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Introduction

A FORGOTTEN PURITAN FROM ANATOLIA

BORN in Cyprus to a Christian family, Aḥmad al-Rūmī al-Aqḥiṣārī was taken away as a child after the Ottoman conquest of the island (977/1570–981/1573) and converted to Islam. He became a Ḥanafite ‘ālim and lived in Akhisar (western Anatolia), where he is said to be buried in the Uzun Taş cemetery. He seems to have spent only a short time in Istanbul. The date of his death is not known with certainty and he is misidentified by some authors as Ḥasan Kāfī Āqḥiṣārī (d. 1024/1615), the Bosniac scholar from Prusac. Al-Aqḥiṣārī’s most famous work is The Councils of the Pious – Majālis al-abrār, a collection of one hundred religious reflections inspired by Prophetic traditions from The Lamps of the Tradition – Maṣābīḥ al-Sunna by the Afghānī Shāfi‘ite traditionist and Qur’ān commentator Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥusayn al-Baghawī, also known as Ibn al-Farrā’ (d. in Marw al-Rūdh, 516/1122?).¹

Al-Aqḥiṣārī is sometimes said to have been a shaykh of the Sufi Khalwatiyya order, which was vehemently opposed by Qāḍīzādelis and criticised by Kātib Çelebi in The Balance of Truth – Mīzān al-Ḥaqq. Could this be due to another misidentification with some third Ḥasan, Rūmī or Āqḥiṣārī, about whom little is known and who really did belong to this important ṭarīqa? Perhaps. In any case, the milieu in which the author of the Majālis evolved was surely a very different one. First, like Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) and his disciple Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350), to whom he refers explicitly and whose texts he quotes extensively, he strongly condemns the veneration of tombs, in his Refutation of the visitors of tombs – Radd al-Qabriyya as well as in Council XVII of the Majālis.² Second, what al-Aqḥiṣārī writes in the first lines of his commentary (sharḥ) on The Unique Pearl, concerning the Recitation of the Qur’ān – al-Durr al-yatīm fī l-tajwīd by Birgivī Meḥmed Efendi (d. 981/1573) gives a clear indication of the high esteem in which he holds the spiritual father of Ottoman puritanism: “…the shaykh, the active and strong scholar (al-‘ālim al-‘āmil al-qawī) Meḥmed b. Pīr ‘Alī al-Birgivī – may God make the Garden his refuge, give him to drink a pure beverage, and quench his thirst…”¹ Third, and more intriguing still, the relatively large number of ancient manuscripts in which the Turkish texts of Birgivī’s Waṣiyyet-Nāmeh, the Epistle – Risāleh of Qāḍīzāde Meḥmed (d. 1045/1635)² and al-Aqḥiṣārī’s Creed – Risāleh fī l-‘aqā’id (or Risāleh, or Waṣiyyet-Nāmeh) are bound together in a sort of sacred trilogy leaves no doubt that, in the mind of many at the time, their religious views were both pivotal and convergent.³ This means, in other words, that the supposedly Khalwatī author of the Majālis could well have been directly linked to, or even have played a seminal role in, the reformist movement, influenced by Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim, which, during the Ottoman 10th/16th–11th/17th centuries, presages Wahhābism. Some twenty years ago, R. Peters remarked that “little is known about this tradition” of “Turkish fundamentalism” (or “revivalism”), adding that “it certainly deserves a closer study in order to find out how the essentially Ḥanbalite ideas of Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya could survive in Ḥanafite Ottoman religious culture.”¹ An exploration of the works of al-Aqḥiṣārī may provide part of the answer; hence my interest in him. Perhaps, moreover, one will eventually have to speak of those ideas as “thriving” rather than “surviving”, at various moments of the history of Turkey.

The truth however remains that Aḥmad al-Rūmī al-Aqḥiṣārī is almost completely absent from modern studies of the Ottoman 10th/16th– 11th/17th centuries.² This is also the case for the impact of his Majālis, before and after it was translated into Urdu,³ on the genesis of contemporary Indian Islamic thought, be it Deobandi or Barelvi: it is still to be explored in detail. The fact that the Majālis is explicitly quoted, together with Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, in al-Balāgh almubīn, an anti-Hindu tract in Persian falsely attributed to Shāh Walīullāh Dihlawī (d. 1176/1762) but most probably written in India after 1831, nevertheless testifies to the centrality of its author and holds the promise of potentially surprising developments. In his study of al-Balāgh al-mubīn,⁴ Marc Gaborieau acknowledges having “no further information” on al-Aqḥiṣārī’s Majālīs. He does not therefore realize that this pre-Wahhābī Ottoman work of Ḥanafite puritanism, alongside reports of pilgrims coming back from Arabia and other forms of ideological “digestion” by Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhāb or Muḥammad al-Shawkānī (d. 1250/1834), might have been an important channel through which reformist teachings, Taymiyyan and others, influenced the pseudo-Walīullāhan text which he calls “an Indian “Wahhābī” tract” and, more generally, the so-called Indian “Wahhābism”.¹ Whatever its appeal might be, this hypothesis will of course need to be confirmed.

Indian avatars of al-Aqḥiṣārī’s Majālis²

There is no scholarly bibliography of Aḥmad al-Rūmī al-Aqḥiṣārī. Apart from the Majālis, his Risāleh fī l-‘aqā’id, his Radd al-Qabriyya and his commentary on Birgivī’s al-Durr al-yatīm, he authored several epistles that can be read in majmū‘as like the MSS. Istanbul, Darülmesnevi 258, Harput 429, Kılıç Ali Paşa 1035, Reşid Efendi 985, as well as in several other manuscripts. I established the following list of his Arabic epistles during a short period of research at the Süleymaniye Library in May 2008 and by consulting the manuscripts’ catalogue on the Yazmalar website of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.¹ It can’t in any way be considered complete and its only purpose is to give some idea of the range of al-Aqḥiṣārī’s interests:

1) Ta‘līqa ‘alā tafsīr al-Qāḍī al-Bayḍāwī “La-hu mā fī al-samā’ wa larḍ…” – Note on al-Qāḍī al-Bayḍāwī’s exegesis of the Qur’ānic verse ”To Him belongs what is in heaven and on the earth…” MS. Kasidecizade 736, ff. 115v–125v.

2) Sharḥ al-Durr al-yatīm fī l-tajwīd – Commentary on Birgivī’s Unique Pearl, concerning the Recitation of the Qur’ān. MSS. Ali Emiri Arabi 53 (copied in 1083/1672), 4347, ff. 13–43 (1066/1655); Beyazit 189; Çelebi Abdullah Efendi 408, ff. 67v–113v; Harput 429, ff. 1v–28r; Ibrahim Efendi 29, ff. 1v–54r; Kılıç Ali Paşa 1035, ff. 1v–30r; Laleli 3094, ff. 132v–189v; Reşid Efendi 1008, ff. 75v–95r; Tırnovali 7, ff. 36v–56v; Yazma Bağışlar 1124, ff. 1v–31v; Yozgat 853, ff. 167v– 188v. Yazmalar: Amasya, Beyazıt İl Halk Kütüphanesi, 05 Ba 1207/1, ff. 1v–49v (1161/1747); Ankara, Adana İHK, 01 Hk 192/1, ff. 1v–36r (1091/1679); 01 Hk 467/6, ff. 37v–70v; 01 Hk 816/4, ff. 37v–65 (1122/1709); Afyon Gedik Ahmet Paşa İHK, 03 Gedik 17581/4, ff. 171v–203r (1106/1693); Çankırı İHK, 18 Hk 389/3, ff. 101v–130r; Eskişehir İHK, 26 Hk 277/5, ff. 15v–55r; Nevşehir Ürgüp Tahsin Ağa İHK, 50 Ür 46/2, ff. 8v–47r (1135/1722); 50 Ür 181/4, ff. 51v–86r (1123/1710); 50 Ür 389 (1167/1753); Ordu İHK, 52 Hk 901/4 (1129/1716); Balıkesir, İHK, 10 Hk 973/3, ff. 41v–68r (1144/1730); Çorum, Hasan Paşa İHK, 19 Hk 204/2, ff. 20v–43r (1135/1722); 19 Hk 3678/1, ff. 1v–56v; 19 Hk 3679/3, ff. 15v–51r; 19 Hk 3685/1, ff. 1v-30v; 19 Hk 3692/1, ff. 1v–37r (1078/1666); Diyarbakır, İHK, 21 Hk 252/6, ff. 119v–138v (1196/1781); Erzurum, İHK, 25 Hk 23892/1, ff. 1v–37v (1131/1718); Kastamonu, İHK, 37 Hk 334/9, ff. 231v–262v (1141/1727); 37 Hk 419/1, ff. 1v–37v; 37 Hk 475/4, ff. 96v–123r; Konya, İHK, 42 Kon 353/3, ff. 89v–106r (1165/1751); 42 Kon 1555/3, ff. 5v–31r; 42 Kon 4983/4, ff. 55v–80; 42 Kon 5687/2, ff. 28v–59r (1292/1875); Gaziantep İHK, 27 Hk 88/4, ff. 72v–104r (1083/1671); 27 Hk 93/11, ff. 148v–171r; Isparta İHK, 32 Hk 452/2, ff. 28v–59r (1292/1874); Isparta Uluborlu İHK, 32 Ulu 396/4, ff. 35v–80v; Manisa, İHK, 45 Hk 381/1, ff. 1v–55v; 45 Hk 948/1, ff. 1v–34v (1137/1723); 45 Hk 1656/3, ff. 64v–93r (1039/1629); 45 Hk 2937/9, ff. 82v–110v (1035/1625); 45 Hk 3599 (1130/1717); 45 Hk 4559/2, ff. 124v–163v (1180/1765); 45 Hk 6911/2, ff. 41v–72v; 45 Hk 8469; Akhisar Zeynelzade Koleksiyon, 45 Ak Ze 594/8, ff. 93v–132v (1148/1734); Trabzon, İHK, 61 Hk 321.

3) Risāla fī l-radd ‘alā l-Ṣaghānī fī mawḍū‘āti-hi – Epistle refuting al-Ṣaghānī, concerning his invented traditions. MS. Darülmesnevi 258, ff. 143r–147r.

4) Risāla fī l-tawḥīd – Epistle on monotheism. MSS. Hafid Efendi 453, ff. 116v–117v; Harput 429, ff. 118v–119v; Kılıç Ali Paşa 1035, ff. 68v–69r.

5) Risāla fī anna l-nubuwwa afḍal mina l-wilāya – Epistle explaining that Prophethood is more eminent than Friendship [of God]. MSS. Harput 429, ff. 38r–48r; Reşid Efendi 985, ff. 91r–95r.

6) Risāla fī bayān marātib al-nafs wa marātib al-‘ibāda wa marātib altawḥīd – Epistle making clear the degrees of the soul, the degrees of worship, and the degrees of monotheism. MSS. Harput 429, ff. 93v– 100r; Reşid Efendi 985, ff. 110v–113v. Yazmalar: Manisa İHK, Akhisar Zeynelzade Koleksiyon, 45 Ak Ze 1602/11, ff. 116v–123r.

7) Risāla fī dhikr al-lisān wa l-qalb – Epistle on the remembrance of God by the tongue and by the heart.¹ MSS. Darülmesnevi 258, ff. 99v–104r; Harput 429, ff. 48v–54v; Şehid Ali Paşa 1189, ff. 88v– 94r. See also a Risāla fī l-dhikr – Epistle on the remembrance of God, in MS. Harput 429, ff. 84v–93r. Yazmalar: Çorum, Hasan Paşa İHK, 19 Hk 797/4, ff. 8v–12r; Manisa, İHK, 45 Hk 2224/10, ff. 82r–93r; 45 Hk 2937/4, ff. 36v–42r.

8) Risāla fī l-sulūk wa anna-hu lā budd li-l-sālik min murshid – Epistle on the wayfaring, and that the wayfarer must inevitably have a guide. MS. Harput 429, ff. 73r–77v.

9) Risāla fī l-taqlīd – Epistle on the imitation of an authority.¹ MSS. Darülmesnevi 258, ff. 84v–91v; Harput 429, ff. 29r–37r; Kılıç Ali Paşa 1035, ff. 38v–48v. Yazmalar: Konya, İHK, 42 Kon 3824/12, ff. 38v–43v; Isparta İHK, 32 Hk 1484/9, ff. 38v–44v; Manisa, İHK, 45 Hk 2937/6, ff. 53v–62v.

10) Risāla fī l-bid‘at al-sayyi’a wa ghayr al-sayyi’a – Epistle on the innovation that is bad and that which is not bad.² MSS. Darülmesnevi 258, ff. 104v–109v (1093/1682); Harput 429, ff. 158r–164v; Reşid Efendi 985, ff. 83r–86r.³ Yazmalar: Manisa, İHK, 45 Hk 2937/2, ff. 21v–27r.

11) Risāla fī dhamm al-bid‘a – Epistle on the censure of innovation. MS. Harput 429, ff. 54v–65r. Yazmalar: Manisa İHK, Akhisar Zeynelzade Koleksiyon, 45 Ak Ze 1602/10, ff. 106v–116v.

12) Risāla fī bayān kull min ṣalāt al-raghā’ib wa ṣalāt al-barāt – Epistle making clear [the status of] the prayers of Raghā’ib and Berāt.⁴ MSS. Darülmesnevi 258, ff. 91v–99r; Harput 429, ff. 148r–157v; Reisülküttab 1182, ff. 123v–127r; Reşid Efendi 985, ff. 77v–83r. Yazmalar: Manisa, İHK, 45 Hk 2937/3, ff. 27v–36r.

13) Risāla fī man‘ al-taṣliya wa l-tarḍiya wa l-ta’mīn waqta l-khuṭba – Epistle on the interdiction to ask for God’s blessings on the Prophet and for His satisfaction with the Companions, as well as to say “Amen”, during the Friday prayer’s sermon.⁵ MSS. Harput 429, ff. 77v–84v; Kılıç Ali Paşa 1035, ff. 69v–70r; Reisülküttab 1182, ff. 57v–64r; Reşid Efendi 985, ff. 87v–92r; Şehid Ali Paşa 1189, ff. 98r–104r. Yazmalar: Manisa İHK, Akhisar Zeynelzade Koleksiyon, 45 Ak Ze 5998/2, ff. 20v–29r (1310/1891).

14) Risāla fī anna l-muṣāfaḥa ba‘da l-ṣalawāt al-khamsa bid‘a makrūha – Epistle explaining that shaking hands after the five prayers is a detestable innovation.¹ MSS. Harput 429, ff. 72r–73r; Reisülküttab 1182, ff. 64v–65r. See also Esad Efendi 3599, ff. 218v–237v (same incipit but longer and other explicit). Yazmalar: Manisa İHK, Akhisar Zeynelzade Koleksiyon, 45 Ak Ze 1602/12, ff. 123r–v; 45 Ak Ze 6548/5, ff. 62r–63v (1311/1892).

15) Risāla fī ḥurmat al-raqṣ wa l-dawarān – Epistle on the prohibition of dancing and whirling. MS. Harput 429, ff. 65r–72r.² See also Hafid Efendi 453, ff. 79r–85r, which ends differently.

16) Risāla fī l-radd ‘alā maqābiriyya – Epistle refuting the visitors of tombs. Or Radd al-Qabriyya – Refutation of the visitors of tombs.³ MSS. Fatih 5398, ff. 71r–86v; Hafid Efendi 453, ff. 90r–117v; Harput 429, ff. 100r–118v; Kılıç Ali Paşa 1035, ff. 49v–68r. Yazmalar: Manisa, İHK, 45 Hk 2937/1, ff. 3v–20v.

17) Risāla fī ḥukm al-dukhān – Epistle on the [Legal] status of tobacco [smoking]. Or Risāleh dukhāniyyeh – Epistle on tobacco.⁴ MSS. Darülmesnevi 258, ff. 70v–74v; Harput 429, ff. 194v–199v; Kılıç Ali Paşa 1035, ff. 31v–36v; Reisülküttab 1182, ff. 52v–57r. See also the extract copied in MS. Giresun 114 (28 Hk 3587/7), p. 27: Maṭlab fī ḥaqq al-dukhān – Inquiry concerning tobacco. Yazmalar: Manisa İHK, Akhisar Zeynelzade Koleksiyon, 45 Ak Ze 1602/1, ff. I + 1v–6r; İHK, 45 Hk 2937/5, ff. 43r–47v.

Beginning of the Risāleh dukhāniyyeh¹

18) Risāla fī l-ṭā‘ūn – Epistle on the plague. MS. Harput 429, ff. 164v– 184v.

19) Risāla fī l-arāḍī – Epistle on the [Legal nature] of lands. MSS. Ali Emiri Arabi 4343, ff. 40–46 (1114/1702); Darülmesnevi 258, ff. 130v–137r; Haci Beşir Ağa 662, ff. 194v–204v; Harput 429, ff. 185r–194r; Kasidecizade 682, ff. 45v–57v (1089/1678); Kılıç Ali Paşa 1035, ff. 71v–80r; Ragip Paşa 461, ff. 154v–157v (1066/1655). Yazmalar: Manisa, İHK, 45 Hk 2937/7, ff. 63v–71r.²

There is nothing peculiar in the fact that an Ottoman religious scholar like al-Aqḥiṣārī was interested in writing on the Qur’ān and the Ḥadīth, monotheism and prophethood, worship, spiritual wayfaring and submission to religious authorities. As for the topics dealt with in several of his other writings, how could they leave the historian indifferent? The dual nature of innovations, Raghā’ib and Berāt prayers, the remembrance of God (dhikr), the invoking of divine blessings during the Friday sermon, shaking hands after the collective prayer, Sufi dancing and whirling, the visiting of tombs and tobacco are indeed some of the very hot issues having divided Qāḍīzādelis and their Sufi opponents. With the exception of dhikr, Kātib Çelebi notably devotes a chapter of his amazing Balance of Truth to every one of them.¹ Now, needless to say, on each of these issues, al-Aqḥiṣārī does not appear to have been among those whom Kātib Çelebi calls “the intelligent ones”, i.e. those who kept out of “a profitless quarrel, born of fanaticism”.² He rather seems to have been, on all these issues, among the “foolish people” persistently attached to one side, in this case, as easily predictable, that of the strict ulema and prohibitionists who shared in some measure the views of Qāḍīzāde, Birgivī, Ibn Qayyim and Ibn Taymiyya.

The present book is devoted to one of al-Aqḥiṣārī’s epistles, namely his Risāleh dukhāniyyeh – Epistle on tobacco. The choice of this particular text has probably no other reason than the interest in the use of drugs in Islamic societies that has already led me to translate Ibn Taymiyya’s fatwā on cannabis and to study opium addiction and coffee in Ottoman Turkey.³ Besides tobacco, al-Aqḥiṣārī indeed also has something to say about these three substances in his Dukhāniyyeh. Before presenting this particular epistle, it will be worthwhile taking a little time to explore further the age and personality of its author.

THE COMPLEXITIES OF A RADICAL PIETISM

AL-AQḤIṢĀRĪ lived in a period marked by a financial crisis around 1008–9/1600, by the disintegration of the imperial Ottoman authority and the corruption of the elites, by a deep societal unrest and by grave tension between popular mosque preachers and medresse ulema, puritanical zealots and licentious or innovating shaykhs.¹ The hundred topics entered upon in his Majālis show that he is mainly concerned with personal piety, commercial righteousness, religious and social issues, rather than with affairs of court, political and military matters.

1 The remembrance of God (dhikr Allāh)

2 The eminence of dhikr

3 The eminence of faith

4 Love of the Prophet

5 Faith in his teachings

6 Tasting the savour of faith

7 Faith in the Prophet

8 Obeying and disobeying the Prophet

9 Following the Prophet

10 Believer (mu’min), Muslim, mujāhid…

11 The best dhikr and invocations

12 The intercession of the Prophet

13 Pure monotheism (ikhlāṣ al-tawḥīd)

14 The faith that will save

15 The natural state of Islam (fiṭrat al-islām)

16 The various kinds of unbelief

17 The prohibition of praying near tombs

18 The various kinds of innovations

19 Raghā’ib & other innovated prayers

20 The eminence of ḥajj & its innovations

21 The eminence of almsgiving & forsaking it

22 The eminence of fasting

23 The eminence of fasting in Sha‘bān

24 Laylat al-barā’a: sunna and innovations

25 The sighting of the Ramaḍān new moon

26 Ramaḍān

27 Intention, fasting, breaking the fast

28 Tarāwīḥ prayers

29 Delaying the prayer and breaking the fast

30 Expiation for breaking the fast

31 Ramaḍān retreat & Laylat al-Qadr

32 Ṣadaqat al-fiṭr, the Feasts & innovations

33 Fasting in Shawwāl

34 The ten first days of Dhū l-Ḥijja

35 The sacrifice

36 Muḥarram and ‘Āshūrā’ fasting

37 ‘Āshūrā’: traditions and innovations

38 Curing the sick

39 Evil & good omens, blameworthy & sunnī

40 Brotherhood in this world’s affairs

41 Disasters, repentance and invocations

42 Repelling disasters with invocations

43 Praying in case of frights

44 Prayers for the solar and lunar eclipses

45 Praying for rain

46 Learning the prescriptions and Qur’ān

47 Recitation of the Qur’ān

48 The call to prayer

49 The eminence of Friday

50 Shaking hands

51 The obligation of prayer

52 The obligation of praying as prescribed

53 The five daily prayers and expiation

54 The eminence of collective prayer

55 Funeral prayer

56 Saying Lā ilāha illā Llāh and Paradise

57 The visitation of tombs

58 Remembering death and getting ready

59 The plague and prophylaxis

60 Patience in case of plague

61 The eminence of patience and disasters

62 On the ḥadīth “Collect five things…”

63 The calling of servants to account

64 Calling oneself to account before death

65 Inviting the umma to repent now

66 On “God accepts the repentance…”

67 The intelligent and the foolish

68 Piety (taqwā) and good character

69 Lawful earnings

70 The prohibition of monopolies

71 The fates of traders in the hereafter

72 Trading, truthfulness and trustfulness

73 The true nature of usury

74 Forward buying (salam) & other contracts

75 Begging

76 The rights of slaves

77 The prohibition of homosexuality

78 The prohibition of drinking wine

79 The prohibition of cheating (fulūl)

80 The appearing of troubles (fitna)

81 Judges, bribes & false testimonies

82 Who should be appointed preacher

83 The renewers of the religion, every century

84 Eminence of greeting another the first

85 Turning away from a Muslim brother

86 The prohibition of low opinion and spying

87 Frequenting perverts and eating with them

88 The best deed: loving and hating for God

89 The Prophet’s commands and prohibitions

90 The preeminence of God’s mercy

91 “Satan circulates in man like his blood”

92 Being tempted is not punished

93 Satan and the angel are close to man

94 Islam started as something foreign

95 The grace of good health

96 Not entering the mosque if smelling bad

97 What one should not be interested in

98 Recommendation concerning women

99 The ḥadīth “Ask for advice of women…”

100 Women’s obligations

The pious, rigorist admonitions of the Majālis are thus not primarily intended for a prince or a ruler but, rather, for the petit bourgeois milieu of Ottoman bazaaris, ulema and civil servants. Sometimes however, the reader notices criticisms of the authorities, of their deficiencies or of their excesses. Like several of al-Aqḥiṣārī’s epistles, some chapters of his Majālis also remind one of subjects dealt with by Kātib Çelebi in his Mīzān: the use of music for religious purposes (Majlis XLVII), tobacco (Majlis XCVI–XCVII), innovations (Majlis XVIII, etc.), pilgrimages to tombs (Majlis XVII, LVII), supererogatory prayers (Majlis XIX), shaking hands (Majlis L), enjoining right and forbidding wrong (Majlis LXXXIX), bribery (Majlis LXXXI).

According to the famous Delhi theologian Shāh ‘Abd al-‘Azīz (d. 1239/1824): “The Book of the Councils of the Pious and the Paths of the Best, on the science of exhortation (wa‘ẓ) and admonition (naṣīḥa), presents many benefits about the secrets of the Sharī‘a prescriptions and about jurisprudence (fiqh), on the subjects of the [spiritual] way and on the topics concerning the refutation of innovations and blameworthy habits.”¹ Al-Aqḥiṣārī’s Majālis also offers wonderfully vivid echoes of the societal reality in which he lived, as well as direct manifestations of his own concerns vis-à-vis the evolution of Ottoman Turkey at the beginning of the 11th/17th century and clear insights into the nature of his reformist agenda. It is therefore appropriate to let him explain himself, about a few issues also tackled by Kātib Çelebi, what was going wrong and which solutions he favoured.

After weighing the arguments for or against religious singing, Kātib Çelebi concludes that “the intelligent man will not be so stupid as to hope to decide a dispute of such long standing.”¹ In the Majālis, al-Aqḥiṣārī’s opinion on the subject is clearcut: singing is an even greater sin than listening to singing, and finding it beautiful amounts to becoming an infidel. Such is in fact the status of all those preachers, muezzins and Sufis who indulge in music during their sermons, invocations, praises, and graces, and of those who go to mosques or frequent them in order to listen to them. Particularly interesting for the linguist, the musicologist and the historian of Ottoman religious practices, are the examples of word alterations of which our author then accuses the clerics and mystics of his time:

“Listening to singing (taghannī) is a major sin (kabīra) and someone singing for people brings them to commit this major sin together. As listening to singing is a major sin, that singing is a major sin is thus even more true. Someone singing thus also commits this major sin and the beauty which he puts in it amounts to making lawful that which is categorically forbidden; now this is unbelief (kufr). From this it is manifest that when one attends the Friday and collective prayers in our time, one hardly escapes committing a major sin. The sermons and the recitations of many of the preachers (khaṭīb) and the Qur’ān reciters are indeed rarely free from singing. On the contrary, in their sermons and their recitations, they adopt the ways that they follow with poems and ghazals, to the point that one almost does not understand what they say and what they recite, because of the melodic effects and the scansions. Such is also the situation with the muezzins in their blessings on the Prophet, their calls for God’s satisfaction with others, their “Amīns”, and their “Allāhu akbars” at the various intervals in the prayer. Those present who listen commit this major sin. Some of them or, rather, most of them, sometimes or, rather, most of the time, find them beautiful as the caprice of their soul predominates in them and they do not care about religious matters; from which it necessarily follows that they become unbelievers, according to what is related from Ẓahīr al-Dīn al-Marghīnānī.¹ Similarly for those who attend the tarāwīḥ prayers during the nights of Ramaḍān in order to listen to the songs of praises (tasbīḥ) of the muezzins, in the great and the small mosques. The names of God appearing in these [praises], like “O Compassionate!” (yā ḥannān), “O Kind!” (yā mannān), “O Liberal and Beneficent!” (yā dhā l-jūd wa liḥsān), and [phrases] like “Praised be the One Who possesses the Sovereignty and the Royalty! Praised be the One Who possesses the Power and the Empire!” (subḥāna dhī l-mulk wa l-malakūt, subḥāna dhī l-‘izza wa l-jabarūt), and other of the most beautiful names and superior attributes, by multiplying the melodic and musical effects, they change them and they distort them to a degree where it is no longer possible to distinguish them and to identify them. They for instance say sūbḥānā l-mālikī l-ḥānnān! sūbḥānā l-mālikī l-mānnān! (“Prai-ai-ai-sed be-e-e th-th-the Com-m-mpassionate Ki-i-ing! Prai-ai-ai-sed be-e-e th-th-the Kind Ki-i-ing!”), by singularly lengthening the u following the s, the a following the n and the m, and the i following the l and the k, etc. Similar are the musical effects of the Sufis. They for instance say after the meals, as grace, al-ḥamdū lī-Llāh! al-shukrū lī-Llāh! (“Glory-y-y to-o-o God! Thanks-s-s to-o-o God!”), with long vowels after the d, the r and the l, etc. The Muslim ought to be wary of attending these things and hearing them, and shall look for a mosque that is free of them. Such things indeed have the appearence of worship but are in reality disobeying and a major sin. One perhaps even finds them beautiful and his religion is wiped out: he is not aware of it and the situation then is that ignorance will not be an excuse.”²

No wonder that ulema sing in the mosques as, for al-Aqḥiṣārī, they are grievously sick. They themselves suffer from the diseases from which they are supposed to cure people. Moreover, instead of being moral guides reminding the commonalty of the Day of Judgement and Hell, they corrupt them even more by charming them and deluding them with idle hopes in the divine mercy. And what beats all, these worthless ulema often solicit a reward for their evil services! Al-Aqḥiṣārī’s opposition to such clerical mercantilism once again brings him closer to Birgivī as the latter, according to Kātib Çelebi, declared in his al-Sayf al-Ṣārim – The Sharp Sword, “that it was unlawful to accept payment in return for reciting the Qur’ān, or for teaching, or indeed for any act of worship.”¹

“One almost does not understand what they say and what they recite, because of the melodic effects and the scansions. Such is also the situation with the muezzins in their blessings on the Prophet…”²

“The physicians, these are the ulema and, in this time, they have become sick, seriously sick, to the point of being unable to treat themselves, not to speak of treating others. This is the reason why the disease is general, the therapy has been interrupted, and the creatures are perishing. Or, rather, the physicians keep themselves busy with various ways of misguiding [people]. Would to God, if only, as they do not improve matters, they were not corrupting them! If only they were keeping silent and were not talking! When they speak, in their religious exhortations, they indeed do not aim at anything else than to win the hearts of the commonalty. Now, they do not obtain access to them but by making mention of the hope [in God] and the [divine] mercy, as that is more pleasing to the ears and lighter on [human] nature. The creatures thus leave their councils of religious exhortation (majlis wa‘ẓ) with, as sole profit, an overplus of insolence in committing actions of disobedience. Now, as long the physician is like that, the sick are led to perish because of the remedy, as it is administered in the wrong manner.”¹ “One ought to know that when the ulema, in the councils which they devote to knowledge, solicit something from the people, doing so is not lawful for them, as this is earning something by means of a scholarly activity and an action of obedience [to God], no matter whether they solicit [it] for themselves or for others. Among the blameworthy solicitations is the fact of offering a little in order to take a lot, as is done when one is invited to weddings or circumcisions, as well as the fact of taking care of [someone else’s] sheep with the intention of getting to keep its young, as it is said that it is about this that His words, Exalted is He, were sent down: “And show not favour, seeking wordly gain!”²