CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2026
| Author | Kaplan, Cankat |
|---|---|
| Title | FROM SUHRAWARDI ADAB TO TARIQA-BASED SUFISM The Transformation of the Relationship between Sufism, Fiqh, and the State in Post-Mongol Western Eurasia (13th-17th Centuries) |
| Summary | This dissertation examines the major transformations that Sufism underwent between the tenth and seventeenth centuries, and how these transformations made the way for the emergence of tariqa-based sufism within Suhrawardi adab group in the early modern Ottoman Sufism. It argues that Sufism experienced three major ruptures from the “formative period” to the early modern era. The first rupture took place between the tenth and thirteenth centuries in Nishapur, under the influence of intense political and social rivalry between the Hanafi and Shafi‘i madhhabs. In this period, Sufis distinguished themselves from the faqihs and institutionalized “the tariqa” as an independent religious discipline. The concept of tariqa encompassed all Sufis, and its primary purpose was to mark their distinction from the faqihs. The second rupture occurred in thirteenth-century Baghdad, through the alliance forged by Umar al-Suhrawardi with the Abbasid caliph al-Nasir, and through what is termed as “Suhrawardi adab.” Supporting the caliph’s centralization efforts in the face of the Mongol threat, Umar al-Suhrawardi redefined the relationship between Sufis and the state by integrating the caliph and the Sufi within the same silsila via the futuwwa system. This period was one in which Sufis had not yet separated into distinct tariqas, but Sufis belonging to the Suhrawardi silsila acted within a shared Sufi adab. In this dissertation, Suhrawardi adab is identified as a transitional phase between the tariqa and tariqas periods. However, following the collapse of the caliphate, a fundamental division emerged within the Suhrawardi adab between a futuwwa-connected strand and futuwwa-independent one. The third rupture occurred with the state-formation of the Safawi network, which originated from the Suhrawardi adab group. The emergence of the Safaviyya as a political rival to the Ottomans forced Suhrawardi adab network, which includes Halwatis and Bayramis within Ottoman lands to redefine themselves. In this process, the tariqa-namas of the Khalwatiyya and Bayramiyya increasingly emphasized affiliation with the Hanafi madhhab, with Hanafi identity emerging as an explicit marker of loyalty to the Ottoman administration and differentiation from the Safawis. As a result, the shared framework of Suhrawardi adab dissolved, giving way to the “tariqas” period, in which different silsilas articulated their own distinctive adab. |
| Supervisor | Tijana Krstic |
| Department | Historical Studies PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2026/kaplan_cankat.pdf |
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