Mavi Boncuk | Dervishes and Islam in Bosnia
Sufi Dimensions to the Formation of Bosnian Muslim Society
Ines Aščerić-Todd[1], American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
In Dervishes and Islam in Bosnia, Ines Aščerić-Todd explores the involvement of Sufi orders in the formation of Muslim society in the first two centuries of Ottoman rule in Bosnia (15th - 16th centuries C.E.). Using a wide range of primary sources, Aščerić-Todd shows that Sufi traditions and the activities of dervish orders were at the heart of the religious, cultural, socio-economic and political dynamics in Bosnia in the period which witnessed the emergence of Bosnian Muslim society and the most intensive phase of conversions of the Bosnian population to Islam. In the process, she also challenges some of the established views regarding Ottoman guilds and the subject of futuwwa[2] (Sufi code of honour).
ISBN13: 9789004278219 | E-ISBN: 9789004288447 | Publication Date: January 2015 | Illustr.: xiv, 198 pp. Imprint: BRILL
Table of contents
Introduction
Aims and Scope
Islam in Bosnia – History, Historiography and Political Dimensions
Bosnian Muslim Society and Dervish Orders – Parameters, Sources and
Methodology
A Note on ‘Syncretism’ and ‘Heterodoxy’
PART I – Conquest, Settlement and Town-Formation in Ottoman Bosnia:
the Sufi Contribution to the Early Stages of the Development of Bosnian Muslim Society
Chapter 1: Dervishes and the Ottoman Conquest of Bosnia
Chapter 2: The Earliest Tekkes in Bosnia
Chapter 3: Dervishes as Founders of Bosnian Towns
PART II – Urban Realities of Ottoman Bosnia:
Trade-Guilds, Tekkes and Dervish Traditions at the Heart of City Life
Chapter 4: Akhis, Dervish Orders and the Religious Character of Bosnian Guilds
Chapter 5: Futuwwa Documents – Fütüvvetnames, Şecerenames and Pirnames
Chapter 6: Guild Punishments, Ceremonies and Festivities
Chapter 7: The Akhi-Baba
Chapter 8: The Guilds and the State
Chapter 9: The Guilds and the Islamisation Process
PART III – Political Roles of Bosnian Dervishes:
the Hamzevis – a Dervish Order or a Socio-Political Movement?
Chapter 10: The Heyday and End of the Hamzevi Movement
Chapter 11: The Foundations of the Hamzevi Order – Hamza-Dede’s Tekke and Islamisation in the Tuzla Region
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
[1] Ines Aščerić-Todd, D.Phil. (2005), University of Oxford, teaches Arabic language and literature at the University of Edinburgh.
Dr Ines Aščerić-Todd has a BA (Hons) in Arabic with Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (University of Durham), an MPhil in Ottoman Turkish Studies (Oxon), and a DPhil in Oriental Studies (Oxon).
She has taught Arabic literature, history and culture at the American University of Sharjah, and has also worked as an Islamic manuscripts specialist at Princeton University.
Her research interests include Sufism and dervish orders (especially in the Ottoman Empire), Islamic chivalry, Sufi and futuwwa literature, Islam in the Balkans (especially Bosnia), and post-classical and pre-modern Arabic literature.[2] Futuwwa (Arabic: فتوة, "young-manliness" or "chivalry") is a Sufi term that has some similarities to chivalry and virtue. It was also a name of ethical urban organizations or "guilds" in medieval Muslim realms that emphasised honesty, peacefulness, gentleness, generosity, avoidance of complaint and hospitality in life. According to Ibn Battuta, a member was called fata (youth, pl. fityan) and group leaders were called akhi.
Through membership of a futuwwa order, artisans and craftsmen were linked in a social connection that stabilized local communities and balanced the power of the aristocracy. Some were the equivalent of trades-guilds, constituted with a Sufi ideology along with preference for self-government. Their precise historical origins are obscure. Futuwwa groups often influenced the course of political events. Different futuwwa leaders could have serious rivalries. Members were united through the practices of Sufi worship and a form of common property. Patched robes of Sufi were called libas al-futuwa. The leader of the group would furnish a hospice where, at the end of the workday, members would bring money to buy food and drink. They entertained travelers with elaborate banquets or, if no traveler came that day, enjoyed the feast themselves with song and dance. They also supported charities (vakif).
"...In his journey to Anatolia, Ibn-Batuta notes that he was invited by a group of men called akhis (Akhiyat al-Fityan, or the Brotherhood of Youth), and was invited to their dinner party and was accompanied by them on his journey when he continued from town to town in Anatolia..."SOURCE
Futuwa became a topic for European orientalists after being mentioned in a work by Franz Taeschner. Later it was studied by Claude Cahen as a social phenomenon of medieval Iraq and Turkey.