CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Kaplan, Cankat |
|---|---|
| Title | An Anti-Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) Polemicist in Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Istanbul: Ibrahim al-Halabi (d.1549) and His Interlocutors |
| Summary | This thesis is an attempt to rethink the term heresy in the context of the sixteenth- century Mamluk and Ottoman mindset. From a theoretical perspective, it tries to go beyond the supposed dichotomy between heresy and orthodoxy that informs many studies of Islamic history. It argues that in the sixteenth-century Damascus, Cairo, Aleppo, and Istanbul heresy was not a universal term, but a context-bound one. In many studies, heresy is the synonym for heterodoxy and heretical ideas are generally understood as ideas that do not suit the sharia and sunna. The problem with this dichotomy is that scholars approach it as timeless and universal. However, as I show in this thesis, the controversial Sufi shaykh Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) was accepted as a true saint in the Ottoman realm while his veracity was highly debated in the Mamluk lands. Furthermore, even in the Mamluk lands, being an Ibn Arabi supporter was seen as appropriate at certain points in time, but in a later period it could be the grounds for the execution. In this thesis, I have attempted to contextualize two polemical, anti-Ibn Arabi works by Ibrahim al-Halabi (d. 1549), Nimat al-Dharia fi Nusrat al-Sharia and Tasfih al-Ghabi fi Tanzih Ibn Arabi, in the changing social, political and religious dynamics of the early modern Islamic eastern Mediterranean. Examining the debate about Ibn Arabi in the sixteenth- century Ottoman state, I have argued that Ibrahim al-Halabi had a great influence on the new, more critical stance of the Ottoman ulema vis-à-vis Ibn Arabi starting after the Ottoman conquest of the Mamluk lands. The sixteenth century was an age of change for the Ottomans. The period also witnessed important developments in the evolution of Ottoman Sunnism. Recent scholarship has interpreted this change as a result of the conflict between the Ottomans and their rival to the east, the Safavids, and the Ottomans’ pursuit of legitimacy in this context. However, the role of the Ottoman conquest of the Mamluk Sultanate has not attracted the attention it deserves. This thesis concetrates on this overlooked aspect of early moderm Islamic history and explores the Mamluk scholars’ perception of the Ottomans as newcomers to the Sunni tradition. According to them, the Ottomans were not “Sunni enough” and they were exceeding the limits of the sharia and sunna. At least, according to al-Halabi, the doctrine of the Oneness of Being (wahdat al-wujud) of Ibn Arabi that was widely accepted in the Ottoman lands by sultans and the chief jurisprudents was definitely out of the limit. |
| Supervisor | Krstić, Tijana |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/kaplan_cankat.pdf |
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