1. Funding Phase
The Double Bond of Lovers: Social and Spiritual Regimes of Dervishes in Istanbul during the Long Nineteenth Century
Principal Investigator
Prof. Dr. Christoph K. Neumann
Researcher
Yasir Islam Kaplan
Project Description
In the nineteenth century, the majority of Istanbul’s male Muslim inhabitants had an affiliation with at least one mystical order. This spiritual quest was understood as one of ‘love’ (ʽaşḳ), first to God, then, by extension, to the master and other disciples.
The project investigates the double bond between disciples and their order, materialized in the form of control mechanisms in urban space: Orders suggested modes of conduct to their affiliates that were, firstly, socially enforced and, secondly, reinforced and legitimized by the spiritual relation between master and disciple. Sufi practices of self-examination thus created distinctive modes of vigilance.
The doctrines, rules and practices of mystical orders contributed greatly to the social conventions of morals and manners of the Muslim population. At the same time, mystics had simultaneously to obey the rules of the emerging modern public and those of the divine secret into which every Sufi had been initiated. The sub-project concentrates on three orders of particular importance in the Ottoman capital: Naḳşbendīye, Mevlevīye and Ḫalvetīye.
The project examines moral and spiritual vigilance in connection with four topics:
- Sufi subjectivity in self-narratives
- rituals and doctrines of spiritual vigilance
- Sufi networks in urban space
- the emerging public sphere and the bureaucratization of Sufism.