Between Two Worlds Kafadar.pdf

demands of frontier warriors. Hence, these criticisms are to be found not in
Sukrullah or Ibn Kemal but in the anonymous chronicles and Apz. The sources that
are critical of this transformation in Ottoman political life cannot possibly be
classified as court chronicles; nor can the championing of the gaza principle in
early Ottoman history be presented as a construct of orthodox schoolmen.
Altèrhistoire in the Fifteenth Century: The Vita of Seyyid `Ali Sultan and Tales
of Haci Ilbegi
The best sampler of the garlic flavor must be the differing accounts of the
gazis' achievements in different "historical" narratives. That is, some of the
sources leave no doubt that they present us with alternative accounts that
cannot be treated as different layers of one tradition. For example, even the
harshest of the anonymous chronicles seems tame when compared to one particular
source that, ironically, has no direct criticism to make of the House of Osman.
The challenge to Ottoman historiography here is through an unabashed
"altèrhistoire " that distributes the credit for the conquest of Thrace, one of
the most glorious feats of the fourteenth-century gazis of western Asia Minor,
in a shockingly different manner from all the other known chronicles.
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A detailed analysis of the Vita of Seyyid `Ali Sultan , an enigmatic source
among the fifteenth-century flurry of frontier narratives, would be
inappropriate here.[144] Given the fact that it seems to be trying to defend one
of its protagonists against defamation and his followers against loss of some of
their rights, it was most likely written during Mehmed II's expropriation drive
or soon afterward when the names and rights of the losers were being restored by
Mehmed's son.
The most curious aspect of this work is its radical departure from the accepted
story line of the conquest of Thrace. Here, too, the House of Osman is the royal
family, and in fact the Ottoman ruler is a higher political authority than the
protagonists, but the role of the other gazis is much grander than in any of the
chronicles of the House of Osman. The real heroes of the work are Seyyid `Ali
Sultan , also called Kizil Deli, and his companions, who leave their home in
Khorasan for the land of Rum after the appearance of the Prophet to Seyyid `Ali
in a dream. Seyyid `Ali and company are perfect combinations of warrior and
dervish; their military role is more pronounced than that of many other holy
figures who represent a similar combination, even more than Sari Saltuk . The
work was clearly produced after the Kizil Dell cult (near Dimetoka, now
Dhidhimoteichon, in Greek Thrace) had been incorporated into the Bektasiyye ,
because our protagonists pay a homage-visit to Haci Bektas as soon as they
arrive in Rum . Once the latter blesses them and assigns them to specific ranks
(i.e., formats the Khorasanian raw material into a Rumi configuration), they
join the Ottoman sultan, who happens to be on the Anatolian side of the
Dardanelles pondering ways of sending his forces across the channel into
Rumelia.[145]
Suleyman Papa , an Ottoman prince who is the champion of the earliest conquests
in Thrace according to Ottoman historiography, is among the forces that
successfully undertake the crossing, but he is not the leader. His death, a
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