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Understanding The Qizilbash Ritual and The Ritual Space in the Buyruk Manuscripts of the Seventeenth Century
Abstract
The Qizilbash tradition was overwhelmingly transmitted through oral means. But Qizilbash religious texts known as Buyruks, written in Ottoman Turkish and found in national libraries, came to light in the aftermath of the so-called Alevi (modern name of Qizilbash) revival of late 1980s and 1990s. While these Buyruk manuscripts largely consist of a religious treatise entitled Menâkıb or Risâle, attributed to Shaykh Sâfi, they also contain shorter treatises as well as Qizilbash poetry/religious hymns. There are two dated copies of Buyruks from the early seventeenth century. Three undated copies are also extant in the libraries. Based on the Safavid genealogies they include, the two of these can reasonably be traced to the reigns of Shah Ali Abbas (r. 1642-1667) and Shah Suleiman (r. 1667-1694) respectively. Another undated copy is traced back to a time after 1601 based on the time period of the Qizilbash poet whose poems are included. Following the shared culture of manuscripts as a culture of open literacy, Buyruks experienced recurrent revisions as they passed through the hands of individual copyists, suggesting that these texts contributed to the process of reshaping Qizilbash discourses over time. In my paper, employing the methodologies of literary criticism and social history, I will trace the post-Safavid trajectory of the Qizilbash ritual and the concomitant development of the ritual space in the light of four Buyruk manuscripts. I propose to study available narratives in prose and poetry revolving around the forty assembly, which forms the backbone of the cem (lit. union) rituals today. I will also describe terminology and historical/hagiographic knowledge for the ritual and the ritual space in Buyruks. I anticipate shedding light on the possible reasons of the alterations, continuities and ruptures in these narratives, and inferring the parallel development of different Qizilbash discourses that emerge throughout these narratives. I believe, such a methodology will challenge the recent attempts from inside and outside the Alevi community to define and fix the Qizilbash/Alevi tradition by contributing to a better understanding of the history of the tradition.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Ottoman Empire
Sub Area
Islamic Studies