Islamic Political Identity in Turkey

the matrix of turkish islamic movements 135speechless, yet imbued with a sense of a commitment to struggle against onedimensionallife-worldliness.Strangely, in the modern period, SuWsm proved to be a dominant spiritualvehicle in urban areas of Turkey. This is contrary to the traditional image of theSuW ascetic life. It has attached itself to the cities because it oVers individuals acomprehensive source of normative principles by which to deal with the conditionsof modern urban life. However, SuWsm should not be mistaken for truenuminous experience; instead it is an abridgement that allows the individual tochart new discoveries both within the “self” (moral) and outside the “self” (material),thus transcending the one-dimensionality of material existence.Genesis and Organizational StructureAlthough Nak7ibendi spiritual genealogy started with Abu-Bakr al-Siddiq, theNak7ibendi order’s eponymous founder was Bahaeddin Nak7ibend of Turkistan(b. 1490). Its intellectual maturation took place under Ahmad Sirhindi of India(1563–1625), whose main goals were the elimination of corrupt innovation(bid’at) 7 and the revitalization of the Muslim community. There were severalstages in the crystallization of Nak7ibendi teachings. 8 The most signiWcant periodwas that of Sirhindi, known as Imam Rabbani, who did not draw a rigiddemarcation between the temporal and material world of the present and thatof the hereafter. Sirhindi set an important example through his own personalinvolvement in society and politics. 9 His reformist writings redeWned theNak7ibendi tradition; he thus became known as the Renewer (Mujaddid) of thetradition. 10 Sirhindi was deeply inXuenced by a descendent of the Central AsianNak7ibendi Khwaja Nasraddin Ubaydullah Ahrar (d. 1490). 11 By putting intopractice the axiom of seclusion in the midst of society (khalvat dar anjuman),one of the eight Nak7ibendi principles, Ahrar became both a sheik and a politician.12 This axiom requires “being inwardly focused on God whilst outwardlytaking an active part in the life of the community.” 13 The genius of the Nak7ibendiorders has been their ability to mobilize internal religiosity, a kind of psychologicalresource for activism that promotes self-esteem and renewal. Nak7ibendis,therefore, incorporated their strong sense of faith and community into strategiesof social activism and resistance against “alien” rule. Sajida Alvi argues thatthose who followed this Renewal tradition were at the forefront of the modernistIslamic movements in the nineteenth century as well as of modern Islamismin the late twentieth century. 14A combination of charismatic leadership and worsening social conditionsled to a major transformation of the order in the nineteenth century. SheikMavlana Khalid al-Baghdadi (1776–1827) reinterpreted the doctrinal content ofthe order to respond to external challenges. Al-Baghdadi studied under themujaddid sheik Abdullah Dihlavi of India and was appointed by the latter ashis successor (caliph) in the Ottoman territories. Sheik Khalid’s revitalizing inXuenceforged the separation of the Nak7ibendi-Khalidi autonomous suborder fromthe Nak7ibendi-Mujaddidi order. 15 Sheik Khalid, like Sirhindi, argued that the