Between Two Worlds Kafadar.pdf

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Ilyas , who was of the Vefa'i order but whose followers came to be better known
as Baba'is .
The relations of Osman's political community with its neighbors in both the
immediate environment of Bithynia and the broader context of western Anatolian
frontiers will be dealt with in the next chapter, but we must note here that the
few dervishes whose presence can be ascertained in early-fourteenth-century
Bithynia and who had some connection to Osman and Orhan were of these
Vefa'i-Baba'i circles. One of the key characters of Osman's early alliance, Ede
Bali, is in fact mentioned by name as a disciple of Baba Ilyas or of one of his
descendants.
Elvan Çelebi presents the Baba'is as extremely successful proselytizers. Not
only did they guide their flock among Türkmen tribes, but they also were able to
gain hearts and minds among pagan Mongols as well as Christian and Jewish
Anatolians. When writing of the passing away of his father, `Asik Pasa , Elvan
Çelebi cannot find a better image than "Armenians, Jews, and Christians" crying
and asking, "where is our sheikh?"[35] Were all these mourners converts?[36]
Maybe. Perhaps Elvan Çelebi does not make it explicit in order to emphasize
their backgrounds. But possibly he washes to indicate that `Asik Pasa's
influence had spread over all non-Muslims. This was certainly not impossible.
Haci Bektas , a disciple of Baba Ilyas , was revered as Saint Charalambos by
some Christians; and Elvan Çelebi himself was to be identified by a
sixteenth-century German traveler, presumably on the basis of reports he heard
from local Christians around Çelebi's shrine, as a friend of Saint George.[37]
Strikingly, such saint-sharing by Muslims and Christians was not limited to
dervishly figures but could even include holy warriors, namely, gazis. The Greek
inhabitants of Gianitsa (Ottoman: Yenice Vardar) down to this century displayed
reverence for "Gazi Baba," that is, Evrenos Gazi, who conquered the area from
his base in that township, where his mausoleum is situated.[38] And when
`Abdulhamid II's (r. 1876-1909) agents went to Sögüt in the late nineteenth
century in the process of reviving the legacy of the "founding fathers" who
hailed from that sleepy little town, they were surprised that some of the local
Christians venerated Ertogril's tomb.[39]
To go back to the Baba'is and the Menakibu'l-kudsiye , it is dear that at least
some of the Baba'i figures were engaged in proselytization that was both
militant and open to syncretism — a combination with proven appeal to Türkmen
nomads. But what kind of an Islam were they spreading? Now, Baba Ilyas is best
known for his political role as the leader of a
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Türkmen tribal revolt. Perhaps struck by the indubitable and militant Shi'ism of
Türkmen tribes in Safavid-contested Anatolia of the sixteenth century and of one
giant post-Baba'i order that crystallized around the legacy of Haci Bektas , a
disciple of Baba Ilyas , many scholars have attributed extremist Shi'i views
also to Baba'is and all sorts of other dervishes and their followers among the
tribesfolk in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. From the point of view of
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