Asking the question of whether Muslim mystical traditions had a politics raises a number of problems from the outset. For starters, the dominance of otherworldly concerns for most Muslim mystics, at least in theory, ideologically posited the concerns of this world as obstacles to the ultimate goal of experiencing the divine unity. As a result, many Ottoman Muslim hagiographies and biographical notices include stories of former jurisprudents and religious functionaries coming to recognize the pointlessness of their worldly training and activities, followed by their retreat into the service of a humble Sufi shaykh.1 While withdrawing from their former position in the Ottoman social and institutional hierarchy, they often sold all of their possessions, viewing them as impediments to true enlightenment. Moreover, even when Muslim mystics do appear in the historical record as involved with worldly politics, their activities and concerns often have not registered with modern, post-Enlightenment historians as...
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April 1, 2018
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Research Article|
April 01 2018
Did Muslim Mystical Traditions Have a Politics in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire?
John J. Curry
John J. Curry
john curry is associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has written extensively on Sufism in the Ottoman Empire, including The Transformation of Muslim Mystical Thought in the Ottoman Empire: The Rise of the Halveti Order, 1350–1650 (2010) and Sufism and Society: Arrangements of the Mystical in the Muslim World, 1200–1800, edited with Erik S. Ohlander (2012).
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English Language Notes (2018) 56 (1): 231–235.
Citation
John J. Curry; Did Muslim Mystical Traditions Have a Politics in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire?. English Language Notes 1 April 2018; 56 (1): 231–235. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00138282-4337589
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