The chapter examines the Nakşibendi Sufi orders, Necmettin Erbakan, and their roles in reconstructing Islamic political identity and memories of the Ottoman Empire. The debate about the politics of identity is analyzed, as based on the experience of the Islamic parties of the National Outlook Movement (Welfare Party and the Virtue Party) between 1994 and 2001. The Welfare Party’s local election victory in 1994 resulted in its controlling nearly every municipal government in Turkey. Thus, the elected officials used the resources of the municipalities to criticize the Kemalist project by promoting Ottoman history, culture, and practices as an alternative. Rather than directly promoting Islamism due to legal constraints, they preferred to frame Ottomanism as a surrogate identity and ideology to criticize Kemalism.