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

end of the fourteenth century or in the fifteenth century, although they had already
appeared in western Anatolia, in the territories of Qaraman, Germiyan, Aydin etc. 197
Thus, during the formative period of the Ottoman principality the most dominant,
if not only, religious group in the Ottoman territories were Vefāī-Babāī dervishes. Ocak
observes two major reasons behind this: the geopolitical situation of the Ottoman
principality and the socio-cultural structure of the population. First of all, the Ottoman
Principality was geographically situated at the frontier and was in constant fight with
Christian neighbors. Political mobility and continuous wars made this region unpleasant
for above-mentioned classical high-Islamic sufi orders, which preferred tranquility and
stabilization, as well as culturally high level circles. Secondly, the overwhelming
majority of Ottoman population in the early period was composed of nomadic
Turkomans, who were best audience of abdals, rather than cultured mystics or learned
ulemā. 198 As Ocak has put it, “A cette époque, c’est-à-dire au XIVe siècle, l’idéologie
religieuse du beylicat ottoman reposait tout naturellement, en tant qu’un beylicat
turcoman frontalier, sur une conception d’un Islam très simple, populaire, pas encore
dominé par l’Islam dogmatique des medrese.” 199 These dervishes not only preached
197 Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, "Les milieux soufis dans les territoires du Beylicat ottoman et le probleme des
Abdalan-ı Rum", The Ottoman Emirate(1300- 11389), Institute for Mediterranean Studies, ed.by Elisabeth
Zachariadou Crete University Press,1993, pp. 149-50. Ocak also adds the role of Mongol pressure towards
the end of the thirteenth century, which pushed Turkomans to the most distant regions. The earliest
Mevlevī lodge in the Ottoman territories is known to have been opened during the reign of Murad II
(1421-1451) in Edirne. See Halil Đnalcık, The Ottoman Empire. The Classical Age 1300-1600, London,
1973, p. 201.
198 The origin of this approach traces back to Köprülü, who first underlined the surveillance of ancient
Turkish traditions in the folk Islam of Thirteenth and fourteenth century Anatolia. Köprülü indicated that
among the nomadic, semi-nomadic, or recently settled peasant Turkish population most of the pre-islamic
beliefs and practices continued under the varnish of Islam. The leaders of popular religion, called “dede”
or “baba”, for example, resembled very much the ancient Kam-ozan. See Fuad Köprülü, “Abdal”, Türk
Halk Edebiyatı Ansiklopedisi, çıkaran M. Fuad Köprülü, sayı:1, Đstanbul, 1935, p. 37; Influence du
chamanisme turco-mongol sur les ordres mystiques musulmans, Istanbul, 1929.
199 Ocak, "Les milieux soufis dans les territoires du Beylicat ottoman et le probleme des Abdalan-ı Rum",
p. 158.
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