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From Ibn Arabi to Al Bosnevi. the Mediterranean Sufism That Took Root in the Balkans

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From Ibn Arabi to Al Bosnevi. the Mediterranean Sufism That Took Root in the Balkans The House of the Open Door: From Ibn Arabi to Al Bosnevi. The Mediterranean Sufism That Took Root in the Balkans Esma Kucukalic. Journalist and director of the Mediterranean Citizens’ Assembly Foundation Sufi influence is a cohesive element of Islam in the Balkans, a living tradition and a conscious practice in accordance with rules that are inseparable from the behaviour of the dervishes. The Sufi tradition of the Balkans dates back to the 15th century, when several orders settled in the territory that would directly influence the transmission of Islam, as well as the socio-cultural, economic and architectural fabric of the region. Despite the various difficulties and prohibitions they have endured over the centuries, the survival of the Sufi communities has been possible thanks to their open and inspiring, Mediterranean and universal character, which today, when the wounds of war are not yet healed, is more necessary than ever. In central Bosnia, among green and moun- the vast layers of history of the region have tainous landscapes, just where the Mediter- gradually settled, the Sufi influence remains ranean and continental climate touch, and a cohesive element of Islam in the Balkans where the post-war political and economic from a way of experiencing tradition (adet) situation has left the small rural municipali- towards a conscious way of life and practice ties dedicated to growing raspberries to their in accordance with rules that are inseparable fate, there is a lamp that, in the middle of from the behaviour (adab) of the dervishes the night, lights a house that is always open. (Hadzimejlic, 2008). Sufism in the Balkans has You can enter and delight in the beauty of been present for over six centuries, even before the paintings and calligraphies that adorn its the expansion of Islam through the Ottomans. walls, in the canvases painted by its rugs and In the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is the poetry heard, or explore the transcenden- fused into the landscape and, until recently, tal rhythms of the measured exhalations of it was almost invisible due to its complete the zikr, because “there are as many paths to assimilation into the cultural and historical God as there are breaths in human beings” tradition. Today it is more noticeable but has (Ibn Arabi). Among forgotten necropolises not lost an iota of that open spirit that makes of medieval monuments (stecak) on which it so local, Mediterranean and universal. IEMed 30.indd 171 30/09/2020 09:22:59 172 The House of the Open Door: From Ibn Arabi to Al Bosnevi. The Mediterranean Sufism That Took Root... Esma Kucukalic The Mediterranean Span of Sufism During the Ottoman administration in the That Reached the Balkans 15th and 16th centuries, several Sufi orders also took root in the Balkans, and directly influenced A century before the expansion of the Ottoman the spiritual transmission of Islam, as well as Empire, two great spiritual centres developed the socio-cultural, economic and architectural and spread almost in parallel, and the Balkans fabric of the region. Through collective par- were no exception. The teachings of Ibn Arabi ticipation in vernacular architecture (Tatlic, of Murcia (d. 1240), also known as al-Shayj al- 2019), and the charitable institution of the Akbar and today the greatest master within the Vakuf, which the richest members of society sciences of Sufism, were expressed in Arabic supported in order to contribute to the con- and continued by others such as his disciple struction of hospitals, mosques or markets in Sadruddin Qunawi (d. 1274) or the mystic exchange for a tax reduction, the first tekiyas Mevlana Rumi (d. 1273), a close friend of Sad- or zawias (lodges of the orders) were built, as ruddin in the city of Konya, whose wisdom he well as several lodgings or schools (madrasas), cultivated in Persian (Beneito, 2017). centres from which Islam spread among the Following them we find figures such as local population (Hadzimejlic, 2008). However, Hajji Bektash (d. 1271), founder of the tariqa or the Sufi orders were also economic drivers and Sufi order of the Bektashi, and the poet Yunus contributed to the development of the guilds Emre (d. 1320), who would provide the Turkish (esnaf) of artisans and merchants, where their language’s contribution (Hirtenstein, 2014) to code of honour (futuwwa) permeated social the consolidation of the “transmission of living relations (Asceric-Todd, 2015). Sufism to our days, making it a spirituality of universal scope” (Beneito, 2017). Thus, love of Coinciding with this period of formation Ibn Arabi and Qunawi led the Bosnian Abdul- of the pioneering Sufi brotherhoods or lah Bosnevi (d. 1644) to write one of the great tariqas, one of the first Sufis to reach the commentaries in Turkish on the work of Ibn Balkan Peninsula was the 13th century Arabi, Fusus Al Hikam or The Bezels of Wis- Bektashi Sari Saltuk, decades before the dom, firmly contributing to the dissemination first Ottoman military units of Sufism. His remains lie next to the tomb of Sadruddin in Konya, near the great Rumi. The most widespread tariqas during Otto- Coinciding with this period of formation of man rule were the Halveti and the Bektashi, the pioneering Sufi brotherhoods or tariqas, one followed by the Nakshibendi, the Kadiri, and of the first Sufis to reach the Balkan Peninsula the Rifai, in terms of number of adherents was the 13th century Bektashi Sari Saltuk, and territorial distribution. All have managed decades before the first Ottoman military to survive to this day, while others, such as the units. The traveller Ibn Battuta wrote about Mevlevi, Bayrami, Melami, Sa’adi, Yalveti, him because his life was always engulfed in an Shazili and Bedevi, appeared at different stages aura of legend (Hadzimejlic, 2008). His tomb and became increasingly scarce (Hadzimejlic, is in at least seven places in the region, such as 2008). The Nakshibendi was a pioneering Blagaj, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Babadag, brotherhood that settled in the region between in Romania, and even the vicinity of Ohrid, the 15th and 17th centuries, and its areas of in Macedonia, and Kruya, in Albania, among influence were in Bosnia and Herzegovina others, all places of visit and prayer not only and Macedonia. The Bektashi, a majority in for Muslims. Albania today, had more than a hundred teki- IEMed 30.indd 172 30/09/2020 09:22:59 Quaderns de la Mediterrània 30-31, 2020: 171-178 173 Tekiya Mesudijja in Kacuni, Bosnia and Herzegovina. yas throughout the Balkan Peninsula in 1912. syncretism towards “old practices.” This is the In the 17th century the Kaderi and Mevlevi case of the Hemzevi, located in the Drina river brotherhoods arrived, followers of the Rumi valley, whose heterodoxy, even after its prohibi- transmissions, which in a short period of time tion as an order by the Ottomans, survived in had lodges in Plodliv, Thessalonica, Skopje, the form of practices among other tariqas and Belgrade, Pecs and Sarajevo. also among the local population. The establishment of these brotherhoods In the 19th century, with the decline of the among the cultural elites was relatively fast, Ottoman Empire, in the recently recognised since most of their masters or sujuj had been new Balkan nation states there were hardly trained in the great centres of knowledge of any pockets of Islam outside of Bosnia and the time: Istanbul, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo Herzegovina. The Austro-Hungarian annexa- or Medina, whose followers included great tion did not involve the disappearance of the writers, interpreters and translators of local Sufis, who, albeit to a lesser extent, continued languages. In rural regions, the brotherhoods to maintain ties with their brotherhoods in the also played an important role in the process Islamic world. In the interwar period, with the of Islamisation, demonstrating flexibility and Muslim population of Bosnia and Herzegovina IEMed 30.indd 173 30/09/2020 09:22:59 174 The House of the Open Door: From Ibn Arabi to Al Bosnevi. The Mediterranean Sufism That Took Root... Esma Kucukalic destined to become a minority within the king- than ever before, the freedom to choose what dom of Yugoslavia, the activity of the tariqas kind of embodied faith one wants to nurture. was further reduced if possible and, after the This is important for ethical self-formation,” as Second World War, within Tito’s Yugoslavia, it explained for this article by Zora Kostadinova, was totally prohibited. This was due to the ac- doctoral candidate at the University College of tion of the institutionalised modernist ulemas, London (UCL), where she is researching the who considered the brotherhoods archaic and ethical subjectivities and everyday practices of heretical strongholds. All the tekiyas in Bosnia the Sufis in Sarajevo. and Herzegovina were closed, although in Ko- sovo and Macedonia their activities continued, In 1974 a more “open” Yugoslavian it seems, because the masters’ houses were used constitution gave rise to the creation as lodges. The ban was maintained until the of the Association of Islamic Dervish mid-1970s and they became legal again in 1974, Orders (ZIDRA) to promote the study and when a more “open” Yugoslavian constitution practice of Sufism gave rise to the creation of the Association of Islamic Dervish Orders (ZIDRA) to promote The continuity of the Sufi chains of succes- the study and practice of Sufism. sion or bezels would probably have suffered a greater disruption if the transmission had not been so deeply rooted. For example, in the 17th Bezels and Creativity century and after a century of acting in the shadow of the Halveti, the tariqa Nakshibendi The two decades of prohibition and semi- in Bosnia and Herzegovina experienced an clandestinity of the activity of the tariqas awakening thanks to the figures of Hajj Mejli- caused significant damage to the Sufi tradition, baba and Abd al-Rahman Sirri-baba Sikiriǧ, especially to the continuity of their chains of who established the core of the brotherhood succession (silsiah).
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