on 17 November 1467). He led three expeditions to the Caucasus, and on the last of them (9 July 1488) was killed in a battle with the troops of his cousin Ya‘qub Aq-qoyunlu which were supporting the shīrvānshāh. See Minorsky, , Persia in 1478–90, 1957, 117–19.Google Scholar
page 447 note 3 Ismā'āl was a child in the care of his mother in Ardabil.
page 448 note 1 cf. Cheshmī-efendi's dammara-hwm Allāh. See below, p. 450.
page 448 note 2 ‘Bemerkungen’, 1922, 212–13: ‘ Die folgenden Zeilen Bālī-efendis, der bei Bekanntgabe dieser Ideen und Lehren dcm Sultan deren Bestrafung rat, vermogen unsere obigen Darlegungen über Bräuche und Lehrsätze der Anhänger Bedr ed-dins sehr gut zu bekräftigen’. The author quotes Bālī-efendi's statement from a commentary on Yazījī-oġlu‘s Muḥarnmadiya, I, 58. The author of the commentary (Ḥaqqī) calls Bālī-efendi a ṡūfī following the path of the sharī'a (mutasharri'). See also this reference to Bālī-efendi and other shaykhs in M. œerefeddin Yaltkaya's article in Islam Ansiklopedisi: Bedreddin.
page 448 note 3 ‘Contribution à l'hietoire des sultans Osman II et Mustafa I ' , Jour. As., 1919, juillet, 69–139, septembre, 243–310.
page 449 note 1 History of Na'īmā, 1147/1734, i, 513;Google Scholar Hammer, , GOR, 1829, v, 136 Google Scholar (or 1840, in, 102).
page 449 note 2 See also Köprülü-zade's opinion in his ‘Bemerkungen’, 1922, p. 214, n. 1, and his Les origines du Bektachisme, Paris, 1926, 24.Google Scholar
page 449 note 3 ‘(A saying full of) meaning’, apparently in verse, cf. the present-day Turkish mâni (ma'nī) in the sense of ‘song’.
page 449 note 4 See Minorsky, , ‘The poetry of Shāh Ismā'īl’, BSOAS, x, 4, 1942, 1006a–53a.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 449 note 5 See Minorsky, , Études sur les Ahlé-Haqq, in Revue du Monde Musulman, 1920–1921 Google Scholar (in book form, pp. 108–12), and Minorsky, Ahl-i Ḥaḳḳ in El.
page 449 note 6 See loo. cit., 141–2; cf. akhū wa ukhtu al-ākhira of the Yazīdis.
Additional note to p. 437.
The varying Western attitude towards the devshirme would form a subject for a curious study. Few would go as far as Dr. Giese in his wholesale admiration (‘Das Problem d. Entstehung d. osm. Reiches,’ Z. für Semitistik, II, 1924, 268): ‘Die Devširme und die Einführung des Janitscharenkorps ist also nicht die diabolische Erfindung Murads I, wie sie bisher in den europäischen Geschichtswerken dargestellt wird, sondern sie ist der Abschluss einer langen Entwicklung, die uns das Genie der osmanischen Sultane in der Zusammenfassung und Ausnutzung der vorhandenen Krafte fur ihre. Zwecke zeigt’. However, even the latest authorities, far from displaying any token of saeva indignatio, bow to the inexorable idea of the Islamic dār al-ḥarb, or refer to the possibility of advancement for the young converts. On similar grounds the status of a eunuch was not devoid of certain privileges.
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