A few Naqshbandi shaykhs cultivated relations with Ottoman sultans. We recall Ishaq Bukahri al-Hindi, for whom Sultan Mehmed II built the first Naqshbandi tekke of the capital shortly after the conquest [6]. Uzun Muslihuddin, a khalifa of Ahmad Bukahri from the area of Kastamonu near the Black Sea, had Sultan Bayezid II remove an ‘injustice’ (zulm) against the local population, having informed the sultan that local “pious people” had seen the Prophet “saddened” in their dreams [7]. Ahmad Sadiq Tashkandi and Sa’ban Efendi were both close to Sultan Murad III, the first perhaps initiating him into the tariqa and the second having him visit his tekke in the Fatih district on several occasions. When Ahmad Sadiq died in the plague of 994/1586, the sultan is said to have suspended the work of the Imperial Council for three days [8]. However, the relations that all these individuals established with the members of the Ottoman dynasty and governing elite were squarely within the traditional mold of Sufi Shaykhs extending spiritual advice, guidance, and sustenance to the powerful in exchange for patronage. Not one of these individuals was involved in dynastic or factional conflicts or influenced crucial political decisions. In other words, none of this amounted to anything close to Ahrarian politics.
ref: Le Gall, Dina (2005). A Culture of Sufism: Naqshbandi’s in the Ottoman World, 1450-1700 (pg 139) New York: State University of New York Press.
[6] Ayvansarayi, Hadikat ul-cevami, 1:219
[7] Taskopruzade, Shaqaiq, 1:561-62; Baldirzade, Revzat el-evliya, 37a; Belig-iBursevi, Guldeste-i riyaz, 180
[8] On the first, see Sadiqi, Manhaj, 11b-12a; NEvizade Atai, Hadaik, 362; Selaniki, Ta’rih-i Selaniki (Freiburg reprint), 211-12. On the second, Mustafa b. Hayreddin, Silsile-i hocagan, 14b; Nevizade Atai, Hadaik, 371-72, 380; Selaniki Tarih-i Selaniki (ed. Mehmet Ipsirli), 1:343-44
Comments:
A clearer picture of Naksibendi relations with politics emerges. They had little to do with political squabbles, but often represented the interests of the weak to the powerful.
The character of the Sultans is again demonstrated as it wasn’t Shaykhs visiting Sultans, but Sultans visiting and sitting at the feet of Shaykhs in Fatih district of Istanbul.
Which political leader of today would react to an injustice on the account of a Shaykh’s recounting of a dream of the Prophet (S)?
Le Gall says spiritual advice was given in exchange for patronage, but discounts the reality that this advice was given to commoners who had no patronage to give as well. The understanding of the wealthy giving sadaqa to support dergahs which fed and housed the poor and the saintly is somewhat beyond the scope of a Non-Muslim reading of sufism.
