Hacı Bektaş and his Contested Legacy: The Abdals of Rum, the Bektashi Order and the (Proto-) Kizilbash Communities

2019 ◽  
pp. 145-187
Author(s):  
Ayfer Karakaya-Stump
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Evolutionary Scheme ◽  
Partial Fusion ◽  
Sufi Order ◽  
Spiritual Legacy ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Folk Islam ◽  
Common Association

Chapter 3 takes up the issue of the relationship between the Kizilbash/Alevi communities and the Bektashi order, tracing its roots to their common association with the cult of Hacı Bektaş and their shared links to the Abdals of Rum. This chapter challenges Köprülü’s conjecture of an insular Turkish folk Islam transferred under the cover of the Yesevi Sufi order from Central Asia to Anatolia, and inherited in its new home by successive heterodox circles within a linear evolutionary scheme; it was purported to have passed from the Yeseviyye to the Abdals of Rum, an itinerant dervish group active in late medieval Anatolia, and from them onto the better institutionalized Bektashi order. Within this framework, Köprülü treated the Kizilbash/Alevis as lay followers of the Bektashi order. Evidence emerging from Alevi sources complicates this picture. They disclose no evidence of a Yesevi connection. Nor do they validate Köprülü’s view of the Alevis as lay followers of the Bektashi order. While they do confirm the closely intertwined trajectories of the two affiliations, their interactions and eventual partial fusion appear to have involved a much more contested process than presumed by Köprülü, tensions crystallizing especially around the spiritual legacy of Hacı Bektaş.

Postclassical Kalām

2019 ◽  
pp. 175-200
Author(s):  
Nathan Spannaus
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Divine Attributes ◽  
The Status ◽  
Major Figure ◽  
Sufi Order ◽  
The Relationship

Qursawi’s stance on the attributes was shaped by trends in the theological tradition, as ideas from ibn ‘Arabi’s metaphysics became very influential in later kalam in Central Asia, incorporated into mainstream Sunni scholarship by figures such as ‘Abd al-Rahman Jami and Jalal al-Din Dawani. These ideas revolved around ontological issues, particularly of the relationship between God’s existence and the (non)existence of everything else. But this dichotomy left the status of the divine attributes in question, which Qursawi’s stance seeks to address. This chapter discusses how ibn ‘Arabi’s “school” influenced postclassical kalam in Central Asia, Qursawi’s criticism of that tradition, and how his thought responded to this influence. It focuses particularly on the work of Ahmad Sirhindi, who was a major figure in this setting, as Qursawi and most of his contemporary opponents were members of Sirhindi’s Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi Sufi order.

At the Edge of Reformation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Linehan
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Black Death ◽  
The West ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
History Of ◽  
Portuguese Society ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

This book springs from its author’s continuing interest in the history of Spain and Portugal—on this occasion in the first half of the fourteenth century between the recovery of each kingdom from widespread anarchy and civil war and the onset of the Black Death. Focussing on ecclesiastical aspects of the period in that region (Galicia in particular) and secular attitudes to the privatization of the Church, it raises inter alios the question why developments there did not lead to a permanent sundering of the relationship with Rome (or Avignon) two centuries ahead of that outcome elsewhere in the West. In addressing such issues, as well as of neglected material in Spanish and Portuguese archives, use is made of the also unpublished so-called ‘secret’ registers of the popes of the period. The issues it raises concern not only Spanish and Portuguese society in general but also the developing relationship further afield of the components of the eternal quadrilateral (pope, king, episcopate, and secular nobility) in late medieval Europe, as well as of the activity in that period of those caterpillars of the commonwealth, the secular-minded sapientes. In this context, attention is given to the hitherto neglected attempt of Afonso IV of Portugal to appropriate the privileges of the primatial church of his kingdom and to advance the glorification of his Castilian son-in-law, Alfonso XI, as God’s vicegerent in his.

Illicit Economies and Political Violence in Central Asia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence P. Markowitz ◽  
Mariya Y. Omelicheva
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Drug Trade ◽  
Weak States ◽  
Collaborative Relationships ◽  
Organized Violence ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Terrorist Violence

This chapter examines low levels of terrorist violence in Muslim-majority societies. Studies of terrorism have tended to view the relationship between religion and violence through the narrow lens of security, thereby overpredicting the extent of terrorist violence across societies. After reviewing the various explanations for terrorist violence, and applying them to Central Asia, this chapter explores the conditions under which a state’s involvement in illicit economies—specifically its collusion in the drug trade—can dampen levels of terrorist violence. Combining quantitative analysis (including GIS-enabled tools) with a series of in-depth expert interviews conducted in Central Asia, it emphasizes the complex political economy of security that defines infrastructurally weak states, where political and security apparatuses are often immersed in informal and illicit economies. This approach helps uncover the complex links between religion and organized violence, where state apparatuses are often drawn into collaborative relationships with nonstate actors.

scholarly journals Spatiotemporal Variation of the Burned Area and Its Relationship with Climatic Factors in Central Kazakhstan

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 313
Author(s):  
Yongfang Xu ◽  
Zhaohui Lin ◽  
Chenglai Wu
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Relative Humidity ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Spatiotemporal Variation ◽  
Lower Atmosphere ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Circulation Index ◽  
Precipitation Anomalies ◽  
The Relationship

Central Asia is prone to wildfires, but the relationship between wildfires and climatic factors in this area is still not clear. In this study, the spatiotemporal variation in wildfire activities across Central Asia during 1997–2016 in terms of the burned area (BA) was investigated with Global Fire Emission Database version 4s (GFED4s). The relationship between BA and climatic factors in the region was also analyzed. The results reveal that more than 90% of the BA across Central Asia is located in Kazakhstan. The peak BA occurs from June to September, and remarkable interannual variation in wildfire activities occurs in western central Kazakhstan (WCKZ). At the interannual scale, the BA is negatively correlated with precipitation (correlation coefficient r = −0.66), soil moisture (r = −0.68), and relative humidity (r = −0.65), while it is positively correlated with the frequency of hot days (r = 0.37) during the burning season (from June to September). Composite analysis suggests that the years in which the BA is higher are generally associated with positive geopotential height anomalies at 500 hPa over the WCKZ region, which lead to the strengthening of the downdraft at 500 hPa and the weakening of westerlies at 850 hPa over the region. The weakened westerlies suppress the transport of water vapor from the Atlantic Ocean to the WCKZ region, resulting in decreased precipitation, soil moisture, and relative humidity in the lower atmosphere over the WCKZ region; these conditions promote an increase in BA throughout the region. Moreover, the westerly circulation index is positively correlated (r = 0.53) with precipitation anomalies and negatively correlated (r = −0.37) with BA anomalies in the WCKZ region during the burning season, which further underscores that wildfires associated with atmospheric circulation systems are becoming an increasingly important component of the relationship between climate and wildfire.

The Era of Inter-Mongol Warfare

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Urban Economy ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines the conflicts among the Mongol successor-states that developed after 1260, along with the turbulent activities of nomads within such states and the measures of reconstruction that the various Mongol regimes put in place. It begins with a discussion of the Mongol empire's fragmentation into four virtually independent khanates, where the conquered Muslims of the empire were now divided: the dominions of the ‘Great Khan’ (qaghan) in China and Mongolia proper; the Ilkhanate in Iran, Iraq and Anatolia; the ulus of Chaghadai in Central Asia; and the ulus of Jochi in the western steppes. The chapter then considers the relationship between the khans and the qaghans, the problems of warfare between different Mongol khanates, and the Jochids' incursions into Ilkhanid territory. It also explores the impact of the inter-Mongol warfare upon the agrarian and urban economy of the Islamic world.

Hell Disarmed? The Function of Hell in Reformation Spirituality

Numen ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 56 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 366-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarald Rasmussen
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Ars Moriendi ◽  
Religious Importance ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Medieval Christianity

In Late Medieval Christianity, the concept of hell was closely connected to the sacrament of penance. Hell could be avoided through the right use of penance. And the cleansing sufferings in purgatory could to a certain extent replace the eternal sufferings in hell. The Protestant Reformation rejected purgatory, and returned to a traditional dualistic view of the relationship between heaven and hell. At the same time, hell seems to lose some of its religious importance in early Protestant spirituality. This change is illustrated through a comparison of two central texts belonging more or less to the same genre: on the one hand the famous Late Medieval illustrated Ars moriendi and on the other Luther's Sermon von der Bereitung zum Sterben from 1519.

Jade Yoga and Heavenly Dharma

Greek Buddha ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher I. Beckwith
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Warring States Period ◽  
Persian Empire ◽  
Warring States ◽  
Chinese Thought ◽  
Early Buddhism ◽  
Constant State ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter considers the relationship of Early Buddhism to Chinese thought during the Warring States period (ca. 450 BC–221 BC). Chinese thought was in a nearly constant state of flux, if not turmoil, during the Warring States period, which began shortly after the death of Confucius. Ideas related to the Early Buddhism attested in the fragments of Pyrrho and Megasthenes are clearly present in Warring States writings, especially Early Taoist texts, including the Laotzu, the Chuangtzu, as well as the anonymous Jade Yoga Inscription. Some of the Early Taoist material is approximately contemporaneous with Pyrrho and Megasthenes. It seems that this material's appearance in China is connected to the fact that Central Asia, including Bactria and Gandhāra, was part of the Achaemenid Persian Empire down to Alexander's invasion and conquest of the region in 330–325 BC.

The Myth of the Ottoman Caliphate

2019 ◽  
pp. 218-276
Author(s):  
Hüseyin Yılmaz
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Islamic History ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Religious Wars ◽  
Sectarian Conflict ◽  
Imperial Ideology ◽  
Sufi Order

This chapter discusses the mystification of the Ottoman caliphate and the apocalyptic-messianic reconstruction of imperial ideology in the context of the long Ottoman–Safavid conflict of the sixteenth century. Current studies in the main treat the Ottoman–Safavid conflict as no more than a sectarian conflict between two expanding Muslim empires. The Ottomans, however, perceived it as an apocalyptic conflict between primordial forces of faith and disbelief, often expressed in manicheistic dichotomies. Being one of the most aggressively fought religious wars in Islamic history, it profoundly altered both Sunni and Shiite conceptions of history and rulership. The Safavids, being at once a Turkoman chieftainship, a Shiite dynasty, and a Sufi order, were better endowed with esoteric image-making skills than the Ottomans, whose juristic and theological arguments against heresy were, simply, by definition nullified. Despite the Ottoman military might that overwhelmed the Safavids in multiple battles, the Safavid–Shiite call resonated much more strongly among the vast Turkoman diaspora from Central Asia to the Balkans, particularly among popular mystical orders of the countryside.

Custom in Late Medieval France

2021 ◽  
pp. 29-63
Author(s):  
Marie Seong-Hak Kim
Keyword(s):  
Legal History ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Legal Tradition ◽  
National History ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Dynamic Movement ◽  
Medieval France ◽  
The Relationship

The idea of the dynamic movement of law—diffusion of legal institutions, rules, and culture—is deeply embedded in European legal history since antiquity. All the while, a potent spirit of local custom has sustained national history, forming an equally integral part of Europe’s legal tradition. This chapter examines the sources of law in late medieval France and the doctrine of custom. It also discusses the growth of royal justice and the relationship between private law and political power. An overview of major historiographical debates concerning the theory and nature of custom sheds light on the question as to whether the notion of common law (droit commun) emerged autonomously in France or only after custom was written down on the model of Roman law as jus commune.

Nationalist historiography and the English and Gaelic worlds in the late middle ages

1986 ◽  
Vol 25 (97) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven G. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The North ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Historical Coverage ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Much more so than in modern times, sharp cultural and social differences distinguished the various peoples inhabiting the British Isles in the later middle ages. Not surprisingly these differences and the interaction between medieval forms of culture and society have attracted considerable attention by historians. By comparison with other fields of research, we know much about the impact of the Westminster government on the various regions of the English polity, about the interaction between highland and lowland Scotland and about the similarities and differences between English and Gaelic Ireland. Yet the historical coverage of these questions has been uneven, and what at first glance might appear obvious and promising lines of inquiry have been largely neglected — for example the relationship between Gaelic Ireland and Gaelic Scotland, or between Wales, the north of England and the lordship of Ireland as borderlands of the English polity. No doubt the nature and extent of the surviving evidence is an important factor in explaining this unevenness, but in fact studies of interaction between different cultures seem to reflect not so much their intrinsic importance for our understanding of different late medieval societies as their perceived significance for the future development of movements culminating in the present.

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