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

This change should not be read simply as the personal contest of Seyyid Rüstem
but rather as the discontent of a certain social segment, which was fit into a legendary
story attributed to a highly revered religious figure. It is important to remember that the
stories in this hagiography evolved in the collective memory of the social group under
scrutiny through the fifteenth-century, which experienced the transmuting of the
Ottoman state into its classical form with all institutions and the solidifying of its
‘official ideology’, and written down towards the end of the same century. 338 From this
point of view, it becomes clear that the protest of Seyyid Rüstem should be read in a
broader perspective and be regarded as a middle-stage symptom of an ongoing process
of alienation outlined in this chapter. Towards the end of the century, when the
alienation process reached its third and final stage, in which discontent would turn into
antagonism, this segment of society would not hesitate to stand up against the Ottoman
imperial regime. 339
3.3.2. The Opposition against the Ottoman Imperialism
3.3.2.1. ‘Akıncı’ (Passive) Resistance in Balkans
As the centralization of the Ottoman administration grew so did the discontent of local-
provincial lords and tribal leaders. In the Balkans and Thrace, the resistance was
represented by powerful akıncı-families, while in Anatolia the opposing force was
organized and led by local aristocracy, whose roots trace back to the pre-Ottoman
338
Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, Bektaşi Menâkıbnâmelerinde Đslam Öncesi Đnanç Motifleri, , Đstanbul: Enderun
Kitabevi, 1983p. 13.
339
See, for example, Irène Beldiceanu-Steinherr, “Le règne de Selim Ier: tournant dans la vie politique et
religieuse de l’empire ottoman”, Turcica, VI, 1975, pp. 47-8.
129