OSMANLI'DA iLM-i KELAM
-
~er,Eserler,~eseleler
Editorler
Osman Demir
VeyselKaya
Kadir GOmbeyaz
U. Murat Kllavuz
iSTANBUL 2016
TilE POSSmiLITY OF A MYSTICAL KAL\M AMONGST THE
OTIOMAN 'llLAMA': TilE CASE OF mN BAHA' AL-DIN
Hasan Spiker·
It is a fortunate fact that one of our most important sources for the
history of the Ottoman 'ulamtf from the 14m to_ the 16m centuries,
al-Shaqa>iq al-Nu'maniyya, was written by a figure who, in historical
hindsight, comes into relief as himself one of the most promine!lt
'ulama~ in Ottoman history. Tashkuprizada's treatment of the comings
and goings of the 'ulama) in that essential book is thus not solely bio-
graphical, but also provides significant inside information as to the com-
plexion, scope, and dynamic movement of the philosophical schools of
thought and ideas that these 'ulama) unceasingly dealt with in their
writing and teaching lives.
In the course of his coverage of one of the 'ulama) of the reign of
Sultan Selim II, 1 Tashkuprizada says something he has never before said
• Researcher; Tabah Foundation, Abu Dhabi, UAE .
1
This is where Tashkupnzada has placed him, although in actual fact Ibn Baha' al-Din
was active during the reign of Sulayman the Magnificent, and died before Sultan S_elim
came to power.
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The Possibility of a Mystical Kalam amongst the Ottoman 'Uiarna'/H. Spiker
about anyone, amongst the hundreds of thinkers he has already dis-
cussed. Mubyi al-Din Mubammad ibn Baha' al-Din, he says, "combined
the methodology of systematic theology with the methodology of Sufism"
(jamaca bayna tanqat al-kalam wa-tartqat al-t~awwu./). 2 This bracing
synthesis, we are told, unfolded in Ibn Baha' al-Oin's commentary on
Abu I;Ianifa's al-Fiqh al-akbar, where he "treated the questions with
surpassing mastery, lifting them up from mere knowledge to direct wit-
nessing." Indeed, at the beginning of al-Qawl al-ja$1, Ibn Baha' al-Din
himself dispels any concerns later readers might have about the com-
mentary format of his book, telling us that it contains "critically verified
results (ta/;Jqfqat) that are unprecedented (. ..) and that have never before
been even implicitly alluded to. "3 He has already explained, in charac-
teristically enigmatic tone, that he had at first hesitated to write the book,
but then "my secret called out to me in the language of its state, and
awoke me from the sleep of heedlessness, saying 'did not your Lord open
your breast to the lights of gnosis of Him?"' He then goes on to explain
d1at he came to understand he must not deny people the special
knowledge he had been given, and thus resolved to write "whatever God
Tashkuprizada, Abu 1-Khayr 'lsam ai-Din AI:unad Efendi, al..Shaqa'iq al-Nu'mtiniyya
.fi 'ulama' al-Dawla a/-'Utbmaniyya (Beirut: Dar al-Kit.ab al-'Arabi, 1975), 259.
3 Ibn Baha' al-Din, M~yi ai-Din Mul)anunad, al-Qaw/ al-Ja$1 shad} al-Fiqh al-akba1·
/i-f-Imam al-A '~am Abf lfanifa (ed. <Asim Ibrahim ai-KayyaU ai-J:iusayni al-Shadhili
ai-Darqawi; Beirut: Kunab NashinJn, 2013) (henceforth "K"), and al-Qawl al-JCZ$1
shari} a/-Fiqb al-akbar li-1-Imam al-A '+am Abflfanifa (ed. Rafiq al-'Ajarn; Beirut: Dar
ai-Muntakhab al-'Arabi, 1998), (henceforth • A") A 24, K 25.
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Osmanh'da ilm-i Kelfun: Alimler, Eserler, Meseleler
compels my pen to run with" namely "the first thing tG be reflecte~ from
my heart into my writing, and not to change it. "4 He has made it clear,
then, without the need for Tashkuprizada's talk of synthesis, that this is to
be no ordinary book of 'ilm al-kaltim.5
Ibn Baha) al-Din was a spiritual master and guide of the Bayrarru:
order, who also tells us that he "spent thirty years studying the rational
sciences." 6 He initially pursued his studies with important caqliyytit
scholars including Mulla Kesteli, but later inclined towards Sufism and
entered the service of Sheikh Mul).ammad Iskilibi, who before his own
A 19, K20.
In his article on Ibn Baha' al-Din, Tash.kupnzada had in fact shared (pp. 259-260) a
personal experience he h_a d. had of his subject's spirirual gifts. "One of the remarkable
events that happened between us is that when I was a master at one of the eight
madmsas, I saw the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, in a dream-vision
bestowing a crown upon me, which came from Medina the illuminated. This vision
transpired in the last third of the night, and when I woke up, I TOSe and looked
through rpe exegesis of al-Baycjawi, which I had been reading during .that period.
After I had prayed the Dawn Prayer, a person came to me, bearing [Ibn BahiP al-Din's]
greetings of peace, and saying 'the Sheikh says that the proper interpretation of the
vision you saw tonight is that you will become a judge.' No one had visited me after I
had seen the vision, apart from this person who had come with the greetil;lgs of peace
of the Sheikh [Ibn Baha' al-Din), and I knew therefore that what had taken place was
the result of his mystical unveiling [kasbjJ. A few days later I went to visit him, men-
tioning the vision and his interpretation of it, and he said 'Yes, it is so.' I said 'I do nor
..J
seek to become a judge,' and he said, 'Do not seek it,-but if it is conferred upon you
without your asking for it, do not refuse it.' This was one of the reasons that I accepted
a judicial position; Tash.kuprlzada, al-Shaqit>iq al-Nu<maniyya, 259.
6
A 19,K20.
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The Possibility of a Mystical Kalam amongst the Ottoman CUlama'/H. Spiker
conversion to mysticism had in rum been a srudent of the great astron~
omer and philosopher 'Ali al-Qushji. Ibn Baha.' al-Din died in 1551, ten
years before his illustrious biographer, and around fifteen years after
another giant of the Ottoman caqliyytit, KemaJpasha-zada, whose de-
fense of Ibn 'Arabi is famous, and whose significant work synthesising
Ibn 'Arabi with Avicennan philosophy and kaltim less famous? In the
historical context, of course, when Tashlruprizada refers to a synthesis of
kaltim with "Sufism," he means the mystical metaphysics of the school of
the Greatest Master, Mul:lyi al-Din Ibn 'Arabi, one of the great revolutions
of whom was to tear off the roof, as it were, obscuring questions usually
treated with speculative philosophy, leaving them exposed to the sky of
direct spirirual experience of truth; it is in the school of Ibn 'Arabi that the
impingement of the data of mystical experience on that of rational spec-
ulation first came to be treated in an explicit and systematic manner,
becoming a standard feature of works of that school.
Probably the most significant early Ottoman contributions to .Ak-
barian metaphysics, DawOd al-Qay~arl's Muqaddima, and Mulla Fanan's
Mi$btif? al-uns, are particularly thorough in this regard, but it is difficult
for any work of Akbarian metaphysics not to engage on some critical
level with the post-Avicennan philosophy, being informed as it is so
7
This fascinating aspect of Ibn Kamal, so clear in his writings, is still little studied. A
very basic overview with allusions to texts can be found in The Biographical Ency-
clopedia of Islamic Philosophy (ed. Oliver Leaman; London: Bloomsbury Academic,
2006), 198-199 (sub "Ibn Kemaln).
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Osmanh'da ilm-i Kelam: Alimler, Eserler, Meseleler
deeply by an adaptation of the latter's terminology; the majority of the
most important Akbarian works treat of the relationship between reason
and mystical unveiling as a matter of course- it is undoubtedly one of the
school's most fundamental tropes.8
The extremely prominent positions of al-Qay~ari and Mulla Fanari
in the early Ottoman establislunent and the subtlety and incisiveness of
their Akbarian works established the thought of Ibn 'Arabi as a penna-
nent and familiar feature of the Ottoman intellectual milieu, and set the
stage for Mulla ]ami's spectacular adjudication between philosophy and
Akbarian Sufism commissioned by Sultan Mel).med Fatil)., al-Durra
al-fakhira, in which he showed, drawing on al-Qay~ati and Fanari, the
interrelation and intertwining of a shared body of concepts between
Sufism, kalam, and Avicennan philosophy, dealing with concepts like the
superaddition of existence to the essence of the Necessary Being, the
negation of which is one of the cornerstones of Akbari ontology.
The particularly distinctive aspect of Ibn Baha' al-Din's al-Qawl
al-f~l, when compared to Akbarian works by Ottomans before him, is
8 This is a constailt theme throughout e.g. Mulla Fanan...s Mi$btl/p al-uns (Mulla Fanari,
Shams al-Din Mubammad ibn I:Iamza, Mi!;ba/p al-uns bayna l-ma<qul wa-1-masbhud
[ed. Mul;lammad Khwajawi; 3ro ed., Tehran: Intisharat-i Mawla, 1995), and Da.wOd
- ..1
al-Qay~ari's Mafia< khU$Wi al-kilam fi ma<at:ti FU$W; al-lpikam (ed. '~im Ibrahim
al-Kayya!I al-I:Iusayni al-Shadhili al-Darqawi; Beirut: Dar al-Kutub ai-'llmiyya, 2012).
Especially epitomlc examples can be found in Fanan, pp. 32-54, and al-Qay~ari pp.
139, 176, and 322.
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The Possibility of a Mystical Kalam amongst the Ottoman <Ulama'/H. Spiker
that unlike them it is very consciously a book of kaltim. Al-Qay~ari and
Mulla Fanari opted to weave their syntheses of reason and mysticism
decidedly from the perspective of the latter - that is, the new science
variously known as ci[m, ai-ta/;Jqfq ("the science of verified realisation") or
citm al-/;Jaqt'Piq("the science of spiritual realities,")9 in which the tools of
philosophy are used to reinforce, explain, and formulate theories about
the data of mystical experience. Ibn Baha> al-Din, however, deems it very
much worth guiding readers through more or less all the standard ques-
tions of post-Jurjanian and Taftazanian kalam, offering brilliant solutions
to numerous longstanding problems often involving the most cut-
ting-edge solutions of the likes of Khojazada in his Tabtifut; yet it is then,
at the end of his "traditional" treatment of each of these philosophical and
theological questions, that Ibn Bah~P al-Din's cup overflows, as he sheds
light on aspects of th~se questions from the perspective of the schools of
Ibn 'Arabi, and, to a lesser extent, al-Suhrawardi, often attempting to
demonstrate that the Akbarian and isbraqi approaches provide the only
ways to resolve lingering difficulties brought on by inherent failings in
what is, broadly speaking, the Peripatetic method.
This takes place in the context, however, of his recognition that
reason does have its legitimate areas of competence, where it is sufficient,
within a limited domain, to provide real knowledge. The Divine unity
9 For the usage of both 'ibn al-tal)qfq and <ibn al-l)aqa'iq as referring to a distinct
science, as well as the foremost exposition of the fundamental principles of tltis sci-
ence with reference to the other sciences, see Mulla Fanan, Mi$bdl) al-uns, 39-44.
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Osmanh'da ilm-i Kelfun: Alimler, Eserler, Meseleler
and transcendence,
.
for
.
exa.rnple,
. ,· are two truths that he tells us. "reason ;
can independently arrive at,'>I 0 (closely mirroring some of al-Sheikh
al-Akbar's formulations in the FutiiJ;u:tf 1); and even in areas where reason
is not adequate to the task, it remains highly valuable. .Thus, in Ibn Baha'
al-Din's elaborate treatment of the question of the incorporeality or oth-
erwise of the human soul, in which he presents twelve arguments from
Avicennan philosophers for a'n d twelve counterarguments from Ash'arl
theologians against, he tells us that while soi:ne of these Ash'arl counter-
arguments are cogent enough to damage the the claims to absolute con-
...
elusiveness of any individual Avicennan argument for.the incorporeality
. .
of the soul, "it is not far-fetched that ~o~clusive knowledge, or something
near to it, should obtain from the combination of these pieces of evi-
dence, and most of the aforementioned [counterargumentsl, although
possible in reason's reckoning, are not acceptable to intuition (f?ads) or to
unbiasedness; indeed, intuition judges, when there is no bias, that the
human soul is incorporeal. "12 If this last sentence seems daring for a book
of kalam, Ibn Baha' al-Din's actual taf?qiq, which he comes :to shortly
thereafter, will seem positively seditious:
The main source [of knowledge] regarding this topic - namely,
kl:lowledge of the incorpQreality of th~ soul, is spiritual! tasting,
10
A 302, K 332. ..J
11
. See for example Ibn 'Arabi, Abu 'AbdAllah Mubyi al-Din:MuQam.mad, ibn' 'Ali; Kitab
al:.jut.Lif?at alLMakkiyya (Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-'Arabiyya al-Kul!>r.a;,.191l);.I, 4-t, 289'
12
A 78, K85.
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The Possibility of a Mystical Kalam amongst the Ottoman 'Uiama'/H. Spiker
experience, witnessing, and gnosis. For he whose spiritual ca-
pacity (isWdadubii.) is in his original ctisposition (Cl$1 fttratibt)
pure, and whose lot in the world of spirits ( 'tllam al-a1wa}J) was
to be showered with light from [the Divine) Presence, and who
has .then ctisciplined his own self through spiritual exercises and
strivings, and freed himself from imprisonment by the veils of lust
and anger, and the rest of the blameworthy attributes, will be
overtaken by the Divine solicitude, and drawn by the Presence of
Singularity, such that his spirit and soul are detached from his
body just as a snake becomes detached from its skin; sacred
castings-off of physicality and subtle spiritual ascensions will then
occur to him, and he will fly to the worlds of all-pur~ lights, and to
the sacred ascending stairways of Divine destining; his body is left
as if an inanimate thing, until, sooner or later, the spirit returns to
it. Sheikh Shihab al-Din [al-Suhrawardi] says in one of his creatis-
es13 that "when the human soul undergoes a spiritual transport, it
nigh on leaves the corporeal world, and seeks out a world that is
infinite." 14
It is exactly in the context of Ibn Baha> al-Din's corrunitment to
13 He is referring to al-Suhrawardi's Haytikil al-nii.r. Rather than a direct quotation, this
seems to be a mingling of two passages. See the passages in Haytlkil al-nii.t· with
ai-Oawwaru's commentary: al-Suhrawardi, Abu J:[af~ Shihab al-Oin 'Umar ibn
Mul)ammad, Hayakil al-nttr (in Abu 'Abd Allah Jalal al-Oin Muh.ammad ibn As'ad
ai-Oawwaru, 7balatb rasti'il: Tafsir Sii.rat al-KtiflrO.n, Sbawtlkil al-l}uru.fi .fi shari}
Haytlkil al-nilr, Ristilat anmildbaj al-'ulum, wa-bi-dbaylibi Ristllat bayakil al-mtr,
ed. AJ:unad Tuysirkaru; Mashhad: Majma' al-Bubuth ai-Islamiyya, 1990), 242 and 244.
H K86, A 79.
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Osmanh'da ilm-i Kel3.m: Alimler, Eserler, Meseleler
tal;Jqfq, in the broadest sense that includes the data of mystical experi-
ence, that he makes clear he does not intend to undertake in his book to
abide by a sanctimoniously narrow definition of orthodoxy, for the sake
of conformity, or indeed for any other reason..When treating of a famous
point of contention between the Mu 'tazila and the Ashti 'i1·a, concerning
whether God's actions are "motivated by objectives" (mu 'allala
bi-aghraif) he inclines towards a position verbally similar to the one
associated with the Mu 'tazila, which to earlier Sunni orthodoxy seemed
to unacceptably imply that the fullness of God's perfection is dependent
on the fulfilment of His will in His creative action. Ibn Baha.> al-Din de-
fends his position with the words "should you say 'this is tantamount to
departing from the principles of orthodox Sunnism (Ahl al-sunna
wa-1-jama'a), and inclining towards the position of the Mu'tazila,' we
say, 'we have never undertaken to do anything other than follow reason
(al-'aql), tradition (al-naql), and spiritual tastin~ Cql-dhawq), and expe-
rience (al-wijdtin); blind emulation (al-taqlid) is not one of the distin-
guishing marks of the people of spiritual verification (ahl al-tal;Jqfq)."'15
He again leaves us in no doubt that by ahl al-tal;Jqfq, he means more than
just the tal;Jqiq or "critical verification" of the post-Razian kalam, for, as in
countless other places in his al-Qawl al-J~l, in this particular case his
tal;Jqiq centres around a brilliant employment and exposition of Akbarian
metaphysical concepts conveying that the objective of God's' having
15
A 250, K 276.
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The Possibility of a Mystical KaHim amongst the Ottoma.q 'Ulama'/H. Spiker
made his creatures responsible agents, accountable for their actions with
the eternal consequences of punishment or reward is to "manifest the
beginninglessly eternal degrees of the innate capacities (:?uhur marti.tib
al-isti'dti.dti.t al-azaliyya) [of creatures], that have their origins in the
unformed essences (al-dhawti.t al-ghayr al-maft.tla), through [their]
following the prescriptions of people. the innate capacities of whom are
: pure, and through desisting from the things that they have prohibited.
This is in accordance with their innate capacities in ihe degrees of fol-
lowing and desisting - and their disobeying them is also in accordance
with their innate capacities- in order that those destined for bliss arrive to
the ranks prepared for them~ by means of their worthiness becoming
manifest, so that the objections.of the arrogant repudiators vanish, and so
that the irrefutable proof is Allah's (Q 6:149)." 16 Here Ibn Bah~P al-Din
has employed the Akbarian trope of the al-isWdti.d al-azali or "begin-
ninglessly eternal in.riate capacity" which obtains through the manifesta-
tion of God's attributes in the Fixed Essences, which are; as Ibn cArabi
also tells us, "unformed" (ghayr mafula); he alludes, moreover, to Ibn
cArabi's famous interpretation of Q 6:49 in his FU$U$ al-1Jikam, 17 which
forms the basis for an important aspect of his influential views on deter-
minism and theodicy. 18
16
K 27_7, A 251.
17
Ibn 'Arabi, Fu~ii~ al-f?ikam (ed. Nawaf al-JarralJ.; Beirut: Dar Sadir, 2005), 45-46.
18
This influence, especially on the great Iraqi exegete Aba 1-Thana' al-.Aiusi provoked
the ire of Mu~tafa Sabri in his work on deternlin.ism and free will, Mawqif al-bashar
(Mu~tafa Sabri Efendi, Mawqif al-bashar. taf?ta sultan al-qadar [with Mubammad
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Osmanlt'da ilm-i KeHim: Alimler, Eserler, Meseleler
This procedure becomes Ibn Bahii' al-Oin's standard method of
dealing with questions in al-Qawl al-ja-$1. For each of them, he will ftrst
place his readers in the thick of the most advanced debates between
post-Avicennan philosophers and mutakallimun- and thi~ usually in-
volves the assumption of the highest Shar/;J al-Mawaqifand al-Maqti$id
level of knowledge of the state of these debates - and then offer his own
ta/;Jqiq, which sometimes involves the mere adjustment of already exist-
ing positions, but in most cases amounts to demonstrating that no real
solution is even strictly speaking possible, except from the perspective of
the school oflbn 'Arabi. After carefully framing the ultimate unsolvability
of numerous important philosophical questions on the Peripatetic prin-
ciples of the dominant strand of Avicennan philosophy and· of later
kalam, he often begins the last, Akbarian stage of his treatment with the
words "the only solution is the position of the Sufi;;" (Ia mukhall~ illa
bi-qawl al-$iljiyya). One notable example is Ibn Baha' al-Din's ta/;Jqiq of
the much wrangled-over question of the nature of knowledge, especially
that of God. Elaborating aspects of the thought of al-Qay.$arl and Mulla
Fanarl/9 Ibn Baha' al-Din notes that the standard view of the /;Jukama~
Zahid al-Kawthari's Kitdb al-istib$dr fll-ta/Jaddutb 'an al-jabr wa-l-ikbtiylit~ Cairo:
Dar al-Ba{ia'ir, 2008]), which nonetheless constitutes a largely helpful and fairly ac-
curate introduction to the position of al-Sheikh al-akbar, see pp. 271-289. -'
19
For al-Qay{iari and MulHi Fanan on the necessity of the existence of transcendent
forms "underlyirlg" individuated particulars, see respectively al-Qay{iari's Mafia'
kbu$fl$ al-ki/am, 43, and Fanfui's Mi$bti/J al-uns, 427-428.
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The Possibility of a Mystical Kalam amongst the Ottoman 'Ulama'/H. Spiker
and mutakallimun - that only individual things exist, and that universal
concepts are just that, mere concepts abstracted from individuated es-
sences that are the only reality - leads to numerous problems, not least
amongst them that of how to account for God's knowledge of His crea-
tion before their existence, and almost as fundamentally, how to account
for the meaning of an "essence" at all - if essences have no existence
before they become particulars, how is it that "they" become particulars
at all?
Because of their commitment to this Peripatetic view, says Ibn
BahiP al-Din, the Avicennan philosophers and the mainstream muta-
kallimun "become so entangled in difficulties that everytime they try to
extract themselves from one they fall into another." 20 However, the
Platonic and Akbarian view that, as Ibn Baha? al-Din says, "the sciential
forms are the essences [of things], and the forms of extramental particu-
lars are shadows thereof, subordinate (tabaC) thereto, is the terminator of
all difficulties, and the guide against all misguidance; not as the philos-
ophers have .reversed matters, [saying] .that the extramental particular
forms constitute the fundamental principles, and the intellectual forms
representations and shadows thereof. "21
Similarly, in treating the question of the ontological status of "ex-
istence" itself, a common whipping-horse for Akbarian writers horrified
°
2
K 190, A 174.
21
A 175, K 191.
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OsmaniJ'da ilm-i Kel3.ro: Alimler, Eserler, Meseleler
by the relegation of "existence" to the status of a "perspectival" (i'tiban)
entity/2 Ibn Bah~P al-Din ~troduces the Akbarian concept of "absolute
existence" (al-wujud al-mutlaq) - which provides the conceptual cor-
nerstone for the doctrine of the unity of existence ( wafJdat al-wujud) -
saying that the Avicennan philosophers and mutakallimun "have made
existence posterior to the superaddition of differentia and individuations,
but we say that existence and being-existent are prior to all of the degrees
of genus, species, class, and individual, all of which are [mere] 'thisnesses'
(hadbiyyat) and qualifications (quyudat) restricting Absolute Being -
which exists of its own Essence - and that cause it to descend until they
entify and individuate it, even though they are all nonexistent perspec-
tival entities with respect to themselves; yet because of their becoming
annexed and pertaining to the Essence of Existence, they become col-
oured by the characteristics of existence. "23
For Ibn Bah~P al-Din, as with his Ottoman predecessors al-Qay~a.ri
and Mulla Fanari, the notion that an existent entity could be contingent
on nonexistent entities is simply absurd:
According to them, individuations (al-ta'ayyunat) are ab-
solutely nonexistent, because an existent thing for them is
something that has existence as a property, and for them,
individuations do not have this property; yet despite this;'
22
E.g. ai-Qay~ari in Mafia< kb~ al-kilam, 83.
23
A38, K38.
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The Possibility of a Mystical Kalam amongst the Ottoman 'Ulama>/H. Spiker
multiple individuals in extramental reality obtain because of
[the individuations]- and this is extremely far-fetched. 24
What were the features ofibn Baha-' al-Oin's intellectual backdrop
of mid-16th century Istanbul that made it possible for ruin to write this
unlikely work of Akbarian mystical kalam? One significant aspect_is that
with the absorption and expansion of Avicennan first philosophy into
post-Razian kalam, the madrasa student would for t.J:e first time in Islamic
history study the whole range of topics of general ontology (al-umur
al-'amma) in great detail, in Shar~J al-Mawaqif, with its countless Otto-
man supercommentaries, and in al-Taftazaru's Shar/;J al-Maqti$id.
Moreover, the learned establisliment of the Ottoman state was founded in
a context in which the Avicennan principle of the subordinacy of the
sciences that study particular aspects of being, to those which study being
qua being, namely metaphysics, was ascendant.~ 5
The school of Ibn 'Arabi constituted another important ingredient
in the shaping of early Ottoman intellectual life. Dawild al-Qay-?ad,
working against the backdrop of the revolution of .both the philoso-
24
A38, K38.
2
; The discussions by al-Taftazaru in his Shm"/J al-Maq~id (Taftazaru, Sa'd al-Oin
Mas'ud ibn 'Umar, SbarlJ al-Maq~id [Is~bul: Ma!ba'at al~.I;Iajj Mul)arram Efend.I
al-~usnawi, 1888], 5-15), and al-Jurjapi in his Shar/;J al-Mawaqif(Jurjam, al-Sayyid
al-Sharif 'Ali ibn Mubammad ibn 'Ali, Sbar/J al-Mawaqif[as Kitab al-Mawaqif, ed.
Mubammad Badr al-Oin al-Na'sani; Cairo: Ma!ba'at al-Sa'ada, 1907], I, 22-61), were
hugely influential on Ottoman theological thought, because of the great centrality of
these works to the clirriculum.
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Osmanh'da ilm-i Kelam: Alirnler, Eserler, Meseleler
phized kaltim of al-Abhari, al-Tusi, al-Katibi, al-Bay<;lawi, Qutb al-Din
al-Shi.razi, and others on the one hand, and the metaphysical Sufism of
al-Qtinawi, al-Jandi, and his own teacher al-Kashani on the other, makes
clear in his famous commentary on Ibn 'Arabi's FU$zi$ that philosophized
kalam is of a lesser. _rank than the metaphysical. Sufism. 26 This radical
belief does not seem to have been deemed inconsistent with his being
placed in charge of what is believed to be the very first Ottoman mad-
rasa, by Sultan Orhan Ghazi.
The towering figure, however, is certainly Mulla Fanari, who casts
his.shadow on all of subsequent Ottoman scholarship, but parti~ularly in
the fields of metaphysical Sufism, principles of jurisprudence, and logic.
His M~btil? al-uns bayna l-ma'qii.l wa-1-mashbftd, for sheer intellectual
power, is surely one of the most important books in the entire Akbarian
heritage. What is particularly distinctive about Mulla Fanan's book is that
early on, he formalises -:- and seems to be the first to have ever formalised
- 'ilm .al-tal?qfq as a science in which spiritual experience can determine
postulates! principles, and premises, a science which admits of a form of
demonstration Fanari describes as "fi!ri iltihi,"27 that is, that come about
~.ough kashf, thus making mystical unveiling a distinct source of
knowledge to be employed alongside the traditional reason ( caql), tradi-
tion (naql), and sense experience (/;Jiss). It was in this extraorqinary Ot-
26
See, for ~xample, the references in footnote 8 above.
27
See Mulla Fanll.ri, Mi$biil? al-uns, 41-44.
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The Possibility of a Mystical Kalfun amongst the Ottoman 'Uiama'/H. Spiker
toman milieu of the likes of al-Qay~ari, Mulla Fanari, the unique patron-
age of Mel:)..med TI and Ibn Kamal, that Ibn Baha> al-Din, from the alter-
native starting-point of kalam, could, as we have seen above, take the
unprecedented step of supplementing the traditional· sources of
knowledge in the science of kalam, with dhawq and wijdtin, his inten-
tion being to show that Akbarian metaphysics provides the only real
solutions to numerous longstanding philosophical puzzles.
Over the past thirty years or so, massive advertising campaigns
promoting the thought of Mulla Sadra have ensured that the concept of a
synthesis between Avicennan and Akbari thought is now a familiar one,
but one inexorably associated with his name. If Mulla Sadra is not quite a
household name in the West, he is certainly now one of the best known
of all Islamic philosophers. Hundreds of articles and dozens of books
have appeared on his thought, and while he is certainly a thinker of great
subtlety, one cannot help but feel that he has in the past decades enjoyed
a tremendously exaggerated limelight, given that careful perusal of the
works of, amongst others, al-Qay~ari, Mulla Fanari, and indeed Ibn Baha>
al-Din, reveal that Mulla Sadra is in fact a much less original thinker than
has often been thought. While this notion is a commonplace in certain
Shi'I ciifanz circles in Iran today, such as that ·o fi:Iasan-zadeh·Amuli, and
in certain Ibn <Arabi-oriented Sunni circles, like that of the great Iraqi Sufi
master and philosophical theologian Sayyid Qu~ayy Abu 1-Si<d, it is never
acknowledged by writers on Mulla Sadra in the English language. Be that
as it may, as the current rediscovery of the heritage of t:h,e great Ottoman
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Osmanh'da ilm-i KeHim: Alimler, Eserler, Meseleler
intellectual flowering unfolds, this is bound to change.
BffillOGRAPHY
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Kitab al-futuf?at al-Makkiyya, 4 vols., (Cairo: Dar al-Kutub
al-'Arabiyya al-Kubra, 1911).
- - -, Fw;U$ al-f?ikam (ed. Nawaf al-Jarral:).; Beirut: Dar Sadir,
2005).
Ibn Baha' al-Diri., Mul:).yi al-Din Mul).ammad, al-Qawl al-ja.$1 shari?
al-Fiqh al-akbar ti-l-Imam al-A '~am Ab'i lfanifa (ed. ~im
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al-'Arabi, 1998).
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al-Mawaqif, 7 vols., (as Kitab al-Mawaqif, ed. Mul:).ammad
Badr al-Din al-Na'sani; Cairo: Matba'at ·al-Sa'ada, 1907).
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Mu~tafa Sabri Efendi, Mawqif al-bashar talpta sultan al-qadar
-427-
The Possibility of a Mystical Kalam amongst the Ottoman CUlama.>/H. Spiker
(with Mul).ammad Zahid al-Kawthari's Kitab al-istib$arft
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al-Qay~ari, Sharaf al-Din DaWCld ibn Mal)mud ibn Mul)am.mad,
Ma
