Book | Caliphate Redefined: The Mystical Turn in Ottoman Political Thought

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Caliphate Redefined: The Mystical Turn in Ottoman Political Thought

How the Ottomans refashioned and legitimated their rule through mystical imageries of authority

Hüseyin Yılmaz[1]


SBN:
9780691174808 
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018, 384 pages.

The medieval theory of the caliphate, epitomized by the Abbasids (750–1258), was the construct of jurists who conceived it as a contractual leadership of the Muslim community in succession to the Prophet Muhammed’s political authority. In this book, Hüseyin Yılmaz traces how a new conception of the caliphate emerged under the Ottomans, who redefined the caliph as at once a ruler, a spiritual guide, and a lawmaker corresponding to the prophet’s three natures.

Challenging conventional narratives that portray the Ottoman caliphate as a fading relic of medieval Islamic law, Yılmaz offers a novel interpretation of authority, sovereignty, and imperial ideology by examining how Ottoman political discourse led to the mystification of Muslim political ideals and redefined the caliphate. He illuminates how Ottoman Sufis reimagined the caliphate as a manifestation and extension of cosmic divine governance. The Ottoman Empire arose in Western Anatolia and the Balkans, where charismatic Sufi leaders were perceived to be God’s deputies on earth. Yılmaz traces how Ottoman rulers, in alliance with an increasingly powerful Sufi establishment, continuously refashioned and legitimated their rule through mystical imageries of authority, and how the caliphate itself reemerged as a moral paradigm that shaped early modern Muslim empires.

ISAM REVIEW PDF İslam Araştırmaları Dergisi, 44 (2020): 263-285

To recapitulate, Caliphate Redefined is a masterly study that investigates the mystification of political authority as well as the politicization of Sufism in the post-Abbasid era with a focus on the Rumi lands in the Süleymanic age. It greatly enriches our understanding of Ottoman political thought. Given the ambitious scope of the study and the references to a wide array of authors, works, and concepts, the book will open new avenues of investigation not only for students of Ottoman studies, but also for Islamicists interested in post-Abbasid religious and political history."

Arif Erbil, M.A. Student Boğaziçi University Department of History

[1] Dr. Yilmaz holds a Ph.D. in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University. His research interests focus on the early modern Middle East including political thought, geographic imageries, social movements, and cultural history. His most recent publications are “The Eastern Question and the Ottoman Empire: The Genesis of the Near and Middle East in the Nineteenth Century” and “From Serbestiyet to Hürriyet: Ottoman Statesmen and the Question of Freedom During the Late Enlightenment.”

Prior to his appointment at George Mason, Dr. Yilmaz taught for the Introduction to the Humanities Program and Department of History at Stanford University and the Department of History at University of South Florida. Prior to that, he was appointed Research Fellow with the Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften in Vienna, Austria.

His new book, Caliphate Redefined: The Mystical Turn in Ottoman Political Thought, is the first comprehensive study of pre-modern Ottoman political thought, and was published by Princeton University Press in January 2018.

Dr. Yilmaz is also the Director of the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University.

Selected Publications

• Caliphate Redefined: The Mystical Turn in Ottoman Political Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press, January 2018
• “From Serbestiyet to Hürriyet: Ottoman Statesmen and the Question of Freedom during the Late Enlightenment.” Studia Islamica 111 (2016): 202-230 (ISSN: 0585-5292)
• “Containing Sultanic Authority: Constitutionalism in the Ottoman Empire before Westernization.” The Journal of Ottoman Studies 45 (2015): 231-264 (ISSN: 0255063602550636)
• “Osmanlı Devleti’nde Batılılaşma Öncesi Meşrutiyetçi Gelişmeler.” Divan Disiplinlerarası Çalışmalar Dergisi 13 (2008): 1-30 (ISSN: 13009648)
• “Osmanlı Tarihçiliğinde Tanzimat Öncesi Siyaset Düşüncesine Yaklaşımlar.” Türkiye Araştırmaları Literatür Dergisi 1/2 (2003): 231-98 (ISSN: 13039369)
• “On Kingship and Legitimacy: The Ottomans.” In Hani Khafipour ed., The Empires of the Near East and India: Sources Studies of the Safavid, Ottoman, and Mughal Literate Communities. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019. (ISBN: 9780231174367)
• “Books on Ethics and Politics: The Art of Governing the Self and Others at the Ottoman Court.” In Gülru Necipoğlu, Cemal Kafadar, and Cornell Fleischer, eds., Treasure of Knowledge: An Inventory of Ottoman Palace Library (1502/3-1503/4) (pp. 115-130). Brill: Leiden and Boston, 2019. (ISBN: 9789004386983)
• “The Eastern Question and the Ottoman Empire:  The Genesis of the Near and Middle East in the Nineteenth Century.” In Michael Bonine, Abbas Amanat and Michael Casper eds., Is There a Middle East: The Evolution of a Geopolitical Concept (pp. 11-35). Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011. (ISBN: 9780804775267)
• “Mevlânâ Osmanlı Sarayında: Mahmud Dede’nin Sevâkıbü’l-Menâkıb’ında Siyasî İmgeler” In E. Alkan and O. S. Arı eds. Osmanlı’da İlm-i Tasavvuf (pp. 735-744). Istanbul: İSAR Yayınları, 2018. (ISBN: 978-605-9276-12-2)
• “The Sunni Exodus from Iran and the Rise of Anti-Safavid Propaganda in the Ottoman Empire: The Messianic Call of Hüseyin b. Abdullah el-Shirvānī.” In O. M. Alper and M. Arıcı eds., Osmanlı’da İlim ve Fikir Dünyası: İstanbul’un Fethinden Süleymaniye Medreselerinin Kuruluşuna Kadar (pp. 299-309). Istanbul: Klasik, 2015. (ISBN: 9786055245832)
• “Kınalızade Ali Efendi ve Osmanlı Kültürel Kimliği.” In A. S. Oktay ed., Uluslararası Kınalızâde Ailesi Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı (pp. 95-101). Isparta: SDÜ İlahiyat Fakültesi Yayınları, 2012. (ISBN: 9789944452861)
• “Osmanlı Siyaset ve Hukuk Düşüncesi Geleneğinde Anayasalcılık.” In Halit Eren ed., Proceedings of the International Congress on The Second Constitutional Period of the Ottoman State on its Centenary (pp. 365-100). Istanbul: IRCICA, 2012. (ISBN: 9789290632450)
• “Imperial Ideology.” In G. Agoston and B. Masters eds., Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, (pp. 273-276). New York: Facts on File, 2008. (ISBN: 9780816062591)

REVIEWS

A masterful work of scholarship, Caliphate Redefined is the first comprehensive study of premodern Ottoman political thought to offer an extensive analysis of a wealth of previously unstudied texts in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish.

"Caliphate Redefined is a remarkable book because it is a complex and detailed work of intellectual history tied to a relatively simple and straightforward point."
—Christopher Markiewicz, H-Net Reviews

"An unquestionable masterful work of scholarship."
—David Marx, davidmarxbookreviews

"“Caliphate Redefined” will prove a useful resource for those interested in Ottoman history and in Islamic political theory."
—Carool Kersten, Anthropos

"Yılmaz provides a sweeping and well-documented rereading of the impact of Sufism on Ottoman rule. Caliphate Redefined is required reading for any student of Ottoman history."—Daniel Varisco, president of the American Institute for Yemeni Studies

"A major accomplishment. Yılmaz argues that Ottoman political thinking in this period should be viewed as a richly interconnected amalgam of juristic, ethical, and mystical strains of thought that come together to provide a colorful and forceful justification of Ottoman political legitimacy. His prose is fluent, lucid, and even elegant."—Ahmet T. Karamustafa, author of Sufism: The Formative Period

"Caliphate Redefined is a more than welcome contribution to the history of Ottoman ideas, political thought, and legitimizing practices. Yılmaz examines in meticulous detail the formation of a new phase in the conception of the caliphate usually neglected by historians of Islamic political thought."—Marinos Sariyannis, Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Greece