An Example of the Mystical Avicennism in Ottoman Thought: Jamāl al-Khalwatī’s Interpretation of Ibn Sīnā’s Risāla ilā Abī Saʿīd ibn Abī l-Khayr

Year 2012, , 173 - 196, 21.02.2013

Veysel Kaya

https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2012.32.58

Cited By: 2

Abstract

In the face of growing scholarship on the classical period of Islamic thought, it is becoming more apparent that Ibn Sīnā owes much to the philosophical and theological traditions that precede him in matters that were once regarded as original stances of al-Sheikh al-Raʾīs. Undoubtedly, Ibn Sīnā still deserves to be regarded as a key figure who potentiated one of the turning points in Islamic thought. His influence is demonstrated by the fact that a time came, especially for Muslim theologians who represented the main theological tendencies in Muslim society, when they could not ignore his writings anymore. Al-Ghazālī’s well-known Incoherence of Philosophers was a result of this inevitable case. In this regard, Ibn Sīnā’s influential writings led the way to different interpretations of his ideas being incorporated within different traditions of Islamic thought, such as falsafa, kalām, and taṣawwuf. This article addresses a particular case in which some of his ideas, or to put it more correctly, ideas attributed to him, were conveyed in the Ottoman mystical environs, a situation that leads us to explore the concept of “mystical Avicennism.” Rather than constructing an overall theory on the influence of Ibn Sīnā in Ottoman thought, this article is a modest attempt to make sense of a text written by one of the mystical figures of Ottoman times, a sample that can be addressed in the context of the Avicennian corpus.

References

• Çakmak, Muharrem, "Türk Mutasavvıf Şairi Aksaraylı Cemal Halvetî [A Turkish Sufi Poet Jamāl al-Khalwatī of Aksaray]," EKEV Akademi Dergisi [EKEV Academy Journal] 16/3 (2003), 181-196.
• Demirli, Ekrem, İslam Metafiziğinde Tanrı ve İnsan: İbnü'l-Arabi ve Vahdet-i Vücud Geleneği [God and Man in Islamic Metaphysics: Ibn ʿArabī and the Waḥdat al-Wujūd Tradition] (Istanbul: Kabalcı Yayınevi, 2009).
• Gohlman, William E., The Life of Ibn Sīnā (Albany, NY: State Uni-versity of New York Press, 1974).
• Griffel, Frank, Al-Ghazālī's Philosophical Theology (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2009), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331622.001.0001
• al-Gumushkhānawī, Aḥmad Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn, Jāmiʿ al-mutūn (Istanbul: Dār al-Ṭibāʿa al-ʿĀmira, 1856).
• Hızlı, Mefail, "Osmanlı Medreselerinde Okutulan Dersler ve Eserler [Courses and Textbooks in Ottoman Madrasas]," Uludağ Üniversitesi İlâhiyat Fakültesi Dergisi [The Review of the Faculty of Theology, Uludağ University] 17/1 (2008), 25-46.
• Ibn ʿArabī, Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad, Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam (ed. Abū l-ʿAlā ʿAfīfī; Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1946).
• Ibn ʿArabī, Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, 4 vols., (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 2004).
• Ibn Qāḍī Samāwnā, Sheikh Badr al-Dīn Maḥmūd, al-Wāridāt (MS Bursa, İnebey Yazma Eser Kütüphanesi, Ulucami, 1698, dated 920 H).
• Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh, al-Aḍḥawiyya fī l-maʿād (ed. Ḥasan ʿĀṣī; Beirut: al-Muʾassasa al-Jāmiʿiyya, 1987).
• Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Fī aqsām al-ʿulūm al-ʿaqliyya, in Tisʿ rasāʾil fī l-ḥikma wa-l-ṭabīʿiyyāt (2nd ed., Cairo: Dār al-ʿArab, n.d.).
• Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Fī tafsīr al-ṣamadiyya, in his Jāmiʿ al-badāyiʿ (ed. Muḥyī al-Dīn Ṣabrī al-Kurdī; Cairo: Maṭbaʿat al-Saʿāda, 1335 H).
• Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh, al-Risāla al-ʿarshiyya (MS Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Nuruosmaniye, 4894), 445a-449a.
• Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh, al-Risāla al-ʿarshiyya (MS Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Ayasofya, 4849), 32b-39b.
• Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh, al-Risāla al-ʿarshiyya fī tawḥīdihī taʿālā wa-ṣifātihī, in Majmūʿ rasāʾil al-Sheikh al-Raʾīs (Hyderabad: Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyya, 1354 H).
• Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh, al-Risāla al-ʿarshiyya (ed. Ibrāhīm Hilāl; Cairo: Jāmiʿat al-Azhar, 1980).
• Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Risāla fī l-mabdaʾ wa-l-maʿād (MS Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Nuruosmaniye, 4894), 435b-436a.
• Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Min kalām al-Sheikh al-Raʾīs Abī ʿAlī Ibn Sīnā (=Risāla fī l-mabdaʾ wa-l-maʿād) (MS Nevşehir, Hacıbektaş İlçe Halk Kü-tüphanesi, 236), 79a-79b.
• Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Kalām li-l-Sheikh Abī ʿAlī Ibn Sīnā ʿalā ṭarīqat al-taṣawwuf (MS Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Nuruosmaniye, 4894), 247a.
• Janssens, Jules, "Elements of Avicennian Influence in al-Fanārī's Theory of Emanation," in Tevfik Yücedoğru et al (eds.), Uluslararası Molla Fenârî Sempozyumu (4-6 Aralık 2009 Bursa) - Bildiriler - (Interna-tional Symposium on Molla Fanārī [4-6 December 2009 Bursa] - Pro-ceedings -) (Bursa: Bursa Büyükşehir Belediyesi Yayınları, 2010).
• al-Kālūnī (?), Saʿd al-Dīn, ? (The Interpretation of Saʿd al-Dīn al-Kālūnī on the Correspondence between Ibn Sīnā and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī l-Khayr) (MS Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Nuruosmaniye, 4894), 247a.
• Karadaş, Cağfer, "Dâvûd-i Kayserî ve Genel Hatlarıyla Düşüncesi [Dāwūd al-Qayṣarī and His Thoughts with Broad Strokes]," Uludağ Üniversitesi İlâhiyat Fakültesi Dergisi [The Review of the Faculty of Theology, Uludağ University] 25/2 (2006), 1-17.
• Kātib Chalabī, Ḥājī Khalīfa Muṣṭafā ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Kashf al-ẓunūn ʿan asāmī l-kutub wa-l-funūn (eds. M. Şerefettin Yaltkaya and Kilisli Rifat Bilge; vol. I, Ankara: Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı, 1941).
• al-Khalwatī, Jamāl, Tafsīr al-Fātiḥa wa-min sūrat al-Ḍuḥā ilā ākhir al-Qurʾān (MS Bursa, İnebey Yazma Eser Kütüphanesi, Genel, 1460), 47b-61a.
• al-Khalwatī, Jamāl,Sharḥ kalām Ibn Sīnā (MS Bursa, İnebey Yazma Eser Kütüphanesi, Genel, 1460), 14b-15a.
• Mullā al-Jāmī, Abū l-Barakāt Nūr al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad, al-Durra al-fākhira, in Fakhr al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Rāzī, Asās al-taqdīs (Cairo: Maṭbaʿat Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, 1935).
• al-Nasafī, Abū Ḥafṣ Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad, al-ʿAqāʾid (with Sharḥ al-ʿAqāʾid by al-Taftāzānī) (Istanbul: Ḥājī Muḥarram Efendī Maṭbaʿasi, 1288 H).
• al-Qayṣarī, Sharaf al-Dīn Dāwūd ibn Maḥmūd ibn Muḥammad, Matlaʿ khuṣūṣ al-kalim fī maʿānī Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, 2 vols., (revised by Muḥammad Ḥasan al-Sāʿidī; n.p.: Manshūrāt Anwār al-Hudā, 1416 H).
• Reisman, David C., The Making of the Avicennan Tradition: The Trans-mission, Contents, and Structure of Ibn Sīnā's al-Mubāḥaṯāt (The Discussions) (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2002).
• Reisman, David C., "A New Standard for Avicenna Studies," Journal of the American Oriental Society 122/3 (2002), 562-577, https://doi.org/10.2307/3087524
• Reisman, David C., "Stealing Avicenna's Books: A Study of the Historical Sources for the Life and Times of Avicenna," in David C. Reisman and Ahmed H. Al-Rahim (eds.), Before and After Avicenna: Proceedings of the First Conference of the Avicenna Study Group (Leiden: Brill, 2003).
• al-Ṣābūnī, Abū Muḥammad Nūr al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Maḥmūd ibn Abī Bakr, al-Kifāya fī uṣūl al-dīn (MS Bursa, İnebey Yazma Eser Kütüphanesi, Hüseyin Çelebi, 579).
• Shams al-Dīn, ʿAbd al-Amīr, al-Madhhab al-tarbawī ʿinda Ibn Sīnā min khilāl falsafatihī l-ʿilmiyya (Beirut: al-Sharika al-ʿĀlamiyya li-l-Kitāb, 1988).
• Ṭāshkuprīzāda, Abū l-Khayr ʿIṣām al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Muṣṭafā, al-Shaqāʾiq al-Nuʿmāniyya fī ʿulamāʾ al-Dawla al-ʿUthmāniyya (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1975).
• Ṭāshkuprīzāda, Abū l-Khayr ʿIṣām al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Muṣṭafā,Mawsūʿat muṣṭalaḥāt miftāḥ al-saʿāda wa-miṣbāḥ al-siyāda fī mawḍūʿāt al-ʿulūm (ed. ʿAlī Daḥrūj; Beirut: Maktabat Lubnān Nāshirūn, 1998).
• Uzunçarşılı, İsmail Hakkı, Osmanlı Devletinin İlmiye Teşkilatı [Educational Organization of Ottoman State] (3rd edn., Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, 1988).