This dissertation argues for the historical agency of the North Anatolian city of Amasya through an analysis of the social and political history of Islamic mysticism in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Ottoman Empire. The story of the transmission of the Halvetiye Sufi order from geographical and political margins to the imperial center in both ideological and physical sense underlines Amasya's contribution to the making of the socio-religious scene of the Ottoman capital at its formative stages. The city exerted its agency as it urbanized, "Ottomanized" and catapulted marginalized Halvetiye Sufi order to Istanbul where the Ottoman socio-religious fabric was in the making.

This study constitutes one of the first broad-ranging histories of an Ottoman Sufi order, as a social group shaped by regional networks of politics and patronage in the formative fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A prosopographical approach to the earliest Ottoman biographical works on Sufi orders brings the regionalist coloring in the rivalry between major Sufi orders to the fore. The ancient socio-political rivalry between two Anatolian regions surfaced in the strife between different Sufi orders in the socio-religious scene of the nascent imperial capital Istanbul. One of the contending Sufi orders, the Halvetiye was the product of the north central Anatolian city of Amasya. At the outset of the fifteenth century, the local landholding practices in Amasya in combination with contemporary political developments resulted in the proliferation of a particular type of Sufi architecture and the concurrent urbanization of Sufi activities. In the first half of the fifteenth century, the Halvetiye Sufi order, which originated in the rural areas of Azerbaijan, was appropriated by the city and assumed an urban identity. In Amasya, the Halvetiye, which was challenged by more established urban orders elsewhere in the Islamic world, found a safe haven and established its first contacts with the Ottoman elite. The final phase in the "Ottomanization" of the Halvetiye order took place in the second half of the fifteenth century. During the succession struggle of the late fifteenth century, the Halvetis joined a political faction led by Prince Bayezid (d.918/1512) who eventually succeeded to the Ottoman throne. Through association with one of the contending political parties via Halvetiye order, Amasya made a bid for influence in the socio-religious domain in the Ottoman core lands, especially in the imperial capital at its formative period.

This dissertation concludes by problematizing the modern perception of the early Ottoman Anatolia as unified and monolithic, and a backwater to the rising Ottoman world. In so doing it attempts to shift the formative process of the Ottoman polity from the "core lands" covering Western Asia Minor and Southern Balkans to the Anatolian provinces.

Abstract

Friend and foe: The Early Ottoman Reception of Ibn `Arabi

by

Ahmed Zildzic

Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Studies

University of California, Berkeley

Professor Hamid Algar, Chair

The legacy of the great Muslim Sufi master from the XII century, Muhy al-din Ibn al-`Arabi left broad, profound, lasting and polarizing impact on the development of Islamic mysticism in the centuries after his death. The underlying principles of Sufism such as the ideas of the transcendental unity of being, the Perfect Man, the sealhood of the Mu-hammadan sainthood in their final form and ultimate interpretation are usually, both fa-vorably and unfavorably, associated with the name of Ibn `Arabi.

This dissertation is a historical inquiry into the pathways through which the influence of Ibn `Arabi, as well as that of his works, disciples and ideas was inherited and incorpo-rated into the intellectual milieu of the Ottoman learned class represented here by two groups: religious scholars, and members of the imperial administration. This dissertation follows the continuities of the textual and interpretative community of Ibn Arabi, stretch-ing through a series of Ibn Arabi's disciples from the time of his sojourn in pre-Ottoman Anatolia until the first scholarly figures and institutions of the Ottomans whereby Akbari teachings were propelled into the nascent Ottoman scholarly circles.

The tumultuous historical events of the first decades of the XVI century, namely the Ot-toman conquest of the Arab world and the resulting defeat of the Mamluks and the Sa-favids, provided an opportunity for the evaluation of the well-established Akbari teach-ings in an Ottoman context. A notable XVII century Ottoman commentator of the Fusus, Abdullah el-Bosnevi in his famous Sharh proposed that the advent of the Ottomans into the Arab world reinvigorated, or more precisely for the first time launched heated debates concentrated around the question of the acceptability of IbnArabi's beliefs in Ottoman realm. The abundant amount of primary sources originating from that period shows in-tensive activities focused at attacking and defending Ibn `Arabi, his views and his follow-ers, and that fact appears to bear out el-Bosnevi's assumption. Based on primary manu-script sources and an array of secondary literature this dissertation attempts to follow those debates in two textual corpuses: in imperial discourse represented here by a short, anonymous and obscure treatise titled Al-Shajara al-nu`maniyya fi `ulama' al-dawla al-`uthmaniyya, and in legal discourse represented by a selection of fatwas issued by some of the most illustrious Ottoman scholars and shaykh al-islams from that period.

Abstract

Unraveling the Mystery of The Hidden Treasure:

The Origin and Development of a Hadith

Qudsi and its Application in Sufi Doctrine

by

Moeen Afnani

Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Studies

University of California, Berkeley

Professor Hamid Algar, Chair

The tradition of the Hidden Treasure is the most widely used Hadith in the field of speculative mysticism. It states: "I was a Hidden Treasure; I loved to be known, so I created the creation in order to be known." From the 5th/12th century onward this tradition has occurred in major Sufi texts, and the great Sufi masters like Ibn al-Arabi and Rumi have made abundant use of it to build their mystical philosophy. Although it is very brief, this tradition refers to such themes as wujud (being), God as the Absolute Being, names and attributes of God, the self-disclosure of God, love as the motive for creation, the concept and process of creation, and the concept of knowledge. These themes are among the most fundamental concepts in speculative mysticism. Aside from Sufis, Islamic philosophers and theologians also have mentioned this tradition in their writings. A few brief commentaries have been written on this tradition by some Sufis and theologians, the translations of which are provided in the appendices. However, in spite of the popularity of this tradition no systematic study of this Hadith, and of its influence on the development of Sufi thought has been undertaken so far. It is hoped that this research will address this deficiency and open the way for further studies. This research is based mostly, though not exclusively, on study of the writings of Ibn al-Arabi and the prominent Sufis among his students who more than any other Sufi have referred to this tradition, and built some of their mystical concepts around it.