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Paradoxes of a Cold War Sufi woman: Samiha Ayverdi between Islam, nationalism, and modernity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2015

İlker Aytðrk  and
Laurent Mignon
İlker Aytðrk
Affiliation:
Political Science and Public Administration, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, [email protected]
Laurent Mignon
Affiliation:
St Antony's College, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, laurent.mignon@ orinst.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

Widely recognized by nationalists, Islamists and conservatives as the heroine of the Turkish Right in the twentieth century, Sâmiha Ayverdi influenced the renaissance of right-wing politics in Turkey as an important leader of the Rifaȋ order, a prolific author, an unyielding anti-communist, and finally as an institution-builder for right-wing causes. This article focuses on the apparent paradoxes in Ayverdi's long career, such as her modernist interpretation of Islam, her relationship with her sufi master, preference for memoirs, and her unabashed elitism. Such characteristics defy clichés associated with the stereotypical conservative/nationalist/Islamist intellectual in Cold War Turkey. Our in-depth study of Ayverdi's works thus reveals the complexity of right-wing identities, and the fact that our protagonist is an outspoken woman intellectual also adds an important twist to the story.

Keywords

AyverdiSufismMuslim womenTurkish nationalismKemalismTurkish literaturenarratives of the selfminorities—Turkey
Type
Articles
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 49 , Fall 2013 , pp. 57 - 89
Copyright
Copyright © New Perspectives on Turkey 2013

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