Futuwwa Traditions in the Ottoman Empire Akhis, Bektashi Dervishes, and Craftsmen Author(s): G. G.

Arnakis Source: Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Oct., 1953), pp. 232-247 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/542945 Accessed: 29/10/2008 09:02
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FUTUWWA TRADITIONS IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AKHIS, BEKTASHI DERVISHES, AND CRAFTSMEN*
G. G. ARNAKIS

Tangier, Abu Abd Allah Ibn Battuta, arrived at Attalia in the beginning of his Anatolian tour early in 1333 and took up his residence in the Moslem seminary of the town, he was visited by a young Turk of unpretentious appearance who invited him and his company to dinner.l The Moroccan traveler's attitude was one of condescending reluctance, for, as he tells us, he was loath to burden the finances of a man who seemed to be anything but wealthy. He was reassured, however, by the sheikh in charge of the school, who hastened to inform him that the hospitable Turk was the leader of the local Akhiyat al-Fityan, or the Brotherhood of Youth, /which, as the traveler learned afterward, existed in every important city of Asia Minor. In Attalia it had a membership of about two hundred. They were commonly mentioned as Akhi, or Brethren.2 The dinner party in question was Ibn Battuta's first contact with the Akhis, and Ibn Battuta, in turn, became our first source of information concerning the Brotherhood. As he pursued his journey from town to town in the Anatolian Turkish emirates, he had occasion to become acquainted with more than a dozen chapters of the Akhiyat al-Fityan and to
* Abridged to about half its present size, this article was read in the sixty-sixth annual meeting of the American Historical Association (New York, December 28, 1951) under the title: "The Futuwwa Tradition among Akhis, Bektashis, and Craftsmen as a Factor in the Establishment of the Ottoman Empire." It was subsequently developed into its present form during the tenure of an ACLS Fellowship, for which the writer expresses sincere appreciation. 1 Voyages d' Ibn Batoutah, ed. and trans. C. Defremery and B. Sanguinetti (Paris, 1877), II, 262-63.

W"HTENH 'the adventurous traveler of learn the organization's aims and prac-

tices. When, back in Morocco, many years later, he dictated the recollections of his journeys in the three continents, he did not fail to describe the Akhis of Anatolia. Thus, Ibn Battuta's Travels came to shed new light upon one of the darkest corners of early Turkish history at a time when scholarship, headed by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (1774-1856), seemed to have fully exploited all the known sources, yet without penetrating beyond the legends and traditions which enveloped the heroic personalities of Osman, Orhan, and their contemporaries.3

2 Jean Deny, in his brief article, 'Futuwwet-name et romans de chevalerie turcs," Journal asiatique, XI series, XVI (1920), 182-83, pointed out that originally the word akhi was not the Arabic equivalent of "brother" (akh), but the Eastern Turkish word aqi, which meant, as an adjective, "generous, chivalrous," and, as a noun, "chevalerie," "confr6rie religieuse," "corps de metier." It is possible that Ibn Battuta confused the word aqi, which, being Turkish, was unknown to him, with his familiar Arabic akh-i. The latter prevailed as designation of the members of the society, as the original Turkish name fell into disuse, and the term was generally taken to mean "brother." Franz Taeschner, in his "Beitrage zur Geschichte der Achis in Anatolien," Islamica, IV (1929), 15, suggests that there was a semasiological fusion of the two words, as in the instance of mevlana, the title of Jelaleddin Rumi and others, which originally meant "our lord" and later signified "wise man" or "scholar." Cf. Enno Littmann, "Anredeformen in erweiterter Bedeutung," Nachrichten von der Koniglichen zu Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften Klasse G6ttingen, Philologisch-historische (1916), p. 102. 3 An abridged version of Ibn Batutta's work from manuscripts at the University of Cambridge was translated into English by Stephen Lee, The Travels of Ibn Battuta (London, 1829). Then came a very informative article, "The Travels of Ebn Batuta," in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, XLIX, No. 307 (May 1841), 597-615. C. Defr6mery published a French translation, Voyages d'Ibn Batoutah dans I'Asie Mineure (Paris, 1851). The full Arabic text was edited with a French translation by C. Defr6mery and B. Sanguinetti, Voyages d'Ibn Batoutah, Vols. I-IV (Paris, 1853-59). There is an English transla-

232

FUTUWWA TRADITIONS IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

233

(London and New York, 1929). Both are selections and abridgments. The first two editions of Hammer's monumental Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches appeared in 1827 and 1836. There was no revision of the early Ottoman period in any of the subsequent editions. 4 A critique of old and recent works on early Ottoman history has been attempted by G. G. Arnakis, Ot IIp&roL '089woavol("The Early Osmanlis") zu den Byzantinisch-neugriechischen ("Beihefte Jahrbiichern," No. 41 [Athens, 1947]), pp. 1-34. Cf. Robert L. Wolff's review in Speculum, XXVI (1951), 483-88.

For a long time, however, Ibn Battuta's demarcation. The three modes of exprestestimony remained unnoticed by his- sion of Akhi group-consciousness are torians.4 It was only as late as the inter- closely interrelated, and it is merely as a war period that scholars began to realize result of the challenge of environment that that our knowledge of the Akhi Associa- at times one of them appears more protion could help us understand some of the nounced than the other. For example, most intricate aspects of the great up- when the Turks were expanding into heaval that took place in Asia Minor be- Christian areas, the religious phase tween the first Mongol invasion and the seemed to take precedence to such a establishment of the Turks on the Aegean degree as to lead one into thinking that littoral. Such historical facts as the foun- the Akhiyat al-Fityan was primarily dedation of the Osmanli state in north- voted to the spread of Islam. At times western Anatolia, cradle of the virile they took up arms in defense of the Lascarid Empire until 1261, the growth of Moslem faith, though they were by no other Turkish principalities in lands that means a military organization. Similarly, were equally Greek at the opening of the whenever civil government was weak or Palaeologian era, the large-scale islamiza- inadequate, the Akhis came to the fore as tion of Asian and European peasants and a political power. Ibn Battuta reports townspeople alike, and the stability of the that in towns where there was no "sultan" advanced Turkish positions, from which or emir, one of the Akhis acted as goverthey were able to invade Europe without nor, having the same authority and enjoying the same prestige as the ruler.5Yet, losing their hold on Asia Minor-facts that baffled the historians of earlier times while exercising an undeniable political -are less enigmatic today in the light of and religious influence, the Akhis, at least what Ibn Battuta has reported concerning during their ascendancy, kept their sociothe dynamics of fourteenth-century Mos- economic setup that impressed the Moroccan traveler so much. Until the lem-Turkish society. What he has to say about the Brother- time of their decline, in the latter part of hood can be classified under three main the fourteenth century, they remained a headings, corresponding to each of the cohesive, well-integrated communal orthree aspects of its group life: religious, ganization, adhering to the fundamental socioeconomic, and political. It must be principles of the futuwwa. The futuwwa (Turk. fiitiivet) has been admitted as a matter of course that these as the aggregate of all those defined of lines clear do not suggest any headings virtues which distinguish the chivalrous tion by Muhammed Hussein, The Travels of Ibn young man, especially nobility of manner Batuta (Lahore, 1898), and another by H. A. R. Gibb, in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354 Ibn Battuta-Travels and generosity.6 A generous, hospitable,
s Voyages, II, 289. Cf. Gibb's translation, p. 131. 6 C. van Arendonk, Encyclopedie de l'Islam, II, 130-31; IV, 1011; Hermann Thorning, Beitrige zur Kenntnis des islamischen Vereinwesens auf Grund von Bast Madad et-Taufiq ("Tiirkische Bibliothek," No. 16 [Berlin, 1913]), pp. 184-93. Of primary importance today are the works of Franz Taeschner, die Futuwwabiinde inter alia, "Futuwwa-Studien, in der Tiirkei und ihre Literatur," Islamica, V (1932), 285-333, and "Die islamischen Futuwwabiinde," Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesellschaft, LXXXVII (1934), 6-49.

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JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

upright, and heroic Moslem who belonged to an association that had adopted a definite liturgical or ritualistic procedure was a fata, or "young man." It is very probable that futuwwa associations in one form or another played a part in the establishment of Moslem rule in the Near East in earlier times, especially in the ninth century, when they appear as volunteer warrior guilds. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries with Fatimite support, the futuwwa way of life dominated the guilds practically all over Islam. But it was Caliph Nasir (1180-1225), who, under the influence of a mystic (sufi), revived and reorganized the futuwwa as an order of chivalry.7 Franz Taeschner discerns a twofold aim in the caliph's action-first, to strengthen the political position of the Abbasids and, second, to lessen the tension between hostile religious groups, particularly between the Sunnis and the
Shicites.8 It is still debatable to what ex-

herents of the futuwwa, since there is only a superficial resemblance between European knighthood and the fityan (pl. of fata). In any case, it is all too easy to see that, unlike Western feudal institutions, which had their roots in the system of land tenure and sought to achieve socioeconomic stability, the futuwwa was a dynamic movement whose purpose it was to implement a religion and an ideology not only in the dar ul-Islam but also, and more conspicuously so, in the dar ul-harb. There is no doubt that in times of conflict the futuwwa was much more likely to flourish in the frontier zone than in the more settled world of the
Faithful.10

tent the new futuwwa was an outgrowth of Western influences that intruded in the Near East at the time of the Crusades. In a recent article Gerald Salinger9 pointed out that the term "order of chivalry" has been misused in connection with the ad7 Taeschner, "Der Anteil des Sufismus an der Der Islam, XXIV Formung des Futuwwaideals," (1937), 63. Taeschner's term for Nasir's organization
is Ordensrittertum or hofische Ritterbund, while the

earlier warrior guilds are styled as niederes GrenzCf. Louis Massignon, "Guilds - Islamic," kdmpfertum.
Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, VII (1932),

214-16, and "Le futuwwa ou 'pacte d' honneur artisanal' entre travailleurs musulmans au moyen age," La Aouvelle Klio, IV (1952), 171-98. Massignon says (p. 178) that Nasir used the futuwwa to form a "strange order of chivalry," something like the modern system of honorary decorations-a fact that tended to obscure what he calls the "proletarian" nature of the brotherhoods. For outstanding traits of these societies that have survived until the present, see F. S. Vidal, "Religious Brotherhoods in Moroccan Politics," Middle East Journal, IV (1950), 427-46, especially pp. 428-31 and 442-43. 8 Taeschner, "Islamisches Ordensrittertum zur Zeit der Kreuzzuge," Die Welt als Geschichte, IV (1938), 403. 9 Was the Futuwa an Oriental Form of Chivalry?" Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society,

In Asia Minor the Akhiyat al-Fityan appeared as the most vital realization of futuwwa ideology from the middle of the thirteenth century to the last quarter of the fourteenth-that is, from the morrow of the defeat of the Rum Seljuks by the Mongols until the time when Anatolian Turkish society assumed a stable character. The Mongol invasion had torn down the spiritual barriers between Sunni Islam, the religion of the upper classes, and the Shicah of the masses. At the same time it had brought about a dislocation of political power from the center to the frontier zones.1 During this crisis, when Anatolian Turkish society came so close to disintegration and yet managed to come out with new life, the Akhis were a great power. But when the incorporation of the western emirates was under way, in the reign of Murad I and Bayazid the Thunderbolt, the Akhiyat was in a state of decline. As it might be expected under an autocratic regime, it was the political
10Concerning the Moslem's concept of the world
see G. E. von Grunebaum, Medieval Islam: A Study in Cultural Orientation of Chicago (Chicago: University

Press, 1947), p. 9. 1 See Bernard

Lewis,

"The

Islamic
22, 27.

Guilds,"

XCIV

(1950), 481-93.

Review, VIII

(1937),

FUTUWWA TRADITIONS IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

235

aspects of the organization that were the first to disappear. Remnants of the Fraternity's socioeconomic life lingered on for a few decades, some of them eventually finding their way into various guilds of craftsmen, while the main body of their religious tenets was perpetuated by the dervishes of the Mevlevi, Khalveti, and Bektashi orders.12 Of these three groups, the Bektashis are the ones who come nearest to the spirit and the objectives of the Akhis. The similarities between the two movements are such as to lead one to the conclusion that the Bektashiye is the spiritual successor of the Akhiyat al-Fityan. In the following pages we shall trace the rise and the decline of the Akhi Association, its fusion with kindred institutions, and the part that Akhis and related groups played in the formation of Ottoman society in Asia Minor and in the Balkans. At the time of Ibn Battuta's visit the outstanding political aspect of the Akhiyat al-Fityan was their determination "to crush the tyrants and to kill the satellites of tyranny and the miscreants who join with them."'3 This may be an echo of earlier struggle under Karmathian influences. Furthermore, we know that not infrequently Moslem states suspected the guilds of revolutionary agitation and religious heresy and sought to control them by means of the urban police (hisba), which was composed of loyal Sunnites.14 On the other hand, the guilds accused the state of oppression and tried to find comfort in sufism. Thus, there was a tendency toward antagonism between the guilds and the governments all over the Moslem
28. 12Taeschner, "Beitraige," Islamica, IV, 20, 22-25,
13 Voyages, II, 261. Gibb's translation, p. 125: "to suppress injustice and to kill [tyrannical] agents of police and the miscreants who join with them."
14

Near East. Nevertheless, Ibn Battuta's statement, made with particular reference to Anatolia, indicates clearly that the Akhis acted as a check on the absolutist trends of local emirs. At the same time the relations of Akhis and emirs appear to be harmonious. Not only do we hear nothing about conflicts between the Fraternity and the Turkish governors, but cases are mentioned when the two cooperate. In addition to the statement cited above that an Akhi would normally replace an absentee ruler, Ibn Battuta recalls instances of collaboration in smaller matters, which are nonetheless indicative of the general trend. At Ladhik (Laodicea), for example, the Akhis, who had a street squabble before they could decide which of the two local chapters would entertain him first, sent word to the sultan about his arrival, and the sultan granted him an audience the following day.15 At Brusa the meeting held in the Association's headquarters was attended by the high officials of Orhan's realm, the sultan himself being out of town.'6 Even more convincing is the information that Akhi Sherif Htiseyin held sway at Aksaray17 and Akhi Emir Ali at Kayseri.l8 In the court of Emir Eretna, at Sivas, Akhi Tchelebi was a dominant personality.19 Another member of the Brotherhood was kadi at Konya.20 The office of kadi was second in influence to the sultanate and was often the surest way to it. Taeschner believes that the Akhis of Ankara exercised their administrative authority under the guise of the kadi.21 In that city, which Ibn Battuta by-passed in 1333, leading Akhis appeared as public benefactors and builders of mosques as early as 689 A.H. (A.D.
15 Voyages, II, 273.
16 Ibid.,

See

Lewis,

Economic Revue

History

Review, de

VIII,

18 Ibid., p. 288. 19 Ibid., pp. 290-91. 20 Ibid., p. 281.

25-27; Louis Massignon,

"Le Corps de metiers et la

p. 318.

17 Ibid., p. 285.
21

XXVIII

(1920), 473-89.

"Beitrage," Islamica, IV, 11.

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JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

1290), as is shown by the inscription on At Anthe mimbarof Aslanhane Jamissi.22 kara the regime of the Akhis continued until 1361, when Murad I annexed the city.23 There the Brethren, isolated from the rest of the Fraternity, had had a distinct evolution. Even before the advance of the Mongols, they had avoided entering into the political fabric of the Anatolian Turkish principalities; they had organized a self-sufficient town life; and they had imposed a paternalistic despotism, with themselves as ruling caste. Taeschner speaks of them as a "stadliches Patriziat."24 In assuming so much responsibility, they drifted away from the popular basis of the original Akhiyat alFityan. Rivalries and dissensions arose among them. Those who remained loyal to the democratic pattern of earlier days tried to undermine the oligarchy that had sprung up among them, while Murad I played off one faction against another, in an attempt to bring the entire organization under his control24aOnce he became their master, he could hope to extend his authority over large sections of Anatolia. Before long the governing urban patriciate realized that they were too isolated and
22 Ibid., p. 43, and Tables I and II. Cf. Halil Edhem, "Ankara Ahilerine ait iki kitabe" ("Two Inscriptions Pertaining to the Akhis of Ankara"), Tarihi Osmani Enjiimeni Mejmuasi, VII (1332/ 1917), 312-15; Mubarek Galip, Ankara, I (Istanbul, 1341), p. 48; II (Istanbul, 1928), No. 7, p. 8. 2 Ahmed Tevhid, "Ankarada Ahiler hiilkmeti" ("The Government of the Akhis at Ankara"), Tarihi Osmani Enjilmeni Mejmuasi, IV (1329/1913), 12001204; VI. Gordlevski, "Iz zhizni tsekhov v Turtsii" ("From the Life of the Guilds of Turkey"), Zapiski, Kolleghii Vostokovedov, II, 2 (1927), 242. Taeschmer, Islamica, IV, 11-12.

, contends on the basis of a paper read by Taeschner in the meetof Deutsche the Gesellschaft ing Morgenlandische (Bonn, August 1952) that "the affiliation of the Turkish sultan (Murad I) with the futuwwa was much deeper than that of Caliph Nasir." Whatever Murad's devotion to the futuwwa ideal may have been, his policy towards the government of Ankara was dictated by practical considerations, especially by his desire to acquire more territory.

24 Islamica, IV, 13. 24aMassignon, La Nouvelle Klio, IV, I

too weak to resist Ottoman expansionism. Accused of a conspiracy against the Ottoman government, they were incorporated into the empire, and Murad was recognized as their leader. Murad's autocracy, however, was distasteful to the Akhis, popular discontent increased, and in the reign of his successor, Bayazid the Thunderbolt, it broke into open rebellion. A republic with socialistic tendencies was set up, and it struggled on for almost a decade, while the house of Osman was going through the greatest crisis that it experienced until that time. It was the aftermath of Tamerlane's victory in 1402. The Ankara regime collapsed when Sheikh Bedreddin, the archrebel of Rumeli, was captured and executed at Serres in 1416.25One of his chief supporters was Mikhaloghlu Mehmed, son of the Greek collaborationist Kose Mikhal, brother-at-arms of the founder of the Osmanli dynasty.26 A hundred years before, when the Akhis were very influential in the courts of Osman and Orhan, a revolution like that of Bedreddin would have been improbable, because the early Osmanlis knew how to live harmoniously with potential agitators as well as with their Christian allies of the type of Kose Mikhal. Those were the revolutionary days of the Osmanlis, and Akhis, religious leaders, and discontented Christians were equally welcome in their ranks. The downfall of the Akhis of Ankara marks the lowest ebb of the political power of the Brotherhood all over Asia Minor. Henceforth, whenever they appeared to be active as a political force, they provoked the animosity of the Osmanlls, whose sultan had now grown strong enough to flout the principles of
25See Franz Babinger, "Schejch Bedr ed-din, der Sohn des Richters von Simaw," Der Islam, XI (1921), 64.
26Babinger, "Mikhaloghlu" de l'Islam, III, 562.

(art.),

Encyclopedie

FUTUWWA TRADITIONS IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

237

the Fraternity. In the meantime, in Ankara and elsewhere, some Akhis began to own extensive property and the term ayan ("owner of large estates") was used to describe them. Subsequently we hear of ayan ve akhiyan, and the historian Idris Bitlisi, about a hundred years after Murad's death, knew of the Akhis merely as "great landowners" or "village notables."27 The last we hear of Akhis in politics is in connection with the events of 1423, when two Akhis of Brusa incited Mustafa

tices such as tax-collectors, actors, dancers, fortune-tellers, sorcerers, gamblers, police informers, and wine-dealers.31 The golden rule of the futuwwa was "Ditharala nafsihi" ("put the other man above thyself").32 Such a regime of life contrasted very decidedly with the situation in the Byzantine provinces of Anatolia. There, a variety of factors that tended toward social disintegration had been noticeable as early as 1261, working havoc in town and country.33 The countryside was into revolt against Murad II.28 Thereafter, fested by robbers and terrorists; the the Akhiyat al-Fityan passes into po- church was split up into warring factions; litical eclipse. But perhaps it had already morals had declined, and corruption was served its purpose. All available informa- rampant. The Palaeologi had adopted a tion leads to the conclusion that as long policy that was intended to weaken the as it was able to avoid open conflict, as rural middle classes, which had lent their indeed it was in the formative years of support to the Lascarids. Wanting to western Anatolian Turkish society, it was eliminate potential opposition to his a democratic power behind the throne, dynasty, Michael VIII had virtually keeping the sultans in line and giving a wiped out the acritae by means of taxation and conscription, while economic pressure popular foundation to their authority. The appeal that the Akhis had among was brought to bear upon the small farmthe masses came from their way of life ers who had emerged during the Lascarid and, more specifically, from their socio- regime. Large estates appeared again, not economic setup. To quote Ibn Battuta: as the flourishing economic units of the ''Nowhere in the world will you find men Comneni period, but as a transient phase so eager to welcome strangers, so prompt in the process of economic decay that was to serve food and to satisfy the wants of undermining the Empire, especially after others."29 Elsewhere the Akhis are de- the intrusion of Western commercialism.34 In the midst of the confusion of the scribed as noble-minded, unselfish, compassionate, affectionate, and hospitable. late 1200's and the early 1300's, the large "A stranger coming to them is made to estates, belonging for the most part to feel as though he were meeting the dearest absentee landlords and to monasteries, of his own folk."30 The rules of the fell apart, and with their disappearance futuwwa excluded from membership peo- the last vestiges of Byzantine authority ple of loose morals and questionable prac- came to an end. Our sources are particu27See Hammer, Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches, I, 590, n. to p. 160; cf. Arnakis, op. cit., p. 17, n. 50. Gordlevski (Zapiski Koll. Vostok., II, 247) says that the name ayan was given to the Akhis because they controlled the vakf estates.
28 Taeschner, Islamica, IV, 26, 28; Gordlevski, Zapiski, II, 242. 29 Voyages, LI, 261. Gibb's translation, p. 125. 30 Ibid., II, 339. Gibb's translation, p. 140.

31Thorning, Beitrlge, p. 194; Taeschner, Islamica, V, 299; Massignon, La Nouvelle Klio, IV, 174. 32 C. van Arendonk, Encyclopedie de l'Islam, II, 130; Taeschner, Der Islam, XXIV, 63-64. 33 See Arnakis, op. cit., pp. 38-49. 34 Of particular interest in this connection are the of the Greek economist Alexander observations
Diomedes,
BvuarTrwva

Vol. I [Athens, 1941]), pp. 59-90.

MEXirat, I ("Byzantine

Studies,"

238

JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

larly enlightening as to the encroachments influence. Their zaviye's were not merely of the peasantry upon the monastic local headquarters of the Fraternity but estates. The latter, as a rule immune from also cultural and religious centers and taxation and enjoying imperial favor, es- hostels for the travelers. There the pecially under Andronicus II, had grown Brethren met in the evenings, after the to immense proportions as a result of be- day's work; they deposited the proceeds of quests by pious people who had despaired their labors in the common treasury; and of the world. Such people could be they resumed their group life, which becounted by the thousands, and their gan with a common meal. From the Asnumber steadily increased in proportion sociation's treasury they paid for meals, to the adversities of the Byzantine state. entertainment of strangers, and maintenThe growing wealth of the monasteries ance of the zaviye. Each chapter was under aroused the destitute to rebellious acts; a leader who was addressed as "Akhi." He they raided church estates, carrying away was elected by the group, but Ibn Battuta grain supplies, olive oil, cheese, and other records nothing about his term of office foodstuffs.35Not infrequently they would or the extent of his powers.40 carve off valuable slices of land which the The Moroccan traveler says that the monks were unable to recover even by Brethren were unmarried and that they all force of arms.36The coming of the Turks practiced a trade. However, it is not clear facilitated the breakup of the large from his words if he thought that they estates, as it is testified by the docu- were bachelors by conviction or only ments.37 VWhen the curtain rose again to incidentally and if they all belonged to the show the Turks in control of the cities of same trade or to different trades. Of western Anatolia, there was a noticeable course, in a place like Ankara, where a degree of peace in the countryside,38 and political tradition flourished and family the new rural class, composed of small ties were strong, general celibacy was out farmers, had already identified its well- of the question. At any rate, the genealogy of Akhi Sherefeddin of Ankara may be being with the Turkish domination.39 and the transition During immediately regarded as sufficient indication that after it the Akhis exerted their greatest married life was not unusual among 35 Acta et diplomata Graeca medii aevi, ed. F. Akhis.41And though the Akhis of Ankara Miklosich and J. Mtiller (Vienna, 1860), IV, 62, 247 were by no means typical of the Frater257. Concerning the economic power of the monasteries in the latter part of the Byzantine era see it is a well-known fact that celibacy, nity, P. Charanis, "The Monastic Properties and the an outstanding characteristic of Christian State in the Byzantine Empire," Dumbarton Oaks Papers, IV (1948), 98-108. monasticism, was never a general preActa et diplomata, IV, 231, 280. requisite of Turkish dervishdom. It is 37 E.g., the Lembon Monastery "had many more therefore very probable that among the estates before the invasion of the godless Agarenes" Cf. 96-100. cit., Arnakis, IV, 62). op. pp. (ibid., Akhis, too, celibacy was optional, and the 38 Ibn Batutta traveled unmolested over AnaBrethren could take the vows or could tolia in 1333: the warm springs of Brusa were freavoid them. quented by patients from distant provinces, according to the information of Shihabeddin al-Umari far as professional lineup is conAs et extraits des manuscrits de la Notices (d. 1349),
36

BibliothUgue

du Roi,

XIII

(1838),

365;

in the

early

40
41

Voyages,

II, 260-63.

fifteenth century, numerous travelers, going about on peaceful missions, were seen by Bertrandon de la
Broquiere, Voyage d'outre mer (1422-1433), ed. Ch.

Taeschner,

Islamica,

IV,
Fuat

36-37;
Koprtilu,

Gordlevski,
Les Origines

Zapiski,

II, 242; Mehmet

Schefer (Paris, 1892), p. 131. These and other items of information indicate a peaceful countryside.
a9 Arnakis, op. cit., pp. 99-101.

de I'Empire Ottoman (itudes Orientales publi6es par l'Institut d'Archeologie de Stamboul, III [Paris, 1935]), p. 109. Koprtilti believes that celibacy was very limited.

IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE FUTUWWATRADITIONS

239

cerned, in Attalia42-and doubtless in other recalls Akhis "speaking with tongues." towns-there was one fraternity com- The preacher who helped create such an posed of men of different crafts, as there atmosphere was Mejdeddin of Konya (alcould never be enough people of the same Kunewi), who was admired for his wistrade to form a body of considerable dom and spiritual power. He lived from strength. Even when the number of the work of his hands, owned no property craftsmen increased in the midst of a pre- except the clothes he wore, and slept in dominently agrarian population, it is the graveyard at night. Mejdeddin was one of the homeless probable that men of different trades cooperated as a unit. As long as the religious dervishes who, obedient to their vow, factor retained its importance, there could were constantly on the move. It is sigbe little difficulty in keeping alive their nificant that the fifteen-century Turkish esprit de corps, despite professional varia- historian Ashikpashazade calls the Akhis tions. miusafir(i.e., "strangers" or "travelers").47 Their group life, as described by Ibn This characterization lends further supBattuta, suggests the fervor of a spiritual port to the theory that dynamic Moslems revival or of a recent conversion. After like Mejdeddin kept immigrating from the their common meal, he tells us, the east and came to have an influence that Brethren would sing hymns, recite por- was tantamount to the spiritual leadertions of the Koran, dance, and listen to ship in the Anatolian Turkish principalisermons.43 Some of them would fall into ties.48 Though they could hardly outan ecstasy, which to their mystic mind number the local Akhis at any one time, was the consummation of union with God. they were, nonetheless, the dominant At Brusa, during the night of the Ashura force in the Fraternity, and they left their (the tenth day of Muharrem),44 the imprint upon its character. Hence, the Moroccan traveler witnessed the death of appelation miisafir was extended to all the a man in the throes of religious paroxysm Akhis.49 As the wandering dervishes arrived in the course of such a dance.45 The Ashura, preceded by ten days of fasting, 46 See Philip Hitti, History of the Arabs (London, is in memory of the death of Hiiseyin, the 1940), pp. 190-91. Professor Hitti remarks epison of Ali, and its celebration with such grammatically: "Shicism was born on the tenth of Muharram." fervor at Brusa indicates Shicite loyal47 Die altosmanische Chronik des Asikpasazade, ties.46 On the same occasion Ibn Battuta ed. Friedrich Giese (Leipzig, 1929), p. 201. Accord42

"about two hundred men belonging to different trades."

Voyages, II, 262. Gibb's translation, p. 126:

ing to the historian, there were three other groups

44The Arabic word ashura means "the tenth." In

Turkey, as the writer remembers, ashure,a dish consisting of boiled wheat, walnuts, raisins, almonds, rosewater, and other ingredients was offered as a part of the ceremony. The ashure day-to use the Turkish form of the word-was scrupulously observed in Bektashi tekke'suntil the abolition of the dervishes by the Turkish Republic in 1925. Until the turn of the century there were also processions in the streets of Constantinople, with shouts of "Ali, Hasan, Hiiseyin," and self-inflicted wounds in the midst of emotional outbursts were not infrequent on such occasions.
46 Voyages,

(inspired dervishes) and baji ("sisters," presumably members of a women's organization, about which our present state of knowledge permits nothing more than conjectures). 48 Franz Babinger, "Der Islam in Kleinasien,"
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesell-

schaft, LXXVI (1922), 132-33. Cf. Arnakis, op. cit., pp. 116, 118-21, 123-24, 162-63. 49Paul Wittek, on the other hand, has expressed the opinion that the term miisafir has an allegorical meaning, designating the expanding, fighting power of Islam. See his article, "Deux chapitres de l'histoire des Turcs de Roum," Byzantion, XI (1936), 285-319. Concerning Professor Wittek's theory of the gazi origin of the Ottoman Empire, see his lectures, The
Rise of the Ottoman Empire ("Royal Asiatic Society

II, 318-20.

Monographs,"

No. XXIII

[London, 1938]), passim.

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JOURNAL OFNEAREASTERN STUDIES

sheikh.52

year after year, they found that the glass of water with salt and to "receive zaviye's were convenient places where the scissors" (makash almak). In fact, a they were sure to have a free meal and a pair of scissors formed a part of his congenial audience. Being for the most equipment. Candles were also important part mystics (sufi), these men brought in the initiation as well as in all other about a further accentuation of esoteric ceremonies. Ibn Battuta remembered that life, as they came in contact with the many candles stood on three-legged groups assembled in the zaviye's all over candlesticks.53 Anatolia.50 Parallelly, the Fraternity beThe Akhi's outfit consisted of a long, came increasingly aware that their active white robe, boots, a belt with a sword, and interest in politics involved too many a tall peaked headdress made of white embarrassments. About thirty years after woolen cloth and terminating in a strip Ibn Battuta's visit, Yahya Ibn Halil, au- one cubit long and two inches wide.54 thor of a Futuvvetname,which purported This cap was called kalansuwa, and later to serve as a handbook for the Akhiyat, generations knew it as the distinctive admonished all good Akhis not to go to mark of the Janissaries. the courts of the rulers, to associate with Yahya mentions three ranks of Akhisthe poor only, to be humble, and to keep ytghtt ("heroes" or "knights"), akhi, their membership secret.6 He sought to 53 Voyages, II, 264. The three-legged candlesticks, purge the Fraternity of all secular tend- the tonsure, and the ritualistic importance of lights encies and to bring it closer to sufi ideals. suggest pre-Islamic survivals. Yet, to what extent they can be attributed to the influence of ChrisTo him the goal of the Akhiyat al-Fityan tianity as such is still a matter of conjecture. It is was the attainment of holiness. Those hard, of course, to underestimate Christianity, which had a thousand-year tradition in the cities of Asia initiated had to know and apply 124 rules Minor before the coming of the Turks, but our sources of ethics (adab) corresponding to the of information are, at best, fragmentary and sporadic. A puzzling inscription was copied and published by 124,000 prophets. Taeschner, who made Cyril VI, patriarch of Constantinople from 1813 to the most comprehensive study of the 1818 and former archbishop of Iconium (Konya), in his 'IoTopLKi7 repLypafi) Be'?7 i7rpoeKOevTros Futuvvetname, noticed that these rules Xw)poYpaCLKcoDO l rvaKos T'S /Iey&Xis &pXLoaTapairsas ro 'oIKoviov of the are an abridgment of the 740 precepts ("Historical Description Map, Already Published in Vienna, of the Great Archsatrapy of Iconithat should guide the life of a good um") (At the Patriarchal Press, 1815), p. 47. The
TOeV fv

The Futuvvetname of Yahya also describes the initiation ceremony, whichis referred to as "receiving the candle" (tchirak almak), "putting on the belt" (kushak kushanmak), and "getting permission" (destur almak). A symbolical tonsure of the new member reminded one of Christian monasticism. In addition to these acts, the candidate had to drink a
5oSee Gordlevski, Zapiski, II, 245; Babinger, Schejch Bedr ed-din, p. 100. 56 Taeschner, Islamica, IV, 9. Also, the same des Jahja b. Halil," author, "Das Futuvvetname Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, XXXI (1928), 106568. 62 Islamica, IV, 9, n. 2. Concerning the sheikh's position in Moslem corporations see Thorning, op.
cit., pp. 110-14.

inscription in question existed in the Monastery of St. Chariton (Ak Manastir) near Sille in Lycaonia. It mentioned a certain "Akhi Pangalos." Was he a Greek who had joined the Akhis? Or was he a Turk with Christian sympathies? Was "Pangalos" a man's name or was it simply an adjective describing some Akhi who (or whose son) was buried there? Or could it be that Cyril had made a mistake in copying? The text is fragmentary and is published uncritically. However, it acquires significance from the fact that St. Chariton's was held sacred by Greeks and Turks alike. It is very probable that the inscription of "Akhi Pangalos" dates from the year 1290. For the text and a brief discussion of this interesting document see F. W. Hasluck, Christianity and Islam under the Sultans (Oxford, 1929), II, 383 (V). Cf. idem, pp. 273-77, 377. Also, Taeschner, Islamica, IV, 46. N. A. Bees, Die Inschriftenaufzeichnung des Kodex Sinaiticus Graecus 508 (976) und die MariaSpildotissa Klosterkirche bei Sille (Lykaonien) ("Beihefte zu den Byzantinisch-neugriechischen Jahrbiichern," No. 1 [Berlin, 1922]), is a very good study of St. Chariton's monastery and its inscriptions but contains no reference to "Akhi Pangalos." 64 Voyages, II, 262.

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241

sheikh-the last one being merely honorific. He hastens to add, however, that members of all ranks are equal. Two other categories are mentioned, presumably subdivisions of the first rank, the kavlt ("preachers") and the seyfi ("soldiers"), which are styled as "the two ways."55No attempt is made to define their positions. Clearly, the Futuvvetname reflects a condition of political decline in the Akhiyat at a time when secular tendencies came into conflict with religious ideals. As a result, the Akhis fell into two categories. On one hand, there was the essentially practical man who regarded the Fraternity as something between a tradeunion, a guild, or a workmen's cooperative. On the other hand, there was the spiritual Akhi who was more sympathetic to a monastic way of life. Gordlevski56 very aptly observes that, after the expansion of the Osmanlis in the neighboring principalities, the zaviye'slost their political significance and operated as religious and professional centers. Henceforth the downfall of the organization was inevitable. Before the split both types of Akhi found a channel of self-expression in the political life of Anatolia and a clearly defined social ideology kept them united. The spiritual Akhi reconciled heaven and earth and set the common goal as he thought it most pleasing in the eyes of Allah; the simple Akhi, the realist and the man of action, plied his useful trade or joined the fighting forces of Islam in the frontier zone. For both, participation in political life was a necessary outlet. Moreover, it provided a common ground for the two types of man. When that common ground was no longer there, the "two ways" diverged at a wide angle. The educated, spiritual, and esoteric Akhis be56Taeschner, Islamica, IV, 7. 56 "Dervishi Akhi Evrana i tsekhi v Turtsii" ("The Dervishes of Akhi Evran and the Craftsmen's
Guilds in Turkey"), Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR,

came monks or hermits, and the practical, untutored, worldly individuals chose the life of a craftsman. Before long, the first category was absorbed by the new orders of dervishes-the Mevlevis, the Khalvetis, and the Bektashis-and the guilds of Moslem craftsmen, whose origins go back to the ninth century, claimed many of the rest. The Akhiyat al-Fityan thus passed out of existence. Scanty recollections of the once powerful Fraternity remained in the traditions of the guilds and in the mystic life of the Bektashis. Let us first turn to the Akhis who identified themselves with the dervishes. Already in 1355 theologian Akhis formed the elite in what was then the cradle of the Ottoman Empire. As "wise and erudite men," they were asked by Sultan Orhan to have a public debate with the outstanding theologian of Eastern Christendom, Gregory Palamas, then a captive of the Osmanlls.57Orhan's capital, Brusa, the leading city in the westernmost regions of Anatolian Islam, had become the rallying point of theologians, scholars, mystics, and God-inspired adventurers. It was rapidly becoming the dar al-ulema, "the city of theologians." Back in the countries of their origin-that is, in North Iran and in Turkestan-the theologians had been exposed to a religious syncretism that had been going on for centuries. Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Manichaean, Gnostic, Christian, and Moslem elements and an atmosphere laden with religious spirituality were the heritage of the typical Moslem who came out to the west.58 There is no doubt that most of them belonged to the Shicah. Once in Anatolia, they became associated with the
67 See G. G. Arnakis, "Gregory Palamas among the Turks and Documents of His Captivity as Historical Sources," Speculum, XXVI (1951), 107-8, 113-14.

68 Babinger, der Deutschen Zeitschrift Morgenldndischen 147. TaeschGesellschaft, LXXVI, 132-33,

VI (1927), Nos. 15-17, p. 1182; Zapiski, II, 242.

ner (Islamica, IV, 14) speaks of Transoxania as "Nahrboden fur eine ekstatische Religiositat und korporativ-religioses Leben."

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Mevlevi order, or they helped in building up two other noteworthy religious organizations that reveal strong evidences of syncretism-the Khalvetiye and the Bektashiye.59 The Mevleviye, with its Persian intellectual background, appealed mainly to the educated upper classes in the cities, and the Khalvetiye was likewise a limited movement because of its exclusive mystical discipline. Neither the one nor the other was able to influence the development of the Ottoman Empire to any serious degree. But the Bektashiye outnumbered all Turkish sects combined and came to play an increasingly important role from the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the order was reorganized as a militant body, perhaps by Balim Sultan of Dimotika, to the first quarter of the nineteenth century, when Western influences invaded Turkey. Concerning the historical background of Bektashism, it is the opinion of the present writer that J. K. Birge's thesis60 that Haji Bektash is the founder of the movement is more plausible than the theory endorsed by F. W. Hasluck, Ismail Hakkl Uzun~arlll, and others that Bektash did not found the order that bears his name and is in no way related to it.61 Like Birge, they place Haji Bektash in the thirteenth century on the basis of written evidence of a convincing nature, but they speak of an "adoption" of his name by the babai movement in the fifteenth century. Accepting Haji Bektash as a real and not as a fictitious per59 Georg Jacob, Beitrdge zur Kenntnis des Derwisch -Ordens der Bektaschis No. Bibliothek," ("Tiirkische

sonage, we see at once a man who made a lasting impression on his fellow-Turks; it is, therefore, hard to deny that he had a considerable following upon his death. For his disciples, his teachings provided the nucleus of a new trend in the Shicah. His theology, spread by word of mouth in a notably religious era, became the basis of an uninterrupted spiritual tradition from his death to the historical emergence of the Bektashi order. The movement grew inconspicuously at first; it became the subject of legends with the lapse of the years; but its continuity is attested by Bektashi oral tradition and by the Vilayetname of Haji Bektash.62 Its success was mainly due to two facts: first, it brought religion to the common
62

man

The Vilayetname has been translated Das Vilajet-name by Erich Gross,

into Gerdes Haggi

Bektasch ("Tiirkische Bibliothek," No. 25 [Leipzig, 19271). Concerning the traditions and Bektash's historical life, see Birge, op. cit., pp. 33-42. Birge's book is still the best work on the subject. It has superseded the old classic by J. P. Brown, The Dervishes (1st ed.; Constantinople, 1868; 2d rev. ed. by H. A. Rose; Oxford, 1927). Prior to Birge, the leading authority was Georg Jacob, with his Beitrdge, already
and Die Bektaschijje in ihrem Verhdltnis cited, zu verwandten Erscheinungen der Philo("Abhandlungen

sophisch-philologischen Klasse der Koniglich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften," XXIV [1909], Part III [Munich, 1909]). Jacob doubted the historicity of the Vilayetname; regarded the affiliation of the Janissaries and Bektashis as a sixteenth-century phenomenon; and concluded that Haji Bektash did not found the order that bears his name. He attributed the founding of Bektashism to Fazlullah, leader of the Hurufi sect, a century after Bektash's death. Birge (pp. 46-51, 74) accepts the Vilayetname as a historical document of a period prior to 1400, with only a few later interpolations; and he sees an early relationship between the Janissaries, organized in the fourteenth century, and "some leader or leaders of the already widespread Bektashi dervishes." For background material, affording a basis for Birge's conclusions, of particular importance are the works of
Mehmet Fuat Kopriili [zade], Turk edebiyatinda ilk

9 [Berlin, 1908]), p. 80; Gordlevski, Zapiski, II, 245.

miitesavvifler ("First Mystics in Turkish Literature") zur Religions(Istanbul, 1918); "Bemerkungen

pp. 40-45.
61

schen Geschichte, I (1921-22),

203-22;
Congrks

"Les Origines
International

Hasluck,

Christianity

under

Ismail Hakki Uzungarsill, Sultans, II, 488-93. Kapukulu Ocaklarz (Ankara, 1943), I, 148. See W. L. Langer and R. P. Blake, "The Rise of the Ottoman Turks and Its Historical Background," American
Historical Review, XXXVII (1932), 498.

d'Histoire des Religions, II (Paris, 1925), 391-411. V1. i0 Mirmiroghlu, Dervishes") Aeptvcraa& ("The (Athens, 1940), which devotes a good deal of space to the Bektashis (pp. 78-247), contains a wealth of information from Turkish records and traditions but is unsystematic and uncritical.

FUTUWWA TRADITIONS IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

243'

man by displaying a remarkable flexibility63 and, second, it held the spiritual leadership of the Janissary corps. Perhaps more than any other Anatolian sect, the Bektashis interpreted Scripture allegorically and effaced all sharp contrasts and vicissitudes, preaching, as they did, their favorite theme of the unity of existence and the identity of the external and the internal world.64To the agonized man who had known decades of war, slavery, abduction, and all kinds of violence, the mystic offered hope and comfort, an escape from harsh reality. Thus, the Mevlana Jelaleddin Rumi was regarded as a saintly figure by both Moslems and Christians,65and his contemporary, Haji Bektash Veli,66 the eponymous saint of the Bektashi order, could likewise attract worshipers from both religions. Tolerance in all directions, common places of worship for Christians and Moslems, stories of miracles for the followers of Christ and Mohammed indiscriminately, saints venerated by both peoples, and a persistent, if vague, identification of Ali with Christ and Haji Bektash with St. Charalampos-these are some of the factors to which the Bektashis owe their success.67 Their expansion continued down to the suppression of the Janissaries in 1826, when the Bektashis were also persecuted as their spiritual mentors.68Until then, the Asiatic provinces from Iraq to the Aegean coast, Constantinople, and large sections of the Balkans were fertile grounds of Bektashi propaganda. Perhaps the earliest infiltration of
63As a Shiite, a Bektashi could practice "disto be as one seems, not simulation" (takiyah)-"not to seem as one is" (Birge, op. cit., p. 270). 64 For an analysis of Bektashi theology see ibid., pp. 109-61. 65See Hasluck, op. cit., I, 56; II, 374; see also "Christianity and Islam under the Sultans of Konia," Annual of the British School at Athens, XIX (1912-13), 193.

Bee'tashism in the Balkan Peninsula is associated with a semilegendary figure, Sari Saltik, who according to the Vilayetwas one of the outstanding associname69 ates of Haji Bektash. The same source, which doubtless contains historical facts under a veil of romantic accretions, informs us that, on orders from the Veli, Sari Saltlk established a tekke at Kilgra (=Kaliakra) in the Dobruja. Gn his way to Constantinople from the court of Mohammed Uzbeg, khan of the Golden Horde, Ibn Battuta recalls visiting "a town known by the name of Baba Saltuk, who, they say, was an ecstatic mystic, though stories are told of actions by him which are condemned by the law."70 The town is described as being on the frontier between the Turkish (i.e., Tatar) dominions and "the Roman (Greek) territory" (the latter presumably including Bulgaria). Though Ibn Battuta does not give any clue to establish the identity of
66 Birge (op. cit., pp. 40-47) has proved in a conclusive way that the death of the saint occurred prior to A.H. 695 (A.D. 1295). 67 Ibid., pp. 211-12, 215-18; Jacob, Die Bektaschijje, pp. 33-39. Concerning village groups under the Bektashis, see M. F. Grenard, "Une secte reliKyzylbachs," Journal gieuse de l'Asie Mineure-Les asiatique, X series, III (1904), 511-22; and S. V. R. of All," Harvard Trowbridge, "The Alevis-Deifiers

Theological

Review,

II

(1909),

340-53.

About

the

"utraquistische Heilige," whose worship was widespread among the masses of Anatolia, see Babinger,
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesell-

schaft, LXXVI, 149. St. George and St. Demetrius captured the fancy of the Moslems more than any other saints, the former being naturalized as Khidr and the latter as Kasim. But there are scores of others. Local patron saints like St. Amphilochius of Iconium and St. Chariton of near-by Sille likewise found a place in Turkish popular hagiography (see Hasluck,
Christianity and Islam, I, 319-22; II, 273-77). Gord-

levski, in his "Osmanskiya skazaniya i leghendi" ("Ottoman Traditions and Legends"), published in
Etnograficheskoye Obozrienye, a work which I have

not been able to consult, studies 167 saints of this nature, according to a citation by Babinger, loc. cit., p. 149, n. 1.
68

See Birge,

op. cit., pp. 77.

69German translation by Gross, p. 73. 70 Voyages, II, 416. Gibb's translation, p. 153. Ibn Battuta stopped at the same place on his return to the Volga region, Voyages, II, 446; Gibb's translation, p. 165.

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Kilgra (=Kaliakra) with Baba Saltuk village, it is clear from the text that "an ecstatic mystic" named Saltuk (or Saltlk) was well known in a European locality on the way from the Ukraine to Constantinople.7' It is certain that the orthodoxy of the baba was not beyond reproach, and this testimony, coming from a Sunni source, lends further support to the idea that he was associated with Bektash. Whether or not he was one of the Veli's lieutenants is an open question, but it is a fact of particular importance that there was a local tradition concerning the life of a Shicte leader on Balkan soil about forty years after Bektash's death and more than two decades before the Osmanlis crossed over to Europe. According to the Vilayetname, Sar Saltlk came to Kilgra by way of Georgia, but Yazljloghlu Ali, a Turkish historian of the early fifteenth century, says that Sari Saltlk came to the Dobruja with the followers of Izzeddin Kaikaus II, across the Bosporus, in the reign of Emperor Michael Palaeologus.71" The tekke of Baba Saltlk, perhaps the oldest outpost of Islam in the Balkans, continued to be a center of Shicite tradition, and in the sixteenth century it provoked the censure of the ulema.72 By that time it must have played its part in the spread of Islam in the new lands of the empire. The role of Saltlk and his tekkein the Dobruja seems to be strikingly analogous to that of his contemporary, Mejdeddin, and the zaviye of the Akhis at Brusa. Both leaders were sufi's, dynamic Moslems, and pioneers in the lands of the
71 It took Ibn Battuta eighteen days to reach Constantinople from Baba Saltuk, but progress was slow because of the severe winter. Normally the distance from Kaliakra to the capital could be covered in about ten days. 71a . Wittek, "Yazljioghlu Ali on the Christian Turks of the Dobruja," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XIV (1952), 648. According to Wittek (ibid., p. 658) Sari Saltik died shortly after 1300. 72Birge, op. cit., p. 51, n. 4.

infidels. Judging from the results, both must have been extremely successful. In Bithynia the slopes of Mount Olympus were dotted with tekke's of anchorites,73 many of them occupying the very cells of their Christian predecessors, and in the Balkans, where the Ottoman Turks advanced rapidly under Murad I, there were dozens of Bektashi tekke's scattered in Bulgaria, Macedonia, the South Slav countries, Albania, Thessaly, and, more recently, Crete. In Albania, particularly, Bektashi dervishes prepared the way for the conversion of whole villages or tribes as late as the eighteenth century. Today it is estimated that some 200,000 Albanians (one-fifth of the entire population of the country) profess Bektashi affiliations.74 It is also estimated that prior to the persecution of the order by Mahmud the Reformer, in 1826, there were 7,370,000 Bektashis, of whom about 7,000,000 were in the Asiatic provinces of the empire, 120,000 in Constantinople, 100,000 in Albania, and the rest scattered all over the peninsula.75 After the closing of the tekke's in Turkey, Albania contains the greatest organized force of Bektashism. In the days when the Turks were new on European soil, the Bektashis were unofficial propaganda agents who succeeded in making the gap between the ruling nation and the subject races less wide. Appearing more as pioneers of the Osmanlis than as followers of Mohammed, they helped in recruiting soldiers and administrators for the sultans and in replenishing the manpower that threatened the West. At the same time, by wielding a decided influence over the Janissaries, they were a factor in the domestic affairs of the empire. Beyond the narrow but important circle of the Janissaries, the
73 74 's

Arnakis, Birge, Ibid.,

op. cit., pp. 70-73, p. 15.

op. cit., pp. 162-63. 85-86.

FUTUWWA TRADITIONS IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

245

Bektashis approached the masses of the Turks more effectively than any other religious group-a fact that can be attributed to their broad human sympathy and to their simple Turkish speech, which contrasted very favorably to the erudite, incomprehensible Arabic of Sunni theologians. With such a power among the masses, it was not hard for them to overthrow the Sunni emperor, especially in times of crisis such as that of 1501, when Shicite Persia waged war against Bayazid II.76 If they did not do so, in the formative years of the empire, it was because of a vague awareness of a common Osmanli background and the munificence of the sultans toward the Janissaries. Undoubtedly, much depended upon the personality of the sultan. The mild and tractable Bayazid II managed to hold the loyalty of his Shicite subjects, but Selim I, surnamed Yavuz, or "the Grim," an epithet which he fully deserved, had to face the growing hostility of his heretical soldiery. In his brief reign large numbers of Kizilbashes and other dissenters were massacred, and the Janissaries became troublesome. After Selim, Suileyman the Magnificent had to strain his energies to crush a Bektashi rebellion in Anatolia in 1526.77 In the period of decline that began immediately after Siileyman's death Osmanli loyalties became more vague and inconsequential, and the demands of the Janissaries grew in reverse proportion to their usefulness. In fact, it was the Janissaries, more than any other group in the empire, that made the reign of many sultans difficult. They even went so far as to depose two sultans -Osman II (1622) and Selim III (1807). Their suppression by Mahmud the Reformer was an act of political necessity, for they had degenerated into a rabble.
76 See Sydney N. Fisher, The Foreign Relations

This, at least, is the orthodox interpretation of the measures taken in 1826. The relation that the Bektashi dervishes had with the uprisings of the Janissaries during the period of decline has not yet been thoroughly investigated. It is now an essential task of the historian of the Ottoman Empire to study these upheavals in connection with the social rebellions like those of Sheikh Bedreddin and his associate, Birklije Mustafa, in fifteenth-century Anatolia, which were directed against Ottoman despotism. The contemporary Greek historian Ducas78 says of Mustafa that "he taught that all things, except women, should be held in common, even food, and clothes, and shoes, and land." The movement attracted many Christians, as it preached freedom and equality and showed closer affinity to Christianity than to Islam
7r\XovXpLoricavoZs i7 ToipiKoIs). (7rpoarLOeaOal

After desperate resistance these rebellions were drowned in blood. Religious slogans of a broad, syncretistic nature, as well as economic motives, were the driving power in the rebellions of the sheikhs and of the Janissaries alike. Furthermore, it is clear that there was much of the spirit of the Akhiyat in the rebels of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Bektashi dervishes, in particular, carried on the main traditions of the Akhis after the Osmanlis were established in Europe. Religious dances (sema),79a fervent mystic disposi77 Birge, op. cit., pp. 69-70. Concerning the persecutions of the heretics, see H. R. Roemer, "Die Safawiden," Saeculum,IV (1953), 34-36. 78Bonn ed., pp. 111-115. A. S. Stepanov, "The Work of Ducas as a Source for the History of the Revolt of Biirklije Mustafa in the Beginning of the Fifteenth Century," (in Russian), Vizantiski Vremennik, new series, V (1952), 99-104. Stepanov, who describes the revolt as a peasants' uprising directed against the Turkish feudal lords, attributes it to oppressive taxation. He makes no attempt to study the underlying causes, nor the deeper spiritual aspects of the movement, especially the solidarity of Christians and Moslems and their willingness to face martyrdom. ?7 Birge, op. cit., pp. 199, 211.

Turkey, 1481-1512 (Urbana: Press, 1948), pp. 92, 95, 98.

University

of Illinois

of

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JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERNSTUDIES

tion, special importance attached to the Ashura feast,80common social ideals with emphasis on the spirit of brotherhood, and allegiance to the futuwwa code of ethics8s -these are outstanding Bektashi traits reminiscent of the Akhiyat al-Fityan as described by Ibn Battuta. In this light it is easy to understand how, in a land where clothes indicated social distinctions, the headdress of the Akhis came to be worn by the Janissaries, the spiritual proteges of the Bektashis. The "lower" order of the Akhis, who identified themselves with the various craftsmen's guilds, likewise preserved important elements of the old institution. A strong futuwwa tradition, which existed in Moslem guilds from the ninth to the nineteenth centuries, served as a connecting link among the Akhiyat al-Fityan, the Bektashiye, and the organized craftsmen. Bektashi sheikhs kept the books containing the old regulations of the futuwwa,82 and the guilds accepted the spiritual leadership of the dervishes as a matter of course. The origins of the relationship of dervishes and craftsmen go back to the Akhiyat al-Fityan, which brought the two groups together, in an organization that had a religious, political, and professional scope. The futuwwa books (many of them actually bearing the title of Kitab el-futuwwa), which have come down to our times, point to a triangle-like relationship of Akhis, Bektashis, and guilds, with the Akhis placed at the apex of the triangle as the historical link uniting the other two. The allegiance of the guilds to the
80 Ibid., p. 169. 81 Thorning, op. cit., pp.
82

futuwwa idea is attested by the generic term ahl el-futuwwa, which was used with reference to the craftsmen, in the same way as ahl el-hak ("people of the right") and ahl el-tarik ("people of the way").83 As futuwwa associates, the workmen had an initiation ceremony that had much in common with that of the Akhis of the Futuvvetnameof Yahya Ibn Halil.84 The connection of the guilds with the Bektashis appears clearly in the initiation ceremony of such bodies as the blacksmiths' esnaf (guild) of Burdur in Anatolia. Gordlevski mentions that the new member was solemnly appraised that he was about to join "the society of sheriat, hakikat, tarikat, and marifat."85These are "the four gateways" of Bektashism,86 interpreted by Birge as "religious law," "immediate experience of the essence of reality," "teachings and practice of the secret religious order," and "mystic knowledge of God." Various external aspects of the ceremony-posture, movements, gestures-were also part of the Bektashi way. In the same guild a very important place in the ritual was reserved for an official called Akhi baba.87He addressed the new masters with the final admonitions-respect, love, compassion, truthfulness, and absention from forbidden food. In other guilds the Akhi baba supervised promotions.88An Akhi, Akhi Evran, was the patron saint (pir) of the tanners'
83

Ibid.,

pp. 75-76,

114, 116, 184.

For a description Thorning, pp. 71-73,

84

of initiation ceremonies see 123-64. Massignon in his

81-82.

Sciences, VII, 214-16, describes the ceremony as "semi-masonic." Lewis, describing Moslem guilds in general, prefers the expression "quasi-masonic"
(Economic
85 86 87 88

History

Review,

VIII,

22).

Thorning, in connection with his work on the Bast Madad et-Taufiq (his translation of this title is "Darlegung der Hilfe des gottlichen Beistandes," op. cit., p. 175), has made a comparative study of a score of futuwwa books intended for the use of the various guilds in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.

Zapiski, Birge,

II, 240. op. cit., pp. 102-7. Zapiski, II, 239, 241.

Gordlevski,

Taeschner,

"Das

bosnische

Zunftwesen

zur

Tiirkenzeit"

(review

art.),

Byzantinische

Zeitschrift,

XLIV

(1951), 554.

FU1TUWWATRADITIONS IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

247

guild of the entire Ottoman Empire. He lies buried at Kirshehir, some ninety miles southeast of Ankara, and an inscription over his tomb, dated 854 A.H. (A.D.

1450), reads: "pir of pirs, saint of saints, fountain, sultan sheikh Nasireddin Mahmud Akhi Evran. May his mystery be blessed by God (kuddisaAllah-u sirruh-u).
.. .'89

"May his mystery be blessed" is

a common Bektashi formula.90 Another inscription says that the cemetery near by was a burial place of Akhis.91 The legendary Akhi of Kirshehir was also the pir of the clothiers' guild, and all the guilds of Turkey claimed him for their own.92Kirshehir was an important center of dervishes, whose leader was styled Akhi baba.93 As late as 1887 the tanners' guild of remote Bosnia received a traveling sheikh, also called Akhi baba, who came from Kirshehir as representative of the dervishes of Akhi Evran.94 From facts such as these the fundamental relationship between Turkish guilds and Bektashi dervishes, and also between guilds and Bektashis, on the one hand,
89Gordlevski,

VI, Nos. 15-17, 90 See Birge, 91 Gordlevski,

Izvestiya 1173.

Akademii

Nauk

SSSR,

op. cit., pp. 41, 160-61. Izvestiya, VI, 1173.

of Kirshehir, in addition to Gordlevski's article cited above, see Taeschner, "Legendenbildung um Akhi Evran, den
Die Welt des Islams, Sondervon Kirsehir," Heiligen Giese (1941), band Festschrift Friedrich pp. 61-71;

Ibid., pp. 1178, 1180. 93 Concerning the significance

W. Ruben, "Kirsehirde dikkatmlzl ~eken san'at abideleri, Ahi Evran tiirbesi" ("Eigenartige Denkmaler aus Kirsehir"), Belleten, XI (1947), 629-38.
i
94 Hamdija Hercegovini,

Kresevljakovic, Esnafi i obrti u Bosni in and Trades 1463-1878 ("Guilds

and the old Akhiyat al-Fityan, on the other, appears very clearly. The function of these three bodies in the development of the Ottoman Empire was essentially the same. In degrees that varied according to the prevailing circumstances, Akhis, dervishes, and craftsmen contributed in their significant way to the consolidation of Turkish power in the Near East-the Akhis in Anatolia before and during the rise of the Osmanlls, the Bektashis primarily in the Balkans and to a smaller extent in Asiatic Turkey, and the organized craftsmen all over the Empire. The Akhis, who were not merely craftsmen or religious men alone but a brotherhood with a multiplicity of interests and functions, wielded extensive political power, limiting the absolutist tendencies of Anatolian Turkish emirs and of the first two Osmanli sultans, and they exerted a leveling influence until authority and wealth corrupted them and Murad I brought them under his control. Their tradition, which was tied up with the old futuwwa, was carried on by the Bektashis, but the latter's influence was more cultural than political. It appeared in the Islamization of the Christian peasants in the Balkans and in Anatolia. The craftsmen's guilds, though not in any way fanatical, played a similar role among the townspeople, and through their social mechanism they implemented the missionary activities of the dervishes. All three-Akhis, Bektashis, and guild craftsmen-served as vital supports of the growing Ottoman Empire.
OF KANSAS UNIVERSITY
LAWRENCE, KANSAS

Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1463-1878"),in Taeschner's review article, Byzantinische Zeitschrift, XLIV, 556.