Even though the literature on Ottoman religious culture has expanded and become more sophisticated lately,certain key assumptions remain. Foremost among these is the assumption that the more the society is penetrated by literate ‘ulama, the more bookish and neatly “Sunnitized” the community becomes. The positive correlation between religious literacy and standardized orthopraxy is more of a logical extrapolation than a historical reality. In this paper, I will illustrate how scholars and preachers perpetrated and defended an understanding of the ‘umma based not only on religious practice and doctrine, but on community. That is, the scholarly culture of religion allowed for deviations from legal formalities of Islam so long as the perpetrator of such deviation belonged to recognizable communities. Based on biographical and historical evidence, I will illustrate this less recognized approach to defining the Islamic community, hence drawing lines of inclusion and exclusion within the realm of orthodoxy. My aim is to call for a more complex understanding of social and religious norms and boundaries in the early modern age, and to emphasize their versatility.