Between Two Worlds Kafadar.pdf

ev. ed. (Ankara, 1968), 26.
25. Two related versions of this vale are studied in Wittek, "The Taking of the
Aydos Castle: A Ghazi Legend and Its Transformation," in Arabic and Islamic
Studies in Honor of Hamilton A. R. Gibb, ed. G. Makdisi (Cambridge, Mass.,
1965), 662-72.
26. Dusturname * , 84-85: "gorisup * esenlesup * qardas * olur."
27. Ibid., 106.
28. Ibid., 107. According to Gregoras, the Byzantine chronicler (cited in Bryer,
"Greek Historians" 477), Kantakouzenos had strong brotherly feelings for Umur
Beg so that the two were like Orestes and Pylades.
29. For a comparison of the Ottoman chronicles and the Dusturname * with regard
to this episode, see E. Zachariadou, "Yahshi Fakih and His Menakib," forthcoming
in the proceedings of the Turkish Historical Association Congress held in 1989.
30. According to Islamic prophetology, revelations to four prophets — David,
Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad * — were given written form; the "four books" thus
subsume the scriptures of all of the Abrahamic religions. "Seventy-two" is a
standard number for "ail" the peoples or languages. In the later and more
"historical" vita of the sailor-gazi Hayreddin * (Barbarossa, d. 1546), too, one
of the protagonists is distinguished by knowing foreign tongues, among which
Greek is particularly emphasized: Il "Gazavat-i * Hayreddin * Paša" di Seyyid
Murad * , ed. Aldo Gallotta (Naples, 1983), 121-v. Because he knew other
languages and because he was such a good conversationalist, "wherever Oruç Re'is
* [the elder brother of Hayreddin * Barbarossa] went, old and young infidels
gathered around him and conversed with him? The modem Turkish publication, not a
scholarly edition but based on some manuscripts not used by Gallotta, mentions
that Oruç knew "all languages." See Barbaros Hayreddin Pasanin * Hatiralari, ed.
E. Duzdag * (Istanbul, 1973), 1:65.
31. The citations are from Stephen J. Greenblatt's "Improvisation and Power" in
Literature and Society , ed. E. Said (Baltimore, 1980), 57-99. Even though the
author of this brilliant article is cautious enough to note that this kind of
empathy is not exclusively a Western mode, he still states (61) that it is
characteristically Western and "greatly strengthened from the Renaissance
onward." A student of Islamic history like myself would want to further
relativize and qualify these remarks. Throughout the medieval era, it was
precisely through rendering the Christian and Jewish (and all kinds of other)
truths into "ideological constructs ... that bear a certain structural
resemblance to one's own set of beliefs" (62) that Muslims were so successful in
spreading the rule and the message of Islam.
32. On the inappropriateness of the modem concept of toleration in the medieval
context, see J. M. Powell, ed., Muslims under Latin Rule, 1100-1300 (Princeton,
1990).
33. A.Y. Ocak, "Bazi Menakibnamelere * Göre XIII. ve XV. Yüzyillardaki
Ihtidalarda * Heterodoks Seyh * ve Dervislerin * Rolü," JOS 2(1981): 31-42.
34. Elvan * Çelebi, Menakibu'l-Kudsiyye * fi * Menasibi'l-Unsiyye * , ed. I. *
Erünsal and A. Y. Ocak (Istanbul, 1984).
35. Ibid., line 1546.
36. This is how Ocak reads this passage; see his "Ihtidalarda * Heterodoks Seyh
* ve Dervislerin * Rolü," 38.
37. On Haci * Bektas * as Saint Charalambos, see Vryonis, Decline of Medieval
148