TURKOMANS BETWEEN TWO EMPIRES: THE ... - Bilkent University

dynasty. 277 Aşıkpaşazāde’s endeavour to reject any link between Hacı Bektaş and the
Janissary corps, however, clearly shows that such ideas were already in circulation
during the second half of the fifteenth century; thus his account intrinsically indicates
some sort of connection between the two.
Among modern scholars Fuat Köprülü seems to follow Aşıkpaşazāde. According
to him the liaison between the Janissary corps and Bektashis originates from the intense
participation of Babāī dervishes, who later became Bektashi, in the early gazās. 278 Thus,
the connection between the two was an intrinsic one, which developed spontaneously in
the course of events. 279 Mélikoff also indicates the liaison between Janissary corps and
the Bektashi Order, and regards this connection as a result of the warm relationship of
early Bektashi missionaries with the Ottoman dynasty and a proof of the privileged
position of Bektashis in the Ottoman Empire. A representative (vekil) of the order used
to be present in the Janissary corps (ocak). 280 She, on the authority of the fifteenth
century Ottoman historian Oruç Beg, underlines the role of the brother of Orhan Beg Ali
277 “Bu Hacı Bektaş Âl-i Osman neslinden hiç kimse ile musahabet etmedi. ... Her kimse kim Hacı Bektaş
Âl-i Osmandan kimse ile musâhabet etdi der ise yalandur, şöyle bilesiz. ” See APZ, pp. 237, 238.
278 See Fuat Köprülü, The Origins of the Ottoman Empire, translated and edited by Gary Leiser, Albany :
State University of New York Press, 1992, p. 108.
279 The intimate affiliation between Bektashism and the gazā milieu is reflected in the expansion of
Bektashi influence in Anatolia. As Faroqhi determines from contemporary sources, the order almost was
non existent in the Eastern and South-Eastern Anatolia, while proliferating in central and western
Anatolia. See Suraiya Faroqhi, Anadolu’da Bektaşilik, translated from German to Turkish by Nasuh Barın,
Đstanbul: 2003, p. 192.
280 Mélikoff, “Le Problème Kızılbaş”, p. 32. Also see Abdülbâki Gölpınarlı, “Açıklama”, in Vilâyet-nâme.
Menâkın-ı Hünkâr Hacı Bektâş-ı Veli, Đstanbul: Đnkılâp Kitabevi, 1995, pp. 125-8. However, Suraiya
Faroqhi calls attention to the fact that the connection between the Janissary corps and the Bektashi Order
is poorly reflected in official documents. Her research on the socio-economic history of Bektashi tekkes in
Anatolia showed that the relationship between Janissaries and the known Bektashi tekkes was almost
ignorable. Yet she refers some archival evidence indicating the participation of newly recruited Janissaries
(acemi oğlanları) to the annual festival of the Tekke of Seyyid Gāzi towards the end of the sixteenth
century. See Suraiya Faroqhi, Anadolu’da Bektaşilik, translated from German to Turkish by Nasuh Barın,
Đstanbul: 2003, pp. 138-9.
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