Reviews for Perspective on Early Islamic Mysticism: The World of Al-Hak'm Al-Tirmidh and His Contemporaries

The average rating for Perspective on Early Islamic Mysticism: The World of Al-Hak'm Al-Tirmidh and His Contemporaries based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-02-10 00:00:00 Ian Borean The Dervishes remain a group of cultural significance in regions such as Turkey, where they are no longer allowed to practice their religion and instead only perform "cultural" events. Yet in centuries previous darvishes were a rebellious and outlandish sect of the Sufi religion. A Dervish might be seen as a "free-lance beggar, an adventurer…a trickster or a thief," or one who used religion to endorse his "wanderlust and irresponsibility." These wandering Sufis have been the focus of much scholarship, but Ahmet T. Karamustafa's God's Unruly Friends focuses on Dervish life in a less examined era: the Later Middle Period, roughly from 1200-1550. He argues that these years were the crucible in which Dervishes established a "new renunciation" and a belief system based on rebellion and individuality, two ethics at odds with traditional Islamic Sufism (4-5). Essentially, Dervish groups identified themselves in opposition to institutionalized Sufism. Karamustafa argues that anarchist Dervish groups have been relegated "to the sphere of popular religion and low culture," a trend with "deep historical roots" (5). He points out how Islamic scholars looked down upon the Dervishes as the riff-raff of society, something akin to gypsies. Karamustafa argues that this trend of denigrating the Dervishes has continued into modern historiography. He also states that scholars have set up a false dichotomy of "high" and "low" religion, relegating Dervishes to the latter, "vulgar" category (9). God's Unruly Friends challenges these assertions. It is an attempt to aid Dervishes to have more appropriate place in Middle Eastern historiography. Karamustafa states that "Dervish piety stood apart from all other modes of Islamic religiosity through its relentless emphasis on shocking social behavior and open contempt for social conformity" but they did not necessarily appeal strictly to "'lower' social strata" (10). For these reasons, Dervishes were not a sect practicing "low," popular religion, but instead a group involved in "high" forms of religion. God's Unruly Friends provides a compelling historical argument about Dervish culture and religiosity, but it may fall short in providing concrete proof in its assertions. While Karamustafa argues for the genuine piety of Dervishes, one that relied upon a "complete and active rejection of society that was expressed through blatantly deviant social behavior" it remains impossible to understand the motives of particular participants. Certainly, wanderlust (and hashish) may have influenced participants who did not fit into prescribed roles of Islamic society. In other words, exclusively interpreted through historical texts, Karamustafa cannot be certain of his subjects' motives. Of course, this is the pitfall of doing historiographic work with limited texts. Regardless of how much readers accept Karamustafa's thesis, this book still adds insight into a previously under-examined period in Dervish history. Karamustafa has attempted to shed light on an early period of Dervishes and shatter false assumptions about these groups, and for these reasons he is to be applauded. Karamustafa's work, however, leaves much to be desired with regards to prose. Turgid language abounds in God's Unruly Friends. For example: "While mendicancy and itinerancy remained the norm, the attraction of community life dampened the anchoritic zeal inherited from the ascetic virtuosi of the previous generations." Such language relegates God's Unruly Friends to a strictly academic audience, which is a shame, because the history of the Dervishes from 1200-1550 should be explored by even lay-historians of the Middle East. Put simply, if the goal is to give Dervishes a more accurate and pronounced place in history, accessible language would have made Karamustafa's important more readable. These characters are so colorful'and misunderstood'that they are ripe for a treatment accessible to a more popular readership.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-03-05 00:00:00 Larry Landrum Tanrının Kuraltanımaz Kulları - İslam Dünyasında Derviş Toplulukları (1200-1550) Orjinal isim: God's Unruly Friends - Dervish Graps in the Islamic Later Middle Period 1200 - 1550 Ahmet T. Karamustafa, (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1994). Yapi Kredi Yayinlari / TARIH, 2007. 148 s. Çeviren: Ruşen Sezen. kitapta ele alınan derviş grupları ve pirleri; -Cemalettin Savi, Kalenderleri piri, -Kutbeddin Haydar, Haydarilik. -Rum Abdalları, piri Otman Baba. kalenderler ve haydariler; -iran, -iran azerbaycanı, -horasan, -şam, -dimyat, - ve de müslüman Hindistanına kadar yayılmışlardır. Rum Abdalları ise; -Anadolu, -Rumeli (balkanlar, yun, bulg, rom, ya 3 yol üzerinden yayılmışlardır. tüm bu zahid, gezgin derviş grupları organik olarak sufiliğin akrabasıdırlar. çıplak gezer, tuhaf kılıkları, davranışları vardır ve toplumsal-siyasi-dini kurallar uymazlar, esrar, haşhaş, ot içerek trans halinde, çalgı eşliğinde dans edip sema ederler. tanrısal gerçeklere ulaştıklarını, şekli bıraktıklarını, dünya malına tamah etmediklerini belirtirler vede bunu yaşamlarında gösterirler. evilya mertebesindedir pirleri, zamanlarının kutbudurlar, günümüzde hep yatırlarına gidilip mum yakıp dua edilir. halkın içinden müridleri-öğrencileri-takipçileri hep olagelmiş, devrin siyasi liderleri de bunlara kayısız kalamamış, dualarını da almışlardır. sufiler ile pek düşmanca imişler, tarihçiler bunu anlatıyor, zaman zaman da, siyasi erk, bu takımın ortadan kaldırılmaları emrini de vermişmiş. -tanrıda birlik (vahdeti vücud), -evliyalık (velayet), -reenkarnasyon (hulul), -ve de batınilik-hurufilik yolunda dünya görüşleri-anlayışları vardır. bunların ortaya çıkma temel sebebi; peyg. ölümünü izleyen 2 asır içinde dinde ayrılık, mezhebleşme (800-1000) sürecinde halk, aşırı bir şekillenmiş ŞERİAT TOKMAĞI altındaydı. tabii bunlar da bu kuralcılığa başkaldırmış bi kesim olarak ortaya çıktılar.