OTTOMAN MUSLIM MUSICIANS DRIFTING THROUGH THE TANZIMAT ERA: FROM BEGGARS TO FREED LABORERS

Year 2023, , 1 - 14, 30.06.2023

Juan Castrillón

https://doi.org/10.51576/ymd.1299352

Abstract

ABSTRACT
After exploring the study of ney teachers and their sonic spirituality in Istanbul from an ethnographic approach, I have seen many of my interlocutors these days dwelling in a conundrum in which most of them see themselves as living links of previous social orders, somehow lost and regained during the present. The closure of dervish lodges during the early days of the Turkish Republic, as much as the historic restoration and reopening of some of these venues in recent decades, are often presented as outcomes of a social transformation caused by a given moral rationality embedded within the new institutions of an emergent nation. From this point of view, individuals are seen in a distorted way as related –or opposed– to these institutions, thus, flattening their own dimension and the ways in which their sedimented co-constitution as individuals have emerged before 1924. Beyond the debate about the authenticity of the so-called Sufi music, or whether there are “real dervishes” in today’s Istanbul or not, this article looks back at the historical period in which tekkes and Sufi lodges were banned and closed to suggest that this closure opened an emergent form of labor that transformed the subjectivity of Turk-Ottoman instructors during the early twentieth century. Like an old watch that is repaired and rearranged to vindicate the present moment (Castrillón 2021), caretakers of Tasavvuf sonic repertoires are unavoidably embedded in larger systems of tension and movement that require constant tuning and interpretation.

Keywords

Tanzimat, Sufi lodges, Istanbul, Sufism, Urban Reform

Supporting Institution

Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

Thanks

Dr. Recep Uslu and Dr. Walter Feldman

Tanzimat Döneminde Türk-Osmanlı Müzisyenlerinin Sürüklenmesi: Dilencilerden Serbest İşçilere

Abstract

ÖZET
Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nin ilk günlerinde tekkelerin kapatılması ve son on yıllarda bu mekanlardan bazılarının tarihi restorasyonu ve yeniden açılması, genellikle yeni düzene gömülü verili bir ahlaki rasyonalitenin neden olduğu toplumsal dönüşümün sonuçları olarak sunulur. gelişmekte olan bir ulusun kurumları. Bu açıdan bakıldığında, bireyler çarpık bir şekilde bu kurumlarla ilişkili –ya da karşıt– olarak görülmekte, böylece kendi boyutları ve 1924 öncesinde ortaya çıkan birey olarak tortul oluşum biçimleri düzleştirilmektedir. Son on yılda İstanbul'daki ney hocalarının ses maneviyatını etnografik bir yaklaşımla inceledim. Muhataplarımdan birçoğunun şu anda bir muamma içinde yaşadığını gördüm; bu muammada kendilerini, bir şekilde şimdiki zamanda kaybedilmiş ve yeniden kazanılmış, önceki toplumsal düzenlerin yaşayan halkaları olarak görüyorlar. Şimdiki anı haklı çıkarmak için tamir edilen ve yeniden düzenlenen eski bir saat gibi (Castrillón 2021), Tasavvuf ses repertuarlarının bu bekçileri, kaçınılmaz olarak sürekli ayar ve yorumlama gerektiren daha büyük gerilim ve hareket sistemlerine gömülür. Bu makale, sözde tasavvuf müziğinin sahihliği veya günümüz İstanbul'unda “gerçek dervişler” olup olmadığı tartışmasının ötesinde, tekkelerin ve tekkelerin yasaklanıp kapatıldığı tarihi döneme şöyle bir bakmaktadır: kapanış, yirminci yüzyılın başlarında Türk-Osmanlı eğitmenlerinin öznelliğini dönüştüren, ortaya çıkan bir emek biçimini açtımaktadır.

Keywords

Tanzimat, Tekkeler, Istanbul, Tasavvuf, Kentsel reform

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