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COMPARING SCHOLARSHIP: THE ASSESSMENT OF THE CONTEMPORARY WORKS THAT LINKS ALEVIS WITH EITHER SHI`ISM OR SUNNISM

Year 2018, Volume: 5 Issue: 9, 315 - 338, 30.12.2018

Abstract

The Alevis, as major minority religious group in Turkey, has attracted the attention of the scholars, particularly by the second half of the twentieth century. Although the number of academic studies on Alevism have dramatically increased, the question of whether Alevism is a branch of Shi`ism has not been thoroughly explored. The majority of recent works have automatically classified Alevism as Shi`ite due to the shared religious doctrines by the two groups. They did not, however, interrogate those Shi`ite currents as to how they are applied and perceived in Shi`ism and Alevism. By using a comparative study of religion methodology, this paper will address to the notions of “heterodoxy”, “orthodoxy”, “metadoxy” in terms of how they have become central discourses in the Alevi based literature, and then the latest critics on these matters will be explored. Given that this article while presenting the diversity of views on Alevism, aims to question Alevism’s so-called links to Shi`ism. 

References

  • Arjomand, Sa’id. (1981). “Religious Extremism (Ghuluww), Sufism, Sunnism in Safavid Iran 1501-1522,” in Journal of Asian History 15.
  • Aubin, Jean. (1970). “La Politique Religieuse Des Safavides,” in Le Shi’isme Imamite. Colloque de Strasbourg. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
  • Babayan, Kathryn. (1994). "The Safavid Synthesis: from Qizilbash Islam to Imamite Shi'ism," Iranian Studies 27,: 135-161.
  • Babayan, Kathryn. (2002). Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran. Cambridge, Mass: Distributed for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies of Harvard University by Harvard University Press.
  • Babayan, Kathryn. (1993). The Waning of the Qizilbash: The Spiritual and the Temporal in Seventeenth Century Iran. UMI.
  • Birge, John. The Bektashi Order of Dervishes. London: Luzac & Co. [1937] 1965.
  • Bozkurt, Fuat. (2005). "State-Community Relations in the Restructuring of Alevism," in Alevi Identity: Cultural, Religious and Social Perspectives: Papers Read at a Conference Held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, (November 25-27, 1996), edited by Tord Olsson, Elisabeth Özdalga, and Catharina Raudvere. Taylor & Francis e-Library: 100-114.
  • Cahen, Claude, and P M. Holt. (2001). The Formation of Turkey: The Seljukid Sultanate of Rūm: Eleventh to Fourteenth Century. Harlow, England: Longman.
  • Clarke, Gloria L. (1999). The World of the Alevis Issues of Culture and Identity. New York: AVC Publication.
  • Daftary, Farhad. (1990). The Isma`ilis, their history and doctrines. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Dressler, Markus. (2013). Writing Religion: The Making of Turkish Alevi Islam. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Gökalp, Altan. (1980). “Une Minorité Chîite En Anatolie: Les Alevî,” in Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations 35, no. 3-4,: 748-763.
  • Gölpınarlı, Abdülbaki. (1963). Alevî-Bektasî Nefesleri. Istanbul: Remzi.
  • Gölpınarlı, Abdülbaki. (1997). Tarih Boyunca İslam Mezhepleri ve Șiilik. Istanbul: Der yayınları.
  • Gölpınarlı, Abdülbaki. (2000). Tasavvuf. Istanbul: Milenyum.
  • Gölpınarlı, Abdülbaki. (1997). Türkiye'de Mezhepler ve Tarikatlar. Istanbul: İnkilap Kitabevi.
  • Halm, Heinz. (2004). Shi`ism. Translated by Janet Watson and Marian Hill. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Hasluck, Frederick William. (2012). Bektaşilik İncelemeleri. Translated into Turkish by Ragıp Özdem. İstanbul: Say Yayınları.
  • Hasluck, Frederick William. (1929). Christianity and Islam Under the Sultans: 1. Oxford: Clarendon Pr.: 125.
  • Imber, Colin. (1979). “The Persecution of Ottoman Shi`ites According to the Muhimme Defterleri, 1565-1585,” Der Islam 56/2: 245-273.
  • Kafadar, Cemal. (1995). Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Karakaya-Stump, Ayfer. “The Vefa’iyye, The Bektashiyye and Genealogies of “Heterodox” Islam In Anatolia: Rethinking The Köprülü Paradigm,” Turcica 44, (2012-2013), 279-300, doi: 10.2143/TURC.44.0.2988853.
  • Karamustafa, Ahmet T. (2014 ). “Kaygusuz Abdal: A Medieval Turkish Saint and the Formation of Vernacular Islam in Anatolia,” 329-342, in Unity in Diversity: Mysticism, Messianism, and the Construction of Religious Authority in Islam. Edited by Orkhan Mir-Kasimov. The Institute of Ismaili Studies, Brill.
  • Karamustafa, Ahmet T. (1994). God's Unruly Friends: Dervish Groups in the Islamic Later Middle Period, 1200-1550. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
  • Kaygusuz, İsmail. (1995). Alevilik İnanç, Kültür, Siyaset Tarihi Ve Uluları. İstanbul Alev Yayınevi.
  • Kieser, Hans-Lukas. (2007). “The Antolian Alevis’ Ambivalent Encounter with Modernity in Late Ottoman and Early Republican Turkey,” in The Other Shiites: from the Mediterranean to Central Asia, Monsutti, Alessandro, Silvia Naef, and Farian Sabahi. Bern: Peter Lang.
  • Köprülü, Mehmed Fuad. (2006). Early Mystics in Turkish Literature. Translated, edited and with an introduction by Gary Leiser and Ropert Dankoff. Foreword by Devin DeWeese. London: Routledge.
  • Köprülü, Mehmed Fuad. (1993). Islam in Anatolia after the Turkish Invasion. Translated, edited, and with an introduction by Gary Leiser. University of Utah Press.
  • Mazzaoui, Michel. (1972). The Origins of the Safawids: Shi`ism, Sufism and the Ghulat. Weisbaden.
  • Mélikoff, Irène. (2005). “Bektashi/Kızılbaş: Historical Bipartition and Its Consequences,” in Alevi Identity: Cultural, Religious and Social Perspectives: Papers Read at a Conference Held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, (November 25-27, 1996), edited by Tord Olsson, Elisabeth Özdalga, and Catharina Raudvere. Taylor & Francis e-Library.
  • Mélikoff, Irène. and İlhan C. Erseven. (1997). Tuttum Aynayı Yüzüme Ali Göründü Gözüme. İstanbul: ANT.
  • Mélikoff, Irène. (1992). Sur les traces du sou sme turc. Recherches sur l’Islam populaire en Anatolie. Istanbul: ISIS Press.
  • Mélikoff, Irène. (2006). Uyur Idik Uyardılar: Alevîlik-Bektaşîlik Araştırmaları. İstanbul: Demos yayınları.
  • Momen, Moojan. (1985). An Introduction to Shiʻi Islam: The History and Doctrines of Twelver Shiʻism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Moosa, Matti. (1988). Extremist Shiites: the Ghulat sects. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press.
  • Ocak, Ahmet Yaşar. (2010). “Islam’s Second Aspect in Turkey’s History: Rethinking the Shî‘a Element in Anatolia, or Some Comments on the İsma’îlî Influences,” in Hoca, 'allame, Puits De Science: Essays in Honor of Kemal H. Karpat. by Kemal Karpat, H, Kaan Durukan, Robert W. Zens, and Akile Z. Durukan. Istanbul: Isis Press.
  • Ocak, Ahmet Yaşar. (1996). Türkiye’de tarihin saptırılması sürecinde Türk sufiliğine bakışlar: Ahmed-i Yesevi, Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi, Yunus Emre, Hacı Bektaş-i Veli, Ahilik, Alevilik-Bektaşilik: yaklaşım, yöntem ve yorum denemeleri. İstanbul: İletișim Yayıncılık.
  • Öz, Baki. (2001). Alevilik Nedir?. Istanbul: Der Yayınları.
  • S̨ahin, Teoman. (1995). Alevilere Söylenen Yalanlar. Ankara.
  • Shankland, David. (2003). The Alevis in Turkey: The emergence of a secular Islamic tradition. London and New York: Routledge Curzon.
  • Şener, Cemal. (2010). Alevilik Olayı: Toplumsal Bir Başkaldırının Kısa Tarihçesi. İstanbul: Etik Yayınları.
  • Tabatabai, Mudarrisi and Sayyid Husayn. (1984). An introduction to Shi’i Law. London: Ithaca Press.
  • Tambar, Kabir. (2011). “Iterations of Lament: Anachronism and affect in a Shi’i Islamic revival in Turkey,” American Ethnologogist, volume 38, no. 3,: 486.
  • Tambar, Kabir. (2014). The Reckoning of Pluralism: Political Belonging and the Demands of History in Turkey. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
  • Türkdoğan, Orhan. (1995). Alevi-Bektaşi Kimliği: Sosyo-antropolojik Araştırma. İstanbul: Timaş Yayınları.
  • Üzüm, İlyas. (2000). Günümüz Aleviliği. İstanbul: TDV İSAM Yayınları.
  • Vorhoff, Karin. (1998). ‘Let's Reclaim Our History and Culture!': Imagining Alevi Community in Contemporary Turkey," Die Welt des Islams, 220. JSTOR Journals, EBSCOhost (accessed September 13, 2016).
  • Vorhoff, Karin. (2005). “Academic and Journalistic Publications on the Alevi and Bektashi of Turkey,” in Alevi Identity: Cultural, Religious and Social Perspectives Papers Read at a Conference Held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, (November 25-27, 1996), edited by Tord Olsson, Elisabeth Özdalga, and Catharina Raudvere. Taylor & Francis e-Library.
  • Vorhoff, Karin. (1995). Zwischen Glaube, Nation Und Neuer Gemeinschaft: Alevitische Identität in Der Türkei Der Gegenwart. Berlin: K. Schwarz.
  • Wadad al-Qadi. (2003). “The Development of the Term Ghulat in Muslim Literature with Special Reference to the Kaysaniyya,” in The Formation of the Classical Islamic World, ed. Etan Kohlberg, volume 33. Ashgate/Variorum.
  • White, George E. (1908). The Shia Turks. London: Harrison and Sons.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
  • Winter, Stefan. (2010). The Shiites of Lebanon under Ottoman Rule, 1516-1788. Cambridge University Press.
  • Yıldırım, Rıza. (2015). “Sunni Orthodox vs Shiʿite Heterodox?: A reappraisal of Islamic Piety,” in Islam and Christianity in Medieval Anatolia, by A. C. S. Peacock, Bruno De Nicola, and Sara Nur Yıldız. Ashgate Publishing.
  • Yörükoğlu, Rıza. (1993). “Alevilik,” in Alevilik Budur by Ö. Uluçay. Adana.
  • Zelyut, Rıza. (1992). Öz kaynaklara Göre Alevilik, 7th ed. Istanbul.

ALEVİLİĞİ ŞİİLİK VEYA SÜNNİLİK İLE BAĞDAŞTIRAN MODERN AKADEMİK ESERLERİN KARŞILAŞTIRMALI BİR ANALİZİ

Year 2018, Volume: 5 Issue: 9, 315 - 338, 30.12.2018

Abstract

Türkiye’de temel dini azınlık grubu teşkil eden Aleviler özellikle yirminci yüzyılın ikinci yarısı itibariyle araştırmacıların ilgisini kendilerine çekmişlerdir. Alevilikle ilgili akademik çalışmaların sayısı önemli ölçüde artmış olsa da Aleviliğin Şia’nın bir kolu olup olmadığı sorusu henüz layıkıyla tetkik edilmemiştir. Modern dönemde Alevilik hakkında yapılan çalışmaların ekseriyeti Alevilik ve Şia’nın ortak dini motiflerine vurgu yaparak Aleviliği Şia’nın bir alt dalı olarak sınıflandırmaktadır. Ancak yapılan bu çalışmalar söz konusu olan Şii eğilimlerin Alevilikte ve Şiilikte nasıl algılandıkları ve ne şekilde uygulandıkları konusunu tahkik etmemişlerdir. Bu çalışmamızda öncelikle karşılaştırmalı din metodunu kullanarak “Heterodoks”, “Ortodoks” ve “Metadoks” kavramlarını inceleyecek, bu kavramların nasıl ve ne şekilde Alevilik ile ilgili çalışmaların temel odak noktası olduğunu irdeleyeceğiz. Akabinde bu terimlere yöneltilen eleştirilere yer vermekle birlikte bu eleştirilerin mahiyetini tetkik edeceğiz. Araştırmanın ikinci bölümünde ise Alevilik hakkında öne sürülen farklı görüşlere yer verilecektir. Çalışmamızın temel amacı Alevilik hakkında ortaya atılan görüşlerden biri olan Aleviliği Şiilik olarak yorumlayan düşünceyi ele almak ve Aleviliğin Şiilik ile sözde bağlantısını sorgulamaktır. 

References

  • Arjomand, Sa’id. (1981). “Religious Extremism (Ghuluww), Sufism, Sunnism in Safavid Iran 1501-1522,” in Journal of Asian History 15.
  • Aubin, Jean. (1970). “La Politique Religieuse Des Safavides,” in Le Shi’isme Imamite. Colloque de Strasbourg. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
  • Babayan, Kathryn. (1994). "The Safavid Synthesis: from Qizilbash Islam to Imamite Shi'ism," Iranian Studies 27,: 135-161.
  • Babayan, Kathryn. (2002). Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran. Cambridge, Mass: Distributed for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies of Harvard University by Harvard University Press.
  • Babayan, Kathryn. (1993). The Waning of the Qizilbash: The Spiritual and the Temporal in Seventeenth Century Iran. UMI.
  • Birge, John. The Bektashi Order of Dervishes. London: Luzac & Co. [1937] 1965.
  • Bozkurt, Fuat. (2005). "State-Community Relations in the Restructuring of Alevism," in Alevi Identity: Cultural, Religious and Social Perspectives: Papers Read at a Conference Held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, (November 25-27, 1996), edited by Tord Olsson, Elisabeth Özdalga, and Catharina Raudvere. Taylor & Francis e-Library: 100-114.
  • Cahen, Claude, and P M. Holt. (2001). The Formation of Turkey: The Seljukid Sultanate of Rūm: Eleventh to Fourteenth Century. Harlow, England: Longman.
  • Clarke, Gloria L. (1999). The World of the Alevis Issues of Culture and Identity. New York: AVC Publication.
  • Daftary, Farhad. (1990). The Isma`ilis, their history and doctrines. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Dressler, Markus. (2013). Writing Religion: The Making of Turkish Alevi Islam. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Gökalp, Altan. (1980). “Une Minorité Chîite En Anatolie: Les Alevî,” in Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations 35, no. 3-4,: 748-763.
  • Gölpınarlı, Abdülbaki. (1963). Alevî-Bektasî Nefesleri. Istanbul: Remzi.
  • Gölpınarlı, Abdülbaki. (1997). Tarih Boyunca İslam Mezhepleri ve Șiilik. Istanbul: Der yayınları.
  • Gölpınarlı, Abdülbaki. (2000). Tasavvuf. Istanbul: Milenyum.
  • Gölpınarlı, Abdülbaki. (1997). Türkiye'de Mezhepler ve Tarikatlar. Istanbul: İnkilap Kitabevi.
  • Halm, Heinz. (2004). Shi`ism. Translated by Janet Watson and Marian Hill. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Hasluck, Frederick William. (2012). Bektaşilik İncelemeleri. Translated into Turkish by Ragıp Özdem. İstanbul: Say Yayınları.
  • Hasluck, Frederick William. (1929). Christianity and Islam Under the Sultans: 1. Oxford: Clarendon Pr.: 125.
  • Imber, Colin. (1979). “The Persecution of Ottoman Shi`ites According to the Muhimme Defterleri, 1565-1585,” Der Islam 56/2: 245-273.
  • Kafadar, Cemal. (1995). Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Karakaya-Stump, Ayfer. “The Vefa’iyye, The Bektashiyye and Genealogies of “Heterodox” Islam In Anatolia: Rethinking The Köprülü Paradigm,” Turcica 44, (2012-2013), 279-300, doi: 10.2143/TURC.44.0.2988853.
  • Karamustafa, Ahmet T. (2014 ). “Kaygusuz Abdal: A Medieval Turkish Saint and the Formation of Vernacular Islam in Anatolia,” 329-342, in Unity in Diversity: Mysticism, Messianism, and the Construction of Religious Authority in Islam. Edited by Orkhan Mir-Kasimov. The Institute of Ismaili Studies, Brill.
  • Karamustafa, Ahmet T. (1994). God's Unruly Friends: Dervish Groups in the Islamic Later Middle Period, 1200-1550. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
  • Kaygusuz, İsmail. (1995). Alevilik İnanç, Kültür, Siyaset Tarihi Ve Uluları. İstanbul Alev Yayınevi.
  • Kieser, Hans-Lukas. (2007). “The Antolian Alevis’ Ambivalent Encounter with Modernity in Late Ottoman and Early Republican Turkey,” in The Other Shiites: from the Mediterranean to Central Asia, Monsutti, Alessandro, Silvia Naef, and Farian Sabahi. Bern: Peter Lang.
  • Köprülü, Mehmed Fuad. (2006). Early Mystics in Turkish Literature. Translated, edited and with an introduction by Gary Leiser and Ropert Dankoff. Foreword by Devin DeWeese. London: Routledge.
  • Köprülü, Mehmed Fuad. (1993). Islam in Anatolia after the Turkish Invasion. Translated, edited, and with an introduction by Gary Leiser. University of Utah Press.
  • Mazzaoui, Michel. (1972). The Origins of the Safawids: Shi`ism, Sufism and the Ghulat. Weisbaden.
  • Mélikoff, Irène. (2005). “Bektashi/Kızılbaş: Historical Bipartition and Its Consequences,” in Alevi Identity: Cultural, Religious and Social Perspectives: Papers Read at a Conference Held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, (November 25-27, 1996), edited by Tord Olsson, Elisabeth Özdalga, and Catharina Raudvere. Taylor & Francis e-Library.
  • Mélikoff, Irène. and İlhan C. Erseven. (1997). Tuttum Aynayı Yüzüme Ali Göründü Gözüme. İstanbul: ANT.
  • Mélikoff, Irène. (1992). Sur les traces du sou sme turc. Recherches sur l’Islam populaire en Anatolie. Istanbul: ISIS Press.
  • Mélikoff, Irène. (2006). Uyur Idik Uyardılar: Alevîlik-Bektaşîlik Araştırmaları. İstanbul: Demos yayınları.
  • Momen, Moojan. (1985). An Introduction to Shiʻi Islam: The History and Doctrines of Twelver Shiʻism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Moosa, Matti. (1988). Extremist Shiites: the Ghulat sects. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press.
  • Ocak, Ahmet Yaşar. (2010). “Islam’s Second Aspect in Turkey’s History: Rethinking the Shî‘a Element in Anatolia, or Some Comments on the İsma’îlî Influences,” in Hoca, 'allame, Puits De Science: Essays in Honor of Kemal H. Karpat. by Kemal Karpat, H, Kaan Durukan, Robert W. Zens, and Akile Z. Durukan. Istanbul: Isis Press.
  • Ocak, Ahmet Yaşar. (1996). Türkiye’de tarihin saptırılması sürecinde Türk sufiliğine bakışlar: Ahmed-i Yesevi, Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi, Yunus Emre, Hacı Bektaş-i Veli, Ahilik, Alevilik-Bektaşilik: yaklaşım, yöntem ve yorum denemeleri. İstanbul: İletișim Yayıncılık.
  • Öz, Baki. (2001). Alevilik Nedir?. Istanbul: Der Yayınları.
  • S̨ahin, Teoman. (1995). Alevilere Söylenen Yalanlar. Ankara.
  • Shankland, David. (2003). The Alevis in Turkey: The emergence of a secular Islamic tradition. London and New York: Routledge Curzon.
  • Şener, Cemal. (2010). Alevilik Olayı: Toplumsal Bir Başkaldırının Kısa Tarihçesi. İstanbul: Etik Yayınları.
  • Tabatabai, Mudarrisi and Sayyid Husayn. (1984). An introduction to Shi’i Law. London: Ithaca Press.
  • Tambar, Kabir. (2011). “Iterations of Lament: Anachronism and affect in a Shi’i Islamic revival in Turkey,” American Ethnologogist, volume 38, no. 3,: 486.
  • Tambar, Kabir. (2014). The Reckoning of Pluralism: Political Belonging and the Demands of History in Turkey. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
  • Türkdoğan, Orhan. (1995). Alevi-Bektaşi Kimliği: Sosyo-antropolojik Araştırma. İstanbul: Timaş Yayınları.
  • Üzüm, İlyas. (2000). Günümüz Aleviliği. İstanbul: TDV İSAM Yayınları.
  • Vorhoff, Karin. (1998). ‘Let's Reclaim Our History and Culture!': Imagining Alevi Community in Contemporary Turkey," Die Welt des Islams, 220. JSTOR Journals, EBSCOhost (accessed September 13, 2016).
  • Vorhoff, Karin. (2005). “Academic and Journalistic Publications on the Alevi and Bektashi of Turkey,” in Alevi Identity: Cultural, Religious and Social Perspectives Papers Read at a Conference Held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, (November 25-27, 1996), edited by Tord Olsson, Elisabeth Özdalga, and Catharina Raudvere. Taylor & Francis e-Library.
  • Vorhoff, Karin. (1995). Zwischen Glaube, Nation Und Neuer Gemeinschaft: Alevitische Identität in Der Türkei Der Gegenwart. Berlin: K. Schwarz.
  • Wadad al-Qadi. (2003). “The Development of the Term Ghulat in Muslim Literature with Special Reference to the Kaysaniyya,” in The Formation of the Classical Islamic World, ed. Etan Kohlberg, volume 33. Ashgate/Variorum.
  • White, George E. (1908). The Shia Turks. London: Harrison and Sons.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
  • Winter, Stefan. (2010). The Shiites of Lebanon under Ottoman Rule, 1516-1788. Cambridge University Press.
  • Yıldırım, Rıza. (2015). “Sunni Orthodox vs Shiʿite Heterodox?: A reappraisal of Islamic Piety,” in Islam and Christianity in Medieval Anatolia, by A. C. S. Peacock, Bruno De Nicola, and Sara Nur Yıldız. Ashgate Publishing.
  • Yörükoğlu, Rıza. (1993). “Alevilik,” in Alevilik Budur by Ö. Uluçay. Adana.
  • Zelyut, Rıza. (1992). Öz kaynaklara Göre Alevilik, 7th ed. Istanbul.
There are 55 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Religious Studies
Journal Section RESEARCH ARTICLES
Authors

Reyhan Erdoğdu Başaran

Publication Date December 30, 2018
Published in Issue Year 2018 Volume: 5 Issue: 9

Cite

ISNAD Erdoğdu Başaran, Reyhan. “COMPARING SCHOLARSHIP: THE ASSESSMENT OF THE CONTEMPORARY WORKS THAT LINKS ALEVIS WITH EITHER SHI`ISM OR SUNNISM”. Kilis 7 Aralık Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 5/9 (December 2018), 315-338.