What if Ottoman Islam had monasteries?

Thande

Donor
As every Byzantine nut knows, the Byzantine Empire had a habit of sending the leaders of failed coups, etc., into exile to monasteries to become monks (as far away as the Crimea if they were considered particularly dangerous).

Now I believe the form of Sunni Islam followed by the Byzantines' successors, the Ottomans, did not have anything analogous to similar monasteries. (Muslim) coup plotters under the Ottomans were typically just executed, probably contributing to the European impression that the Ottomans were more rough-hewn and bloodthirsty than their predecessors. But what if such a system had existed? It might not have to be monasteries as such, but perhaps some sort of madrassa system?
 
IIRC there are various Sufi brotherhoods that have something very similar to monasteries.

I even recall reading somewhere that Timur Lenk retreated in such an "Islamic monastery" for a while, and I know for a fact that Timur Lenk practiced some form of Sufism.

I guess it wouldn't be that implausible to let some Sufi brotherhood develop a similar "monastic" system in the Ottoman Empire - just let some Sufi master from an area where such "Islamic monastic" systems exist preach in the Ottoman Empire and gain popularity.
 
The Ottomans had numerous equivalents to monasteries, and there were occassions where people (even a Sultan or two) retired to them from public life. In the later Ottoman period, plotters generally weren't executed, but were rather sent off to posts in the middle of nowhere - Marzuq in southern Libya was a favorite place of exile, for example.

The various Sufi orders had lodges (tekke), which were not exactly monasteries, although many orders had locations that were fairly analogous to monasteries - but did not have the exclusivity of the monastery, which you would expect in a faith without a clerical hierarchy.

Islam frowns on monasticism, at least in the Christian sense - so Islamic "monks" are expected to earn an honest living and marry. Islam doesn't have the Christian "worship" of poverty, especially if you choose it by laying around contemplating the universe all day - Islamic brotherhoods have centers and meetings, but don't live together like Christian monks.

There were wandering ascetics (devishes), but they generally provided social services like medical care, and were along with merchants the principal mechanism for the spread of Islam after the early period of conquests.

So in order to have monasteries on the Christian model, Islam would have to be a much different religion than it is.



As every Byzantine nut knows, the Byzantine Empire had a habit of sending the leaders of failed coups, etc., into exile to monasteries to become monks (as far away as the Crimea if they were considered particularly dangerous).

Now I believe the form of Sunni Islam followed by the Byzantines' successors, the Ottomans, did not have anything analogous to similar monasteries. (Muslim) coup plotters under the Ottomans were typically just executed, probably contributing to the European impression that the Ottomans were more rough-hewn and bloodthirsty than their predecessors. But what if such a system had existed? It might not have to be monasteries as such, but perhaps some sort of madrassa system?
 

Thande

Donor
Thanks AHP. I had suspected that there must be some analogy, given how the Ottomans generally adopted similar methods of government to the Byzantines, but I wasn't sure what it could be.
 
The various Sufi orders had lodges (tekke), which were not exactly monasteries, although many orders had locations that were fairly analogous to monasteries - but did not have the exclusivity of the monastery, which you would expect in a faith without a clerical hierarchy.

That word - tekke - sounds/looks familiar. Is it any way related to the Greek word tekkedes?
 

MrP

Banned
I have no idea - the Arabic word for the same thing is totally different (unusually), so I suppose it's possible. What does tekkedes mean?

I'd guess summat to do with buildings. IIRC, the root is either to give birth to or roof tiles. My modern Greek dictionary doesn't say, and I'm a bit busy to check my ancient one.
 
I'd guess summat to do with buildings. IIRC, the root is either to give birth to or roof tiles. My modern Greek dictionary doesn't say, and I'm a bit busy to check my ancient one.

That's possibly a coincidence - sometimes the Greeks added a Greek ending to an Ottoman word - for instance "dolmades" is Turkish "dolma" (made by filling) + -des.

But a tekke is a building, so your explanation could be correct.

A little searching turns up tekkedes = opium den, which is a secondary meaning in Turkish - presumably there was some smoking going on in those lodges. Normally you would specify "esrar tekkesi" (hashish lodge - the -si is an possessional ending used for indefinite compounds).
 
That's possibly a coincidence - sometimes the Greeks added a Greek ending to an Ottoman word - for instance "dolmades" is Turkish "dolma" (made by filling) + -des.

But a tekke is a building, so your explanation could be correct.

A little searching turns up tekkedes = opium den, which is a secondary meaning in Turkish - presumably there was some smoking going on in those lodges. Normally you would specify "esrar tekkesi" (hashish lodge - the -si is an possessional ending used for indefinite compounds).

What's your favorite type of cookie, Abdul?:D

Tekkedes = hashish den in Greek. Here's what happened. When the Anatolian Greeks left Turkey due to the population exchange, a lot of them ended up in the urban areas, like Athens and Pireaus. They were pretty much despised by mainstream Greeks, so thus they were in the underground. However, the Anatolian Greeks also brought with them traditions from the underworld, such as smoking hashish (which was illegal in Greece, although legal in Turkey) and their music, then called smyrnika. Smyrnika is in fact a precursor to one of my favorite genres of Greek music: rebetika (also spelt rempetika). During the 4th of August Regime, Metaxas tried to shut down all the tekkedes, but this only enhanced the popularity of the music. And yes, a lot of the songs have references to hashish in there (sometimes blatant, as in "Let's stash some weed!", and sometimes not so obvious).
 
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