Humanist mystics : nationalism and the commemoration of saints in Turkey

Author / Creator

Soileau, Mark, author

Available as

Online

Summary

"When the Ottoman Empire met its demise in the early twentieth century, the new republic closed down the Sufi orders, with the rationale that they were anti-modern. Yet the nascent nation, faced wi...

"When the Ottoman Empire met its demise in the early twentieth century, the new republic closed down the Sufi orders, with the rationale that they were anti-modern. Yet the nascent nation, faced with defining its cultural heritage, soon began to emphasize the Turkish ethnicity of the Sufi saints, and, in the case of saints like Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, Hacı Bektaş Veli, and Yunus Emre, to focus on universalist themes found in their poetry and legends, such as love, peace, fellowship, and tolerance between ethnic and religious communities. With this reinterpretation of their legacies (part of a broader ideological shift toward secularism), these saints have now come to be considered the great Turkish humanists. Today their veneration plays a greater role in the nationalistic preservation of Turkish culture than in a remembered heritage of Islamic religion. Humanist Mystics is the first book to examine Islam and secularism within Turkish nationalist ideology through the lens of the commemorated saints. Soileau surveys the Anatolian and Turkish religious and political history as context for his closer attention to the lives and influence of the three Sufi saints. By comparing pre-modern hagiographic and scholarly representations with twentieth-century monographs, literary works, artistic media, and commemorative ceremonies, he shows how the saints have been transformed into humanist mystics, and how this change has led to debates about their character and relevance"--Provided by publisher.

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