TY - JOUR
T1 - The twilight of ottoman sufism
T2 - Antiquity, immorality, and nation in yakup kadri karaosmanoǧlu's nur baba
AU - Wilson, M. Brett
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright 2017 Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2017/5/1
Y1 - 2017/5/1
N2 - This article examines modernist-nationalist thought on Sufi lodges during the late Ottoman Empire and early Turkish Republic via the controversial novel Nur Baba (1922) by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoǧlu. Widely translated and the basis of the first-ever Turkish motion picture, Nur Baba depicts a debauched Sufi lodge in turn-of-the-century Istanbul where drug use, alcoholism, and illicit amorous liaisons run amok. The novel played an important role in shaping public perceptions of Sufi lodges in the twilight years of the Ottoman Empire. This piece explores the novel's place among early 20th-century critiques of Sufism, its approach to national history, its historical setting (during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II), and its close relationship to the intellectual concerns of the Second Constitutional Period (1908-18). It argues for a revised understanding of the novel's historical setting and contends that the novel employs a combination of moralistic critique and romantic nostalgia that is central to modernist-nationalist treatments of Sufism that instrumentalize Sufi culture for nation-building purposes.
AB - This article examines modernist-nationalist thought on Sufi lodges during the late Ottoman Empire and early Turkish Republic via the controversial novel Nur Baba (1922) by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoǧlu. Widely translated and the basis of the first-ever Turkish motion picture, Nur Baba depicts a debauched Sufi lodge in turn-of-the-century Istanbul where drug use, alcoholism, and illicit amorous liaisons run amok. The novel played an important role in shaping public perceptions of Sufi lodges in the twilight years of the Ottoman Empire. This piece explores the novel's place among early 20th-century critiques of Sufism, its approach to national history, its historical setting (during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II), and its close relationship to the intellectual concerns of the Second Constitutional Period (1908-18). It argues for a revised understanding of the novel's historical setting and contends that the novel employs a combination of moralistic critique and romantic nostalgia that is central to modernist-nationalist treatments of Sufism that instrumentalize Sufi culture for nation-building purposes.
KW - Ottoman Sufism
KW - Second Constitutional Period
KW - Sufi lodges
KW - modernist-nationalist thought
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85018770107&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0020743817000034
DO - 10.1017/S0020743817000034
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85018770107
SN - 0020-7438
VL - 49
SP - 233
EP - 253
JO - International Journal of Middle East Studies
JF - International Journal of Middle East Studies
IS - 2
ER -