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

The akıncı families - and fighters under their banners – were, indeed,
representatives of the frontier (uç) culture 347 , and thus had close links with heterodox
dervish milieu, just like the early Ottomans during the foundation period. The
‘strongholds’ of these powerful families in the Balkans emerged as centers of
unorthodox Sufism, which had intrinsic ties with the frontier culture and enjoyed the
patronage of these families. To give an example, towards the end of the fifteenth century
and during the sixteenth century Yenice-i Vardar under Evrenosoğlu patronage became
one of the most important cultural centers of the empire, where a number of poets
affiliated to heterodox sufi currents grew. 348
One should remember that when he revolted against Mehmed I, Shaykh
Bedreddin found his natural allies in the Balkans, that is akıncı milieu and influential
frontier begs; and the revolt of Bedreddin appeared as a sufi-messianic movement, a
usual characteristics of heterodox-mystic upheavals. 349 Moreover, the benevolent grants
347 For frontier culture in the Ottoman context, see Köprülü, The Emergence of the Ottoman State; Paul
Wittek, The Rise of The Ottoman Empire, London, 1965; Đnalcık, “Osmanlı Tarihi’ne Toplu Bir Bakış”,
pp. 45-8.
348 Most of these poets are affiliated to Hurufism and to the Bektashi Order in some way or another.
Among them Hayretî (d. 1535), Usûlî (d. 1538), and Hayâlî (d. 1557) must be mentioned here. Especially
Hayâlî, whose Shi’ite and Hurūfī affiliation is clearly seen in his poems, can be deemed a spokesman of
the protest of the periphery against centralizing state. His verse “Ne Süleyman’a esirüz ne Selimün
kuluyuz / Kimse bilmez bizi bir Şah-ı kerimün kuluyuz.” is famous. See Hayretî, Hayretî Divanı, haz.
Mehmed Çavuşoğlu-Ali Tanyeri, Đstanbul: Đstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Yayınları, 1981, p.
219. For further reading on the culture and literature proliferated under akıncı patronage, see Michael Kiel,
Yenice-i Vardar (Vardar Yenicesi-Giannitsa). A Forgotten Turkish Cultural Centre in Macedonia of the
15 th and 16 th Century, Leiden: Studia Byzantina et Neohellenica Neerlendica III, 1971; Hayâlî, Hayâlî Bey
Divanı, haz. Ali Nihat Tarlan, Đstanbul: Đstanbul Üniversitesi Yayınları, 1945; Mehmet Çavuşoğlu, Hayâlî
Bey ve Divanı’ndan Örnekler, Ankara: KTBY, 1987; Cemal Kurnaz, Hayâlî Bey Divanı’nın Tahlili,
Ankara: KTBY, 1987; Mustafa Đsen, haz., Künhü’l-ahbâr’ın Tezkire Kısmı, Ankara: Atatürk Kültür
Merkezi Yayınları, 1994; “Akıncılığın Türk Kültür ve Edebiyatına Katkıları”, Türkiye Günlüğü, 49, 1998,
88-96; Ötelerden Bir Ses, Ankara: Akçağ Yayınları, 1997; Filiz Kılıç, Meşâi’rü’ş-Şu’arâ I-II,
Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Gazi Üniversitesi, Ankara, 1994; Kınalı-zâde Hasan Çelebi, Tezkiretü’ş-şuarâ,
2 vols., haz. Đbrahim Kutluk, Ankara: TTK, 1989; Latîfî, Latîfî Tezkiresi, haz., Mustafa Đsen, Ankara:
KBY, 1990; Usûlî, Usûlî Divanı, haz. Mustafa Đsen, Ankara: Akçağ Yayınları, 1990; Mustafa Tatçı,
Hayretî’nin Dinî-Tasavvufî Dünyası, Đstanbul: Horasan Yayınları, 2006; Hiclâl Demir, Çağlarını Eleştiren
Dîvan Şairleri: Hayretî – Usûlî – Hayâlî, Unpublished MA Thesis, Bilkent University, Ankara, 2001.
349 See, for example, “The Shahkulu Rebellion” in this study. For the revolt of Şeyh Bedreddin see Michel
Balivet, Islam mystique et révolution armée dans les Balkans Ottomans vie du Cheikh Bedreddin le
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