-
Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2010 DOI:
10.1163/157006510X512223
Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010) 317-354
brill.nl/jemh
Constantinople and the End Time: The Ottoman Conquest as a
Portent of the Last Hour
Kaya ahin*Tulane University
AbstractThe Muslim conquest of Constantinople was seen in
various apocalyptic traditions as one of the portents of the end.
An Ottoman mystic, Ahmed B-cn, gave voice to these apoca-lyptic
fears and expectations soon after the Ottoman conquest in 1453 CE.
His apocalyp-tic narrative, expressed in the Turkish vernacular,
placed the Ottoman enterprise within the final tribulations and
hailed the sultan, Mehmed II, as an apocalyptic warrior. This
endorsement heralded the emergence of a new imperial ideology in
the sixteenth century: Ottoman history became an important
component of universal history, while Ottoman sultans were
attributed cosmic responsibilities and messianic abilities.
KeywordsApocalypticism, the fall of Constantinople, Ottoman
Empire, Ahmed B-cn
Introduction
The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in May 29, 1453
repre-sented, among other things, the realization of a prophecy
with universal appeal. As the inheritors of both Byzantine and
Islamic apocalypticism
* Assistant Professor, Tulane University, Department of History.
The author would like to thank Cornell H. Fleischer and Evrim Binba
for their invaluable comments and cons-tant encouragement, and the
anonymous reviewer and the editors of the JEMH for their helpful
suggestions. Earlier versions of the article were presented at the
Early Modern Workshop (University of Chicago), the Buffett Center
for International and Comparative Studies Faculty and Fellows
Series (Northwestern University) and the Fifty-Fifth Annual Meeting
of the Renaissance Society of America.Note on transliteration and
dates: Otto-man Turkish is transliterated by using the modern
Turkish alphabet while Arabic translite-rations, for the sake of
convenience, omit diacritical marks as much as possible. All dates
are Common Era unless otherwise indicated.
-
318 K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010)
317-354
fifteenth-century Ottomans were not immune from it. They were
also influenced by a heightened sense of apocalyptic urgency that
permeated the Islamic world, indeed the whole Eurasian continent,
in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. While apocalyptic
speculations in the Ottoman realm reached a new level before and
after the conquest, modern Turkish and Ottoman scholarshipwith the
exception of a few workshas failed to recognize the existence of a
distinct Ottoman apocalypticism, not to say its impact on Ottoman
politics and historiography. In order to try and fill this lacuna
this article will analyze two post-1453 works by an Otto-man mystic
and scholar, Ahmed B-cn (d. after 1465; pronounced Bee-jaan): his
Drr-i Meknn (The Hidden Pearl, hereafter DM) and Mnteha (The
Epilogue).1 Ahmed was influenced by Byzantine and Islamic
apocalypticism; he also relied on works of divination ( jafr). He
believed that the conquest was a sign of the Last Hour (al-Sa), but
he also believed that Muslims and Ottomans had an important role to
fulfill in the final battles. Even though Ahmed passed away in the
last quarter of the fifteenth century the new apocalypticism that
he started (together with its messianic overtones) would become
especially relevant in the context of the Ottoman-Habsburg and
Ottoman-Safavid rivalries of the sixteenth century. By interpreting
Ottoman history within a cosmic/uni-versal context, and by granting
the Ottoman dynasty a world-historical role, Ottoman apocalypticism
left an indelible mark in the political imag-inary of Ottoman
imperialism.
The Conquest of Constantinople in Modern Turkish
Historiography
In modern Ottoman/Turkish historiography the conquest of
Constanti-nople is treated either as a landmark of Ottoman military
superiority, a sign of divine assistance, or the beginning of a
process of empire building. It has been argued, for instance, that
the Ottoman conquest is a world-historical event that ushered in
the end of the Middle Ages and the begin-ning of the Renaissance.2
A typical account usually praises the military
1 For the Drr-i Meknn I will use a recent, quite detailed and
comprehensive, critical edition: Ahmed Bican Yazcolu, Drr-i Meknun:
kritische Edition mit Kommentar, ed. Laban Kaptein (Asch: self
publication, 2007), hereafter Kaptein/DM. For the Mnteha, the
references are to the following manuscript, unless otherwise
indicated: Sleymaniye Library, ms. Hac Mahmud Efendi 1657.
2 A typical example is smail Hmi Dnimend, stanbul Fethinin nsan
ve Meden Kymeti (Istanbul: stanbul Fetih Cemiyeti, 1953). The work
was meant to commemorate
-
K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010) 317-354
319
skills and gentlemanly qualities of Mehmed II (r. 1444-46,
1451-81), and emphasizes the heroism and determination of the
Ottoman army, but also mentions its kindness towards the defeated.3
These narratives are meant to provide a contrast to works by modern
European historians in which Constantinoples last hour is recounted
as a tragic event.4 There are other apologetic approaches that
emphasize the religious aspects of the con-quest. For instance,
frequent references are made to a saying (hadith) that is
attributed to Prophet Muhammad: Constantinople shall be conquered
indeed; what a wonderful leader will that leader be, and what a
wonderful army will that army be.5 As will be discussed below, the
bulk of Muham-mads sayings about Constantinople have apocalyptic
tones but these are usually ignored.
Scholars without an explicit nationalist or religious agenda, on
the other hand, usually recognize the conquest as the event that
started a pro-cess of urban, economic and political restructuring.
This process eventu-ally culminated in the construction of an
Ottoman Empire, the empowerment of the Ottoman sultan and his
palace household, the emer-gence of a central administrative
apparatus, etc.6 Even though the institu-
the 500th anniversary of the Ottoman conquest. It was translated
into English and French and published the same year as,
respectively, The Importance of the Conquest of Istanbul for
Mankind and Civilization, and, La valeur humanitaire et
civilisatrice de la conqute de Constantinople.
3 E.g. Selhattin Tansel, Osmanl Kaynaklarna Gre Fatih Sultan
Mehmedin Siyas ve Asker Faaliyeti (Ankara: Trk Tarih Kurumu, 1953),
63-111.
4 See, for example, Joseph Hammer von Purgstall, Geschichte des
Osmanischen Reiches (Pest: C.A. Hartleben Verlag, 1827), vol. 1,
von der Grndung des Osmanischen Reiches bis zur Eroberung
Constantinopels 1300-1453, 524-58; Kenneth M. Setton, The Papacy
and the Levant (1204-1571), vol. 2, The Fifteenth Century
(Philadelphia, PA: American Philo-sophical Society, 1978), 108-37;
Franz Babinger, Mehmed der Eroberer und seine Zeit (Munich: F.
Bruckmann, 1953), 92-105; Steven Runciman, The Fall of
Constantinople, 1453 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
1965). A somehow more balanced account is found in Donald M. Nicol,
The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453, 2nd edition (Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 369-93.
5 This approach is represented by works such as mer Nasuhi
Bilmen, stanbulun Tarih esi ve Sure-i Fetih Tefsiri (stanbul:
Gelenek, 2003, originally published in 1953); Necdet Ylmaz, ed.,
Deeri ve Tefsiri Asndan Fetih Hadisi: Feth-i Kostantiniyye
(Istanbul: Drulhadis, 2002); and especially Ahmet Araka,
Konstantiniyye Fethi Hadisinin slam Fetih Hareketlerine Etkisi ve
Oluturduu Motivasyon, in I. Uluslararas stanbulun Fethi Sempozyumu,
Istanbul, 24-25 May 1996 (Istanbul: BB Kltr leri Daire Bakanl,
1997), 87-95.
6 For the most concise form of this argument see Halil nalck,
Mehemmed II, Ency-clopedia of Islam 2, electronic edition; relevant
sections of idem., Istanbul, ibid.; idem.,
-
320 K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010)
317-354
tional approach is far superior to the apologetic one, it shares
with it a complete omission of the issue of apocalypticism. For
scholars trying to portray the conquest as one of the main
historical achievements of the Turkish nation, or to describe
Mehmed II as a divinely anointed ruler, the existence of Ottoman
narratives that viewed the conquest as a portent of the Last Hour
is, obviously, not the most convenient subject. Similarly, the
proponents of the institutional approach cannot be expected to
assess the importance of attitudes and mentalities that were
inspired not by a relatively secular, almost positivistic teleology
but by an eschato-logical one.
Stphane Yerasimos and Feridun Emecen are the only two scholars
who have discussed the weight of apocalyptic speculations in the
Ottoman realm around the time of the conquest. In his Lgendes
dempire, Yerasi-mos provides a detailed study on the exchange of
apocalyptic tropes between the Islamic and Byzantine traditions,
the migration of these tropes into the Ottoman realm, and the
emergence of distinctly Ottoman apocalyptic narratives that center
on Constantinople.7 He is also the edi-tor, together with Benjamin
Lellouch, of a volume of essays about the apocalyptic significance
of Constantinople, as well as apocalypticism in Anatolia, Byzantium
and the Balkans before and during the rise to power of the
Ottomans.8 Feridun Emecen, in a work devoted to a thorough
re-reading and critique of the existing wisdom concerning the
conquest, aptly points to the awareness of contemporary Ottomans
about these
The Policy of Mehmed II toward the Greek Population of Istanbul
and the Byzantine Buildings of the City, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 23
(1969-70): 229-49. For a more recent example of this emphasis on
institutionalization, see contributions by various authors in Necat
Birinci, ed., Fatih ve Dnemi / Mehmed II and His Period (Istanbul:
Trk Kltrne Hizmet Vakf, 2004). This approach also prevails in
general works of Ottoman history. In Caroline Finkels Osmans Dream:
The History of the Ottoman Empire (New York: Basic Books, 2005),
the chapter that deals with Mehmed IIs reign is entitled An
Imperial Vision (ibid., 48-80). Also see Colin Imber, The Ottoman
Empire 1300-1650. The Struc-ture of Power, second edition
(Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 25
passim.
7 Stphane Yerasimos, Lgendes dempire: La fondation de
Constantinople et de Sainte-Sophie dans les traditions turques
(Istanbul and Paris: Institut franais dtudes anatoliennes;
Librairie dAmrique et dOrient Jean Maisonneuve, 1990).
8 Benjamin Lellouch and Stphane Yerasimos, eds., Les traditions
apocalyptiques au tour-nant de la chute de Constantinople: Actes de
la Table ronde dIstanbul, 13-14 avril 1996 (Istanbul and Paris:
Institut franais dtudes anatoliennes; LHarmattan, 1999).
-
K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010) 317-354
321
apocalyptic speculations, and to their efforts at dissimulating
them.9 However, the author does not pursue the implications of this
particular finding. Yerasimos, on the other hand, tends to
associate Ottoman apoca-lypticism with political dissent and does
not recognize the ways in which it legitimized the rule of the
Ottoman dynasty.
Hidden behind the agendas of modern Turkish nationalism and
Turk-ish political Islam, or seen as irrational and inconsequential
by scholars focusing on institution building, Ottoman
apocalypticism shares the fate of other post-1000 Muslim
apocalyptical writings. David Cook, whose recent work has led to a
much-needed renewal of interest in Islamic apoc-alypticism, clearly
states how difficult it was for modern scholars even to recognize
Islamic apocalypticism as a legitimate sub-section of Islamic
studies.10 Sad Amir Arjomand, who shares Cooks views that Islamic
apocalypticism has been largely ignored in modern scholarship,
points to another important misperception: Islamic apocalypticism,
especially in its Sunni variant, is usually accepted as having
reached maturity around 1000. After this date apocalyptic
movements, individuals and texts are mostly studied within the
context of, or as stemming from, Shiite Islam.11 This approach
denies the centrality of apocalypticism in Sunni Muslim cultures
and societies and relegates it to marginal movements and groups.
The pro-Sunni bias that prevails in modern Islamic studies also
permeates the study of Ottoman religious thought and movements. The
Ottoman enterprise is often closely associated with Sunni Islam;
apocalyptic and messianic ideas are typically attributed to
heterodox and Shiite religious groups; and apocalyptic content
found in explicitly Sunni works is often downplayed as
manifestations of traditional Islamic eschatology.12 This selective
reading of Sunni Islam, which purges it of all apocalyptic and
messianic beliefs, is belied by Ahmeds works. He describes himself
as a
9 Feridun Emecen, stanbulun Fethi Olay ve Meseleleri (Istanbul:
Kitabevi, 2003), 51-65.
10 David Cook, Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic (Princeton, NJ:
Darwin Press, 2002), 29-33.
11 Sad Amir Arjomand, Islamic Apocalypticism in the Classical
Period, in The Ency-clopedia of Apocalypticism, eds. Bernard
McGinn, John J. Collins, and Stephen J. Stein, vol. 2,
Apocalypticism in Western History and Culture, ed. Bernard McGinn
(New York: Continuum, 1999), 238.
12 For a typical representative of this approach see Ali Cokun,
Mehdilik Fenomeni. Osmanl Dnemi Dini Kurtulu Hareketleri zerine Bir
Din Bilimi Aratrmas (Istanbul: z Yaynclk, 2004).
-
322 K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010)
317-354
devout Sunni Muslim but does not have any qualms about referring
to the authority of important Shiite figures or, for that matter,
the Byzantine apocalyptic tradition. This is the reason why the
study of his life and works will not only help us better understand
Ottoman mentalities around the middle of the fifteenth century, but
will also contribute to the study of post-classical Islamic
apocalypticism. Finally, it will also revise our understanding of
what it meant to be a Sunni before the Ottoman-Safavid struggle of
the sixteenth century turned Sunni and Shiite Islam into mutually
exclusive confessions and identities.
The Muslim Conquest as Apocalyptic Event
For contemporary observers, in 1453, the Ottoman conquest did
not simply signify the enmity between Islam and Christianity or the
imperial transition from Byzantium to the Ottoman Empire. For
Muslims, Chris-tians, and Jews alike it meant a warning about the
proximity of the End Time/the Last Hour. Apocalypticism was a very
rich and quite popular intellectual tradition throughout the
history of the Byzantine Empire, and the end of the empire was
closely associated with the end of the world.13 The political,
military and economic problems suffered during the last centuries
of its existence gave a particular urgency to apocalypticism.14
Constantinoples capture by Arabs/Muslims was often associated with
the
13 For Byzantine apocalypticism see Gerhard Podskalsky,
Byzantinische Reicheschatolo-gie: die Periodisierung der
Weltgeschichte in den vier Grossreichen (Daniel 2 und 7) und dem
tausendjhrigen Friedensreiche (Apok. 20). Eine motivgeschichtliche
Untersuchung (Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1972); Cyril Mango,
Byzantium. The Empire of New Rome (New York, NY: Scribners Sons,
1980), 201-17; Paul Alexander, The Byzantine Apocalyptic
Tra-dition, ed. with an introduction by Dorothy de F. Abrahamse
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984); Paul Magdalino,
The History of the Future and Its Uses: Proph-ecy, Policy and
Propaganda, in The Making of Byzantine History. Studies Dedicated
to Don-ald M. Nicol, eds. Roderick Beaton and Charlotte Rouech
(London: Centre for Hellenic Studies, Kings College
London/Aldershot: Variorum, 1993), 3-34; David Olster, Byzan-tine
Apocalypses, in The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism, 2: 48-73; Paul
Magdalino, The End of Time in Byzantium, in Endzeiten. Eschatologie
in den Monotheistischen Weltreli-gionen, eds. Wolfram Brandes &
Felicitas Schmieder (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2008),
119-33.
14 For the apocalyptic atmosphere of the last centuries of
Byzantium see Marie-Hlne Congourdeau, Byzance et la fin du monde.
Courants de penses apocalyptiques sous les Palologues, in Les
traditions apocalyptiques au tournant de la chute de
Constantinople, eds. Lellouch and Yerasimos, 56-73.
-
K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010) 317-354
323
End Time in the Byzantine apocalyptic tradition. Moreover, since
the ear-liest centuries of the empire, Constantinoples topography,
its monu-ments, and anecdotes about its foundation had always
fueled the fires of apocalyptic fears and expectations. The
constriction of the empire to a small area around Constantinople
further magnified the apocalyptic role attributed to the city.15
The Ottoman conquest of the city in 1453 hap-pened a mere
thirty-nine years before the seven-thousandth (and thus final) year
of Creation according to the Byzantine tradition and, in the words
of Paul Magdalino, it required little imagination or juggling of
the figures to believe that the reign of Antichrist had arrived.16
The scholar and clergyman Gennadios Scholarios, the first
Ottoman-anointed Ortho-dox patriarch, provided the readers of his
Chronographia with this crucial information;17 he consoled himself
and his flock with the thought that they did not have long to
suffer.18
Since the Byzantine apocalyptic tradition had become an integral
part of European apocalypticism in the centuries preceding 1453,19
the fall of Constantinople led to a wave of renewed apocalyptic
speculations in
15 For Constantinople as one of the central tropes in Byzantine
apocalypticism, see Gilbert Dagron, Constantinople imaginaire.
tudes sur le recueil des Patria (Paris: Presses universitaires de
France, 1984), 323-30; Walter K. Hanak, Some Historiographical
Observations on the Sources of Nestor-Iskanders The Tale of
Constantinople, in The Mak-ing of Byzantine History, eds. Beaton
and Rouech (Aldershot, 1993), 35-45; idem., One Source, Two
Renditions: The Tale of Constantinople and Its Fall in 1453,
Byzantinoslavica 62, no. 1 (2004): 239-50; Wolfram Brandes, Der
Fall Konstantinopels als apokalyp-tisches Ereignis, in Geschehenes
und Geschriebenes. Studien zu Ehren von Gnther S. Hen-rich und
Klaus-Peter Matschke, eds. S. Kolditz and R. C. Mueller (Leipzig:
Eudora-Verlag, 2005), 453-69; Albrecht Berger, Das apokalyptische
Konstantinopel. Topographisches in apokalyptischen Schriften der
mittelbyzantinischen Zeit, in Endzeiten, eds. Brandes &
Schmieder, 135-55. Finally, Agostino Pertusis magisterial study
deserves a special mention here: Fine di Bisanzio e Fine del Mondo.
Significato e Ruolo Storico delle Profezie sulla Caduta di
Costantinopoli in Oriente e in Occidente, ed. posth. Enrico Morini
(Rome: Isti-tuto Palazzo Borromini, 1988).
16 Magdalino, The history of the future, 27. 17 For the Greek
text and a French translation see Congourdeau, Byzance et la fin
du
monde, 74-97.18 Hanak, Some Historiographical Observations,
43-4.19 For the impact of the Byzantine apocalyptic tradition in
medieval Europe, see Per-
tusi, Fine di Bisanzio e Fine del Mondo, 5-24, 62-67; Paul
Alexander, The Diffusion of Byzantine Apocalypses in the Medieval
West and the Beginnings of Joachimism, in Prophecy and
Millenarianism. Essays in Honour of Marjorie Reeves, ed. Ann
Williams (Essex, UK: Longman, 1980), 53-106.
-
324 K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010)
317-354
Europe as well. Medieval Europe was rife with prophecies about
Muslims20 and later Turks. The Ottoman expansion in the Balkans,
together with the fall of Constantinople, infused these with
particular immediacy. As a result the late fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries witnessed a radical increase in apocalyptic and prophetic
speculation. Plans about restoring Constantinople and Jerusalem to
Christianity and establishing the Last World Empire began to figure
in the political agenda of every ambitious monarch.21
Islamic apocalypticism, which grew in dialogue with pre-existing
Near Eastern apocalypses, borrowed a large number of themes from
Byzantine apocalypticism and produced its own synthesis.22 Two
common tropes, found in both Byzantine and Islamic traditions, are
especially relevant for the study of Ottoman apocalypticism:23
Constantinople,24 and the Blond
20 Medieval European apocalypticism incorporated the Saracens in
its vision of the end very early on, as shown by Jean Flori, LIslam
et la fin des temps: Linterprtation proph-tique des invasions
musulmanes dans la chrtient mdivale (Paris: Seuil, 2007), and
espe-cially 116-147.
21 See Jean Deny, Les pseudo-prophties concernant les Turcs au
XVIe sicle, Revue des tudes islamiques 10, no. 2 (1936): 201-20;
Kenneth Setton, Western Hostility to Islam and Prophecies of
Turkish Doom (Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society,
1992), 15-27; Yoko Miyamoto, The Influence of Medieval Prophecies
on Views of the Turks. Islam and Apocalypticism in the Sixteenth
Century, Journal of Turkish Studies 17 (1993): 125-45; Pl Fodor,
The View of the Turk In Hungary: The Apocalyptic Tradition and the
Legend of the Red Apple in Ottoman-Hungarian Context, in Les
traditions apocalyptiques au tournant de la chute de
Constantinople, eds. Lellouch and Yerasimos, 99-131; Brinda Charry,
Turkish Futures: Phophecy and the Other, in The Uses of the Future
in Early Modern Europe, eds. Andrea Brady and Emily Butterworth
(New York: 2010), 73-89.
22 For the apocalyptic exchange between Islam and other
religious traditions, see Cook, Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic, 2-9;
Hayrettin Ycesoy, Messianic Beliefs and Imperial Poli-tics in
Medieval Islam. The Abbsid Caliphate in the Early Ninth Century
(Columbia, SC: The University of South Carolina Press, 2009),
28-35. For the formative impact of the Muslim-Byzantine wars on
Islamic apocalypticism, see Wilferd Madelung, Apocalyptic
Prophecies in Hims in the Umayyad Age, Journal of Semitic Studies
31, no. 2 (Autumn 1986): 158-74; Suliman Bashear, Early
Muslim-Byzantine Wars: A Review of Arabic Sources, Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 1, no. 2 (1991): 173-207; idem.,
Arabs and Others in Early Islam, Studies in Late Antiquity and
Early Islam 8 (Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 1997) throughout, and
especially 123; Cook, op. cit., 66-80.
23 For a concise analysis of the confluences between Byzantine,
Arab and Turkish tradi-tions concerning Constantinople see
Yerasimos, Lgendes dempire, 183-99.
24 For the transfer of themes about Constantinople from the
Christian to the Muslim tradition, and for the additions of
Muslims, see Cook, Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic, 59-66. For
specific studies on the function of Constantinople in the Islamic
apocalyptic
-
K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010) 317-354
325
Peoples25 (Banu al-Asfar). Accordingly, the Muslim conquest of
Constan-tinople was a portent of the end. This first conquest would
soon be fol-lowed by a counter-attack by the Blond Peoples, and the
city would be recovered by Christians. Muslims would retreat to
Syria and/or the Ara-bian Peninsula, suffer extreme casualties, and
ultimately conquer the city only after the descent of the Messiah
and his leadership of the Muslim armies. In the Byzantineand
eventually Europeanapocalyptic tradi-tion the Last Roman Emperor
tamed the Blond Peoples (associated with Nordic peoples) and
eventually defeated the Ishmaelites with their help. The Islamic
tradition also recognized the Blond Peoples as the main ene-mies of
Muslims in the final apocalyptic battles. The Blond Peoples trope
traveled throughout Islamic history; it was initially applied to
the Byzan-tines, and then to the Crusaders.
The Ottomans inherited these tropes, fears, and expectations and
applied them to their own realities. Even in the late eighteenth
century, as noted by the diplomat and historian Ignatius Mouradgea
dOhsson, some Ottomans were apprehensive of an eventual loss of
Constantinople and a retreat into Syria.26 In the sixteenth
century, an Ottoman vizier inter-preted the yellow fleur-de-lis of
the French crown as the sign of the Blond Peoples, only to be told
by an anxious French envoy that the Blond Peoples were actually the
Habsburgs Landsknecht troops wearing yellow
tradition see Armand Abel, Un Hadit sur la prise de Rome dans la
tradition eschatologique de lIslam, Arabica 5 (1958): 1-14; Louis
Massignon, Textes prmonitoires et commen-taires mystiques relatifs
la prise de Constantinople par les Turcs en 1453 (=858 Hg), Oriens
6, no. 1 (June 1953): 10-17. A summary of Arab views about
Constantinople from the rise of Islam onwards can be found in Nadia
Maria El Cheikh, Byzantium Viewed by Arabs, Harvard Middle Eastern
Monographs XXXVI (Cambridge, Mass.: Center for Mid-dle Eastern
Studies, Harvard University, 2004), 60-71.
25 The Blond Peoples, mentioned in several apocalyptic hadith,
very early became an integral part of the Islamic apocalyptic
tradition. See Ignaz Goldziher, Asfar, Encyclope-dia of Islam 2,
electronic edition; Ahmad M.H. Shboul, Byzantium and the Arabs: The
Image of the Byzantines as Mirrored in Arabic Literature, in
Arab-Byzantine Relations in Early Islamic Times, ed. Michael Bonner
(Aldershot, GB & Burlington, VT: Ashgate/Vari-orum, 2004), 237,
238; Yerasimos, Lgendes dempire, 190-1. The Blond Peoples played an
important role in the Christian apocalyptic tradition as well, as
shown by Pertusi, Fine di Bisanzio e Fine del Mondo, 40-62 (the
Blond Peoples in Byzantine traditions) and 62-109 (the Blond
Peoples in Latin and Slavic traditions); Alexander, The Byzantine
Apocalyptic Tradition, 70, 161.
26 Ignatius Mouradgea dOhsson, Tableau gnral de lempire othoman,
7 volumes (Paris: F. Didot, 1788-1824), 1: 425 passim.
-
326 K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010)
317-354
trousers.27 Indeed, in the first half of the sixteenth century,
apocalyptic prophecies according Constantinople an important place
in the final bat-tles widely circulated in the Ottoman capital.
Some of these foretold an imminent Ottoman demise at the hands of
European Christians while others promised an eventual victory and
the emergence of the Ottoman sultan Sleyman as a messianic ruler.28
More importantly, fifteenth-century Ottoman scholars, historians,
dervishes, and political figures were aware that the conquest
represented more than a military achievement.
In a military council before the siege, some of the participants
who opposed the siege based their objections on the apocalyptic
implications of an eventual conquest. Mehmed IIs tutor and advisor,
Akemseddin, tried to appease these fears by saying that he had
studied Muhammads sayings, and concluded that Mehmed II would
conquer the city while the Blond Peoples would attack only in the
distant future.29 The trope of the Blond Peoples is also
encountered in Mehmed IIs endowment deed (vak-fiye), where the
sultan is described as fighting against the forces of evil
represented by the Blond Peoples.30 On the other hand, as shown by
Feri-dun Emecen, the persistence of these apocalyptic themes led to
carefully planned efforts at downplaying and/or ignoring the
apocalyptic ramifica-tions of the event. The apocalyptic meaning of
the conquest had become the elephant in the room.
Akemseddin, Mehmed IIs tutor and advisor, was aware that this
con-spicuous silence was not the best answer to the problem. He
thus led the efforts in creating a new legacy for the conquest and
the conqueror, a leg-acy that has been transferred in its entirety
into the imagination of mod-ern Turkish political Islam. For
instance, in a letter to the sultan during the siege, he
interpreted a Quranic expression, baldatun tayyibatun (a fair
territory), as a divine sign that referred to the Ottoman conquest.
He supported his argument by stating that the numerical value of
the letters, 857, signified the Islamic calendar year in which the
city was besieged.31
27 Michel Balivet, Textes de fin dempire, rcits de fin du monde:
A propos de quelques thmes communs aux groupes de la zone
byzantine-turque, in Les traditions apocalypti-ques au tournant de
la chute de Constantinople, eds. Lellouch and Yerasimos, 10.
28 Ibid., 10-11; Robert Finlay, Prophecy and Politics in
Istanbul: Charles V, Sultan Sleyman, and the Habsburg Embassy of
1533-1534, Journal of Early Modern History 2, no. 1 (1998): 1-31;
Cornell H. Fleischer, Shadows of Shadows: Prophecy and Politics in
1530s Istanbul, International Journal of Turkish Studies 13, nos.
1-2 (2007): 52-57.
29 Ylmaz, Deeri ve Tefsiri Asndan Fetih Hadisi, 70. 30 Babakanlk
Osmanl Arivi, Ali Emiri, II. Mehmed 63.31 Ylmaz, Deeri ve Tefsiri
Asndan Fetih Hadisi, 58. The quote is from the Quran,
-
K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010) 317-354
327
In another letter, written during a particularly difficult stage
of the siege, Akemseddin comforted Mehmed II by saying that he
interpreted the Quran according to divinatory techniques and
identified signs that pointed to the Ottoman conquest.32 Finally,
the same Akemseddin used divinatory methods to discover the tomb of
Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. Abu Ayyub had been one of Muhammads earliest
supporters, and he reput-edly died of natural causes during a
Muslim siege of Constantinople in 674. Following his request, his
friends buried him under the walls of the city. The discovery of
his tomb was meant to establish a link between Muhammad and the
Ottoman dynasty, and the early Muslims and the Ottoman army.
Akemseddins familiarity with divination and the science of
letters (hurf ) indicates that he was well-acquainted with the
Muslim apocalyp-tic tradition, since these procedures, as it will
be discussed below, were part of the arsenal of every Muslim
apocalyptist in the fifteenth century. His knowledge of Islamic
apocalypticism probably motivated him and his fellow scholars even
further in creating alternative interpretations. One of these
alternative interpretations to emerge in this period relied on
particu-lar saying (hadith) by Muhammad: Constantinople shall be
conquered indeed; what a wonderful leader will that leader be, and
what a wonderful army will that army be.33 The objective was to
neutralize the apocalyptic significance of the event and use the
hadith to argue that Muhammad himself congratulated in advance the
Ottoman sultan and his soldiers.
This saying, believed by some scholars to be an Ottoman
fabrication, is not found in authoritative hadith collections such
as those prepared by al-Bukhari and Muslim.34 Most of Muhammads
sayings on Constantinople
chapter 34 (Saba), verse 15. Akemseddins letter is in the Topkap
Palace Archives, E. 5584; it is reproduced in ibid., 71-3. The
letter is signed Hzr and can thus be apocryphal or manufactured
later, but the information is important in showing Ottoman attempts
at creating an alternative set of prophecies around the
conquest.
32 The letter is reproduced in Halil nalck, Fatih Devri zerinde
Tetkikler ve Vesikalar, 3rd edition (Ankara: Trk Tarih Kurumu,
1995), 217-9.
33 See note 5 above.34 J. H. Mordtmann (Al-Kustantiniyya,
Encyclopedia of Islam 2, electronic edition)
argues that this hadith is mostly emphasized by fifteenth- and
sixteenth-century Ottoman sources, and that older references are
wanting; he thus implies that it was likely manufac-tured by the
Ottomans in the first half of the fifteenth century. The hadith is
actually older, and can be traced back to Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. AH
241/CE 855), even though it does not figure in the collections of
Muslim and al-Bukhari. It was probably fabricated during the
Byzantine-Muslim wars in Syria. I am grateful to Mehmetcan Akpnar
for determining the origins of this particular hadith.
-
328 K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010)
317-354
have an apocalyptic tone and these are easily accessible in more
popular hadith collections.35 The Ottomans extensively used
al-Bukhari and Muslim. However, when it came to downplaying the
apocalyptic signifi-cance of the conquest, they ignored the more
popular sayings and pre-ferred to emphasize a relatively obscure
hadith at the expense of the others. Similarly, in letters sent to
various Muslim rulers after the conquest, only neutral sayings,
those few that did not have an apocalyptic content, were
quoted.36
Ahmed radically differs from these Ottoman learned men because,
rather than veiling the apocalyptic meaning of the conquest, he
preferred to take it at face value. He had already dabbled in
eschatology in works written before the conquest. After the
conquest, however, he espoused eschatology as the history of the
present. Especially in his DM he placed the history of the Ottoman
enterprise within an apocalyptic panorama that he built thanks to
Byzantine and Islamic apocalypticism as well as divination.
However, very much like the Ottoman learned men men-tioned above,
he lent his support to the ruling sultan, Mehmed II, whom he
portrayed as an apocalyptic warrior protecting Muslims from the
Blond Peoples. By attributing such a role to the sultan he also
started a process that would culminate, in the sixteenth century,
in the creation of a messianic and imperialist rhetoric around the
Ottoman sultan Sley-man (r. 1520-1566).37
35 For a short assessment of these apocalyptic sayings, see
Bashear, Early Muslim-Byz-antine Wars: 178-80; for these sayings as
reported in various authoritative sources, see Isam Sayyid, ed.,
al-Fitan wa alamat akhir al-zaman lil-Imamayn al-Bukhari wa Muslim
(Giza: Maktabat al-Nafidhah, 2003); Mustafa Adawi, ed., Al-sahih
al-musnad min ahadith al-fitan wa al-malahima va ashrat-al-saa
(Riyadh: Dar Balnasiyah lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi, 2002); Ahmad
Muhammad Abd Allah Ali, Mashahid al-Qiyamah fi al-hadith al-nabawi
(Al-Mansourah: Dar-al-Wafa, 1991), especially 39-98.
36 Ahmet Ate, stanbulun Fethine Dair Fatih Sultan Mehmed
Tarafndan Gnderilen Mektuplar ve Bunlara Gelen Cevablar, Tarih
Dergisi 4, no. 7 (1953): 11-50.
37 Ottoman messianic and apocalyptic thought in the sixteenth
century has been mas-terfully studied by Cornell Fleischer. See his
Bureaucrat and Intellectual in the Ottoman Empire: The Historian
Mustafa l (1541-1600) (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1986), 133-5, 138; idem., The Lawgiver as Messiah: The Making of
the Imperial Image in the Reign of Sleymn, in Sleymn the
Magnificent and His Time, ed. Gilles Veinstein (Paris: La
Documentation Franaise, 1992), 159-74; idem., Mahdi and Millennium.
Messianic Dimensions in the Development of Ottoman Imperial
Thought, in The Great Ottoman-Turkish Civilization, vol. 3,
Philosophy, Science and Institutions, ed. Kemal iek (Ankara: Yeni
Trkiye, 2000), 42-52. Also see Barbara Flemming, Shib-krn und Mahd:
Trkische Endzeiterwartungen im ersten Jahrzehnt der Regierung
Sleymns, in
-
K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010) 317-354
329
Ahmed B-cn and the Ottoman Realm in the Fifteenth Century
We do not have a detailed account of Ahmeds life. He was born in
the last decades of the fourteenth century in Anatolia. He left the
area twice, the first time for attending school in Egypt, and the
second time for a pil-grimage to Mecca. During his lifetime he was
widely known as Ahmed B-cn. B-cn means lifeless in Ottoman Turkish;
he was given this nickname for his pallid appearance, a result of
years of ritual fasting. He spent most of his life in a dervish
lodge in Gallipoli, together with his brother Mehmed. The brothers
are known as Yazczade, i.e. the scribes sons, on account of their
father Salihs work as a scribe in the retinue of an Ottoman pasha.
Mehmed passed away in 1451, and Ahmed after 1465. They were both
members of the Bayrami order of dervishes, and Mehmed appears to
have become one of the orders prominent figures in the decades
following the death of its founder, Hac Bayram, in 1429. In
near-contemporary Ottoman biographical dictionaries as well as
modern works, Ahmed and Mehmed are shown considerable respect for
their reli-gious devotion, spiritual purity, and scholarly
achievements.38 This image agrees with Ahmeds presentation of
himself in his works where he often describes himself as a man who
rejects worldly pleasures and devotes all his time to prayer and
contemplation.
Ahmed lived through a difficult period of the Ottoman
enterprise. The Ottoman polity almost disintegrated at the hands of
Timur at the Battle of Ankara in 1402. The ensuing interregnum,
during which competing Ottoman princes fought each other in
Anatolia and the Balkans, lasted from 1402 to mid-1413. Mehmed I
(r. 1413-1421), ascending the throne in 1413, had to follow a
careful policy of restoring the authority of the Ottoman sultan
while accommodating various local powers. Murad II (r. 1421-1444,
1446-1451) was faced with two rebellions by Ottoman princes, in
1421-2 and then in 1423. The rest of his reign was spent fight-ing
against newly resurgent enemies in Anatolia and the Balkans. Mehmed
II (r. 1444-46, 1451-81), the future conqueror of Constantinople,
spent
Between the Danube and the Caucasus, ed. Gyrgy Kara (Budapest:
Akadmiai Kiad, 1987), 43-62; idem., Public Opinion under Sultan
Sleymn, in Sleymn the Second and His Time, eds. Halil nalck and
Cemal Kafadar (Istanbul: Isis, 1993), 49-58.
38 For biographical information about the Yazczade brothers,
written with a not very scholarly admiration, see Amil elebiolu and
Kemal Eraslan, Yazc-olu, slam Ansik-lopedisi, XIII: 363; Yazcolu
Mehmed, Muhammediye, ed. Amil elebiolu, 2 vols. (stanbul: Milli
Eitim Bakanl Yaynlar, 1996), 1: 9-42.
-
330 K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010)
317-354
two years on the Ottoman throne between 1444-46, when his
exhausted father Murad II abdicated in his favor. Murad had to
return in 1446 to fend off yet another offensive on the Balkan
front, and Mehmed defini-tively became the Ottoman sultan at the
death of his father in 1451.39 During his reign the Ottoman polity
reached unprecedented military and economic power, and the
political and cultural prestige of the Ottoman dynasty
increased.
The birth of Ottoman historiography is closely related to the
urge to evaluate the cataclysmic developments that rocked the
Ottoman realm in the eventful fifteenth century.40 However, the
potential relationship between apocalypticism and history-writing
or a simple sense of history has not been addressed. Notable
scholars of apocalypticism such as Paul Alexan-der41 and Bernard
McGinn have touched upon the close relationship between apocalyptic
mentality and historical consciousness. The depic-tion of history
in apocalypses is heavily colored by the authors [k]nowl-edge of
Gods plan and current events are presented in relation to the
coming end.42 It is possible to over-emphasize the historical
aspects of an apocalyptic text at the expense of its eschatological
content.43 On the
39 For further details about this period, see Halil nalck, The
Ottoman Empire. The Classical Age 1300-1600 (New York &
Washington: Praeger Publishers, 1973), 17-22; M. A. Cook, ed., A
History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730 (Cambridge: Cambridge
Uni-versity Press, 1976), 24-31; Halil nalck, Mehemmed I,
Encyclopedia of Islam 2, elec-tronic edition; J. H. Kramers, Murad
II, ibid; Finkel, Osmans Dream, 27-47. For the difficulties faced
by the Ottomans in the Balkans in this period, see Halil nalck, The
Struggle for the Balkans, 1421-1451, in A History of the Crusades,
ed. Kenneth Setton, vol. 6, The Impact of the Crusades on Europe,
eds. Harry W. Hazard and Norman P. Zacour (Madison: The University
of Wisconsin Press, 1989), 254-75.
40 For the Ottoman historiography of the period, see Halil
nalck, The Rise of Otto-man Historiography, in Historians of the
Middle East, eds. B. Lewis and P. M. Holt (New York and London:
Oxford University Press, 1962), 152-67; Victor L. Mnage, The
Beginnings of Ottoman Historiography, in ibid., 168-79. For a
refreshing discussion on Ottoman historical works in the fifteenth
century and a critical assessment of modern debates on Ottoman
historiography see Cemal Kafadar, Between Two Worlds. The
Construc-tion of the Ottoman State (Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press, 1995), 90-117.
41 Cf. his seminal article, Medieval Apocalypses as Historical
Sources, American His-torical Review 73, no. 4 (April 1968):
997-1018.
42 Bernard McGinn, Introduction: Johns Apocalypse and the
Apocalyptic Mentality, in The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages, eds.
Bernard McGinn and Richard Emmerson (Ithaca and London: Cornell
University Press, 1992), 9.
43 This risk of over-historicizing an apocalyptic text is
discussed, in the case of Islamic apocalypticism, in Cook, Studies
in Muslim Apocalyptic, 33-5. In order to overcome this
-
K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010) 317-354
331
other hand, as David Cook states, the Muslim apocalyptist, while
his writing is heavily biased by his political-theological
standpoint, is far bet-ter equipped [than the Muslim historian] to
stand back and give an inter-pretation of the events to which he is
a witness.44 In this regard, Ahmeds identification of the conquest
as the portent of the Last Hour, his reading of contemporary
history within the scheme of prophecies, and his ulti-mate
identification of Mehmed II as one of the actors of the final
battles can be seen as stemming from an urge to produce a cohesive
historical explanation about the fortunes of the Ottoman
enterprise.
Ahmed was also influenced by, and reacted to, another dynamic:
the emergence of a new reading public and the wider use of the
Turkish ver-nacular.45 Ahmed and his brother Mehmed assumed the
task of providing the people of their land (bu bizim ilin kavmi)
with vernacular compen-dia. Ahmeds Envrul-kn (The Lights of the
Beloveds/Mystics, here-after Envar) and Acibul-mahlkt (The Wonders
of Creation) or his brother Mehmeds Muhammediye (The Book of
Muhammad), all writ-ten before 1453, can be interpreted, among
other things, as outcomes of this self-appointed mission.46 The
sociological profile and reading habits of this new reading public
have yet to be ascertained. (Obviously practices such as reading
aloud and listening were widespread as well.) Administra-tors and
scholars had a working knowledge of reading, of course. The
brothers insistence on becoming a bridge between the learning of
the Islamic world as expressed in Arabic and Persian and the simple
Turkish of the Ottoman readers also shows that the targeted
audience included
risk, says John C. Reeves, the textual and religious milieu in
which the apocalyptic narra-tive is produced has to be accounted
for: Trajectories in Near Eastern Apocalyptic. A Postrab-binic
Jewish Apocalypse Reader (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2006), 3-7.
44 Cook, Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic, 35. 45 The fifteenth
century witnessed, to use an expression by Alessio Bombaci, the
birth
of an Anatolian koine which was a result of translations from
Arabic and Persian as well as original compositions: Alessio
Bombaci, Histoire de la littrature turque, trans. Irne Mlikoff
(Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck, 1968), 244.
46 For Ahmeds own words about this mission see Ahmed B-cn,
Envrul-kn (Istanbul: Matbaa-yi Osmaniyye, 1301 AH/1883-84 CE), 3-5;
Acibul-mahlkt, Biblio-teca Apostolica Vaticana, ms. Borgiani Turco
27, 1b; Mnteha, 3b-4b. On this particular activity of the Yazczade
brothers, also see Tijana Krstic, Narrating Conversions to Islam:
The Dialogue of Texts and Practices in Early Modern Ottoman Balkans
(Ph.D. disserta-tion, University of Michigan, 2004), 45-51, 57. I
agree with Krstics suggestion that this mission can be partly
interpreted as a form of vernacular religious preaching in the
midst of an ever-expanding Ottoman polity.
-
332 K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010)
317-354
their fellow mystics (most of whom would not necessarily read
Arabic and/or Persian), certain sections of the urban population
and also, quite probably, new converts to Islam. The existence of a
new reading public also means that the DMs apocalyptic narrative
could reach a fairly large number of readers. This explains the
tone of urgency and the confidence about the nearness of the Last
Hour that is characteristic of the DMs apocalyptic sections: Ahmed
speaks, in the DM, as a relatively established author who knows
that his work will be widely circulated, and he desires to warn as
many readers as possible.
Apocalyptic Affinities
Just as Ahmed reacted to new historical realities and the rise
of a new reading public, he was also influenced by religious
movements, beliefs, and mentalities that exerted a major impact on
the Islamic world in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He
lived in a world in which messianic movements played an important
role; he dwelled in an intellectual envi-ronment where divination
and prophecy were familiar subjects for every learned individual.
Anatolia itself had been the scene of religiously-moti-vated
rebellions and movements in recent history. The religious revolts
and the Mongol invasion of the mid-thirteenth century, the decline
and fall of the ruling Seljuk house, the tensions between the
Mongol gover-nors of Anatolia and their overlords in Iran, and the
influx of new Turkic tribes provided ample material to
apocalyptists in the centuries before Ahmeds birth.47 During his
lifetime eyh Bedreddin (d. 1416) and his followers started a
messianic religio-political movement that created con-siderable
upheaval in Western Anatolia and the Balkans.48 These ideas had
47 Apocalyptic rumors already circulated in Anatolia in the
centuries preceding the cap-ture of Constantinople: Flemming,
Shib-krn und Mahd, 45-6; Irne Beldiceanu, Pchs, calamits et salut
par le triomphe de lIslam: le discours apocalyptique relatif
lAnatolie (fin XIIIe-fin XVe s.), in Les traditions apocalyptiques
au tournant de la chute de Constantinople, eds. Lellouch and
Yrasimos, 19-33; Balivet, Textes de fin dempire, rcits de fin du
monde, in op. cit., 8.
48 Bedreddin today is variously reviled as a heretic, praised as
a primitive communist, or rehabilitated as a Sunni scholar whose
views were misinterpreted. For a detailed bibli-ography of
Bedreddin studies and a critical view of ahistorical approaches to
Bedreddin see Tayfun Atay, zmlenememi Bir Tarih Sorunu: eyh
Bedreddin, in Sosyal Bilim-leri An. Yeni Bir Kavraya Doru, eds.
Kaya ahin, Semih Skmen, Tanl Bora (Istanbul: Metis-Birikim, 1998),
161-79.
-
K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010) 317-354
333
an impact not only among scholars and dervishes, but the ruling
classes as well. It has been mentioned above that the Ottoman
sultan and his entou-rage were keenly aware of the new
politico-religious ideas. For instance, in Abdlvs elebis Hallnme,
presented to Mehmed I in 1414, the Ottoman sultan was compared to
the Messiah (Mehdi), like whom he ruled over Muslims with justice
and conquered new lands.49 In yet anot-her testimony to these new
politico-religious ideas, the Aqquyunlu sultan Uzun Hasan (r.
1453-78), who ruled over a large swath of territory in Eastern
Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Iran, utilized political astrology, the
science of letters as well as apocalyptic and messianic arguments
to legiti-mize his reign.50
It is possible to identify, in Ahmeds case, two more immediate
influen-ces. First of all, his father Salih was well-versed in the
arts of foretelling the future by interpreting various signs, and
he produced a detailed study of natural and atmospheric events,
days and months and their specific meanings.51 Second, Ahmed
probably came into contact with apocalyptic texts and milieus while
studying in Egypt. In the sixteenth chapter of the DM, he refers to
a book that includes information about the Hidden Things. He states
that this book, written in verse, was preserved in Egypt and
intimates that he had access to the books contents.52 The existence
of such a milieu in Egypt is supported by the fact that the two
most impor-tant figures of Ottoman messianism and apocalypticism in
the fifteenth century, the above-mentioned eyh Bedreddin and Abd
al-Rahman Bis-tami (d. 1454 or 1455), studied in Egypt.
There are no references to Bedreddin in Ahmeds works but Bistami
is mentioned with particular reverence; his Miftah al-Jafr al-Jami
(The Key to All Divination, hereafter Miftah) is Ahmeds main source
for divina-tion.53 Bistamis works on the science of letters (ilm
al-huruf ) and divina-
49 Dimitris Kastritsis, The Sons of Bayezid: Empire Building and
Representation in the Ottoman Civil War of 1402-1413 (Leiden:
Brill, 2007), 217-18, 221-22.
50 John Woods, The Aqquyunlu. Clan, Confederation, Empire, rev.
and expanded edition (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press,
1999), 102-6.
51 Yazc Salahddin Salih b. Sleyman el-Malkaravi, emsiyye,
Sleymaniye Library, ms. Laleli 2140.
52 The great Muslim scholar and social observer of the
fourteenth century, Ibn Khal-dun, also came across books of
prophecy in Egypt (Denis Gril, Lnigme de la Sagara al-numaniyya fi
l-dawla al-uthmaniyya, attribue Ibn Arabi, in Les traditions
apocalyptiques au tournant de la chute de Constantinople, eds.
Lellouch and Yerasimos, 143).
53 For Bistami, see Denis Gril, Esotrisme contre hrsie: Abd
al-Rahmn al-Bistm,
-
334 K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010)
317-354
tion ( jafr) were very popular in the Islamic world and
especially in the Ottoman territories, as shown by the large number
of his manuscripts found in Ottoman libraries.54 Miftah was the
main inspiration behind Ottoman apocalypticism and messianism in
the sixteenth century.55 Ahmeds reliance on Bistami indicates that,
already around the middle of the fifteenth century, Ottoman
literati had begun to use his work. Ahmeds ample use of Bistamis
work also helps us establish the connec-tions between the nascent
Ottoman apocalypticism of the mid-fifteenth century and the Ottoman
messianism of the sixteenth.
Anatolia was not the only place in the Islamic world to fall
under the sway of apocalyptic and messianic influences. There was a
resurgence of messianic expectations all over the Islamic world in
the period following the Mongol invasions.56 In Iran, Eastern
Anatolia and Mesopotamia, in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, there were a series of religious movements that dabbled
in messianism, the science of letters, or ideas such as abolishing
confessional boundaries and creating a new, universal religion. The
belief that the Last Hour was near was an important element in most
of these new religious discourses. This interest in apocalypticism
was also observed in Syria and Egypt, as shown by the popularity of
works by, for instance, Ibn Kathir (1301-1373).57 These movements
have tradi-tionally been studied as precursors to the rise of the
Shiite Safavids in the
un reprsentant de la science des lettres Bursa dans la premire
moiti du XV e sicle, in Syncrtismes et hrsies dans lOrient
seldjoukide et ottoman (XIV e-XVIII e sicle), Actes du Colloque du
Collge de France, October 2001, ed. Gilles Veinstein (Paris:
Peeters, 2005), 183-95; hsan Fazlolu, lk dnem Osmanl ilim ve kltr
hayatnda hvnus saf ve Abdurrahman Bistm, Dvn lm Aratrmalar Dergisi
2 (1996): 229-240; Cornell H. Fleischer, Ancient Wisdom and New
Sciences in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Cen-turies, in
Falnama: The Book of Omens, ed. Massumeh Farhad (London: Thames
& Hud-son, 2010), 231-43.
54 Toufic Fahd, La divination arabe: tudes religieuses,
sociologiques et folkloriques sur le milieu natif de lIslam (Paris
and Leiden: Brill, 1966), 228-30.
55 This point is discussed and proven by Cornell Fleischer in
his Seer to the Sultan: Haydar-i Remmal and Sultan Sleyman, in
Cultural Horizons/Kltr Ufuklar. A Fest-schrift in Honor of Talat S.
Halman, ed. Jayne L. Warner, 2 vols. (Syracuse: Syracuse
Uni-versity Press, 2001), 1: 290-99.
56 Arjomand, Islamic Apocalypticism in the Classical Period,
275. 57 Ibn Kathir, Ahwal yawm al-qiyamah, ed. Yusuf Ali Budiwi
(Damascus and Beirut:
al-Yamamah, 2000); idem., Nihayat al-bidayah wa-al-nihayah fi
al-fitan wa-al-malahim, 2 vols., ed. Muhammad Fahim Abu Ibbiyah
(Riyadh: Maktabat al-Nasr al-Hadithah, 1968). The lands of the
Byzantine Empire as well as Syria are named as the battlegrounds in
the apocalyptic battles before the Last Hour in I: 72-79.
-
K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010) 317-354
335
Middle East around 1500, and they have been labeled as
heterodox.58 This traditional approach, which tends to identify
every deviation from orthodoxy with Shiite tendencies, has been
already identified and criti-cized by Arjomand. Recent, much-needed
studies by Shahzad Bashir, Mohammad Masad, and Evrim Binba finally
began to fill an important lacuna by addressing the popularity of
messianic and apocalyptic move-ments in the post-Mongol Islamic
world beyond the confines of the tradi-tional approach.59 It is now
possible to ascertain that these new ideas exerted an impact over
scholars, literati and others who described them-selves as Sunnis
but who did not have any qualms about extending the frontiers of
their knowledge, such as Ibn Kathir, Abd al-Rahman Bistami, and
Ahmed himself.
Reading the Drr-i Meknn: Authorship, Composition Date, and
Contents
The text of the DM does not include the name of its author or
the date of its composition. Despite this initial anonymity,
various manuscripts of the work, preserved in Turkish and European
collections, are listed under Ahmeds name. Among the three scholars
who recently studied the DM this anonymity has been remarked upon
only by Laban Kaptein60 while Necdet Sakaolu and Stphane Yerasimos
assumed, on the basis of the works being traditionally attributed
to Ahmed, that he is the author. This
58 Biancamaria Scarcia Amorettis Religion in the Timurid and
Safavid Periods (The Cambridge History of Iran, ed. Harold Bailey,
vol. 6, The Timurid and Safavid Periods, ed. Peter Jackson and
Laurence Lockhart [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986],
especially 610-34), despite its great scholarly merit, is a typical
example of the approach that reduces these new political movements
to proto-Shiism and limits their impact over and appeal for
self-described Sunnis in this period.
59 Shahzad Bashir, Deciphering the Cosmos from Creation to
Apocalypse: The Huru-fiyya Movement and Medieval Islamic
Esotericism, in Imagining the End, ed. Abbas Amanat (London: I.B.
Tauris, 2002), 168-84; idem., Messianic Hopes and Mystical Visions.
The Nurbakhshiya between Medieval and Modern Islam (Columbia, SC:
South Carolina University Press, 2003); Mohammad Ahmad Masad, The
Medieval Islamic Apocalyptic Tradition: Divination, Prophecy and
the End of Time in the 13th Century Mediterranean (Ph.D.
dissertation, Washington University at St. Louis, 2008); lker Evrim
Binba, Sharaf al-Dn Ali Yazd (ca. 770s-858/ca. 1370s-1454):
Prophecy, Politics, and Histori-ography in Late Medieval Islamic
History (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 2009).
60 Kaptein/DM, 45-7 passim.
-
336 K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010)
317-354
anonymity is meaningful since, in all three Abrahamic religions,
it is an oft-encountered characteristic of an apocalyptic text. On
the other hand, the text itself gives enough clues to ascertain
that Ahmed is indeed the author. A comparison of some passages in
the DM with the Envar strongly suggests that the author of the two
texts is the same person.61 There is also a thematic confluence
between the DM and Ahmeds other works. His focus on cosmology,
creation, the wonders of the world, Sufism, eschatol-ogy,
salvation, and piety finds an ultimate expression in the DM, but
this expression culminates in apocalypticism.
The date of the DMs composition is not provided in the work but,
once again, there are a few clues that clearly show it was written
around the middle of the fifteenth century and, very likely, after
1453. The inclu-sion of various anecdotes about the history and
physical characteristics of Constantinople made Stphane Yerasimos
conclude that the work must have been composed after 1453 and
before 1465, the date of Ahmeds last known work.62 Laban Kaptein
more or less concurs with Yerasimos on the date; in his critical
edition, he discusses the philological and linguistic aspects of
the work and shows that it is a product of the Ottoman literate
milieu of the fifteenth century.63 Ahmeds reference to Abd
al-Rahman Bistami as having passed away shows that the DM was
indeed written after 1454/1455, the date of Bistamis passing.
Finally, references to Mehmed IIs sultanate, and the important
place accorded to Constanti-nople and the coming of the Last Hour
also indicate a post-1453 date of composition.
The DM is distinct from Ahmeds previous works with regard to its
tone of urgency and the authors calls to his fellow Muslims that
the end
61 A reference to a hadith by Muhammad, reportedly taken from
Ibn Arabis Ruh al-Kuds, is found both in Envar and the DM (Envar,
385; Kaptein/DM, 575). A discus-sion of the signs of the Last Hour
in Envar and some passages in the DM use a similar language, to the
extent of including the same expressions. Cf. Envar, 298: Halkn
zerine bir zaman gele ki slamdan resmi kala ve Kurann ismi kala;
Kaptein/DM, 560: mme-timin zerine bir zaman gele ki dinin ad kala
slamn resmi kala Kurann ismi kala.
62 Yerasimos, Lgendes dempire, 61, 105, 203.63 Kaptein/DM,
44-66. In a work dedicated to the study of the Dejjal (the
Deceiver)
in the Islamic tradition Kaptein already argued that the DM was
composed around 1455-56: Laban Kaptein, Eindtijd en Antichrist
(ad-Daggl) in de Islam Eschatologie bij Ahmed Bcn ( ca. 1466)
(Leiden: Onderzoekschool CNWS, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 1997),
274. I was able to read only the English summary (ibid., 273-77),
appended at the end of the Dutch original. Kaptein states in the
English summary that he discusses the problem of the composition
date in Chapter 3.1.
-
K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010) 317-354
337
is indeed near. In the introduction, the author presents himself
as a man of knowledge (ilm) who stays away from the hypocrisy
(riya) of his age. He states that he gathered true wealth, i.e.
religious knowledge, which he spends to educate others. He argues
that this wealth distinguishes him from those who vainly build
mosques and hospices to leave their names to posterity.64 In the
last chapter of the work, the author once again repeats that life
in this world is transitory, and that good Muslims should prepare
for the afterlife.65 He then warns his readers that events
described in the previous sections (i.e. the attack of the Blond
Peoples and the ensu-ing battles, the Last Hour, the Resurrection,
and the Last Judgment) are bound to happen soon. This aspect of the
work is in tune with other Islamic apocalypses, whose authors
usually try to instigate a change of outlook among their
readers.66
The DM is an encyclopedic work that provides information about
Cre-ation, the wondrous creatures that inhabit the Earth, Alexander
the Great and the prophet-king Solomon, the cities of the world,
divination, and eschatology. From its introduction to its final
chapter it constitutes a streamlined narrative that proceeds from
creation to destruction. The life of the world and the fate of
humanity are presented in an introduction and eighteen chapters
(bb). The first chapter is on skies, the throne and the footstool,
the tablet and stylus, paradise and hell, moon, day and stars, and
angels.67 This chapter mostly reproduces information found in other
medieval Islamic cosmologies.68 Similar themes continue in the
second chapter on Earth, the wonders and creatures of Earth, and
Hell.69 These sections about creation and cosmology provide the
first part of the apoca-lyptic scaffolding. As Walter Schmithals
argued, cosmology is particularly
64 Kaptein/DM, 349-50.65 Op. cit., 582-3.66 Cook, Studies in
Muslim Apocalyptic, 19-20: The Muslim apocalyptist seeks to
cre-
ate a sequence of events that leads up to a final decisive point
that is so shattering to his audience that the result of the
experience is a change of outlook. Doubtless this would involve
people seeing that their everyday lives are insignificant in
comparison to the immediate fact of Judgment Day, and the
tribulations accompanying it.
67 DM/Kaptein, 354-79.68 For a comparison with Islamic
cosmologies, see A. Heinen, Islamic Cosmology. A
Study of as-Suyutis al-Haya as-saniya fi l-haya as-sunniya
(Beirut and Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1982), 84-8, 94-106; Seyyed
Hossein Nasr, Islamic Cosmology: Basic Tenets and Implications,
Yesterday and Today, in Science and Religion in Search of Cosmic
Pur-pose, ed. John F. Haught (Washington D.C.: Georgetown
University Press, 2000), 42-57.
69 DM/Kaptein, 380-95.
-
338 K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010)
317-354
important for the apocalyptist since it shows to the readers the
unchange-able laws set forth by God, and invites them to read the
ensuing apoca-lyptic speculations within the same context.70
Historical concerns appear with the third chapter (On this earth
and its creatures).71 At the very beginning, it is announced that
world history is divided into ten periods of seven thousand years
and that the coming of Adam is the beginning of the tenth and last
period of seven thousand years.72 This is followed by a short
treatment of the history of prophets. It starts with the Fall and
extends to the time of Muhammad, announced as the last prophet.
Other important figures such as Noah and his sons, Moses, Zachary,
Joseph, and Jesus are presented in simple sketches.
The fourth chapter (On the science of geometry, climes, days and
hours)73 is followed by one on the wonders of mountains.74 The
sixth chapter is on seas and islands;75 the seventh chapter
narrates various anec-dotes about the cities of the world (and most
notably Constantinople); and the eighth chapter deals with the
construction of the temple of Solo-mon, the Church of Saint Sophia,
and the Kaba in Mecca.76 As Yerasimos argues in his discussion of
DM, the seventh and eighth chapters show the authors affinity with
the Byzantine tradition since he reproduces themes found in
Byzantine sources about the foundation of Constantinople.77
The ninth chapter focuses on the prophet-king Solomon and his
achievements. In the tenth chapter, the story of Solomon and the
Queen of Sheba is narrated. The eleventh chapter gives some
information about physiognomy and the life spans of various
creatures; the twelfth chapter is a collection of stories about
cities and individuals that have been objects of Gods wrath; and
the thirteenth chapter includes information on the medicinal uses
of various plants. The fourteenth chapter reprises the theme of
geographical wonders, apparitions, and historical anecdotes, while
the fifteenth chapter reproduces the story of the legendary bird
Simurg.78
70 Walter Schmithals, The Apocalyptic Movement. Introduction
& Interpretation, trans. John E. Steely (Nashville & New
York: Abingdon Press, 1975), 19.
71 Kaptein/DM, 396-417.72 Op. cit., 396.73 Op. cit., 418-24.74
Op. cit., 426-33.75 Op. cit., 434-42.76 Op. cit., 444-73.77
Yerasimos, Lgendes dempire, 68-9, 104, 110-1.78 Kaptein/DM,
474-544.
-
K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010) 317-354
339
The apocalyptic core of the DM is found in the sixteenth and
seven-teenth chapters of the work. The sixteenth chapter is on the
mysteries of the science of divination ( jafr), news about the
world, portents of divination,79 and the seventeenth chapter
focuses on the signs of the Last Hour.80 The work ends with an
eighteenth chapter, which is comprised of a long prayer and praise
of Muhammad. Here the author issues a stern warning to his fellow
Muslims and assures them that the tribulations described previously
are about to begin.81
Contents of Ahmeds Apocalypticism
The apocalyptic message of the DM consists of a number of
interrelated but distinct layers. The author identifies various
social and religious ills in his society and believes these to be
among the signs of the Last Hour; he tries to determine the exact
date of the end with reference to the Byzan-tine and Islamic
traditions as well as divination ( jafr); he acknowledges the
conquest of Constantinople as a sign of the Last Hour and heavily
relies on the Byzantine tradition to establish the citys
inauspiciousness; he determines, again on the basis of divination,
the nature and details of the struggles that will pit the Muslims
against the Blond Peoples; finally, he identifies the Ottoman
sultan, Mehmed II, as an important actor in these struggles. The
important building blocks of Ahmeds apocalyptic narrative are
discussed below.
The moral apocalypse
The DM can be read, among other things, as a final call to
repentance before the impending Last Judgment. The author complains
that piety is rare, that judges take bribes instead of
administering justice, administra-tors are oppressive and
treacherous, and that women stroll alone in streets and
marketplaces and merchants cheat on prices. He is especially
both-ered by the attitude of religious scholars, who completely
surrendered to this corrupt society for fear of losing their
privileges.82 These moral and religious criticisms are spread
throughout the work, but they become especially pertinent in the
context of the later chapters. The seventeenth
79 Op. cit., 546-56.80 Op. cit., 558-78.81 Op. cit., 580-84.82
Op. cit., 560, 495-6, 558-60.
-
340 K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010)
317-354
chapter, a study of the portents of the Last Hour, begins with a
long dia-tribe on contemporary society.83 This long passage is all
the more interest-ing when it is compared to similar passages from
Ahmeds Envar, or his brother Mehmeds Muhammediye. In both works,
the social and moral ills that will precede the Last Hour are
mentioned very briefly, and are not necessarily associated with the
authors own society.84 In the DM, on the other hand, moral concerns
are directed against contemporary society, and they eventually
provide an introduction to more serious consider-ations. In a way,
the author uses the more familiar and popular trope of moral decay
to bring his audience into his discussion of the End. This rather
generic form of social criticism, encountered in the majority of
Islamic apocalypses, has been categorized by David Cook as the
moral apocalypse.85
How should these moral criticisms be interpreted? David Cook
believes that these are oft-used tropes, while Stphane Yerasimos,
in his Lgendes dempire, argues that these moral criticisms make the
author an opponent of the new Ottoman imperial project centered on
Constantinople.86 For a work that is composed between 1455 and
1465, however, it is somehow early to correctly diagnose such a
recent development as the foundation of an imperial polity and to
take a position against it. More importantly, in his Mnteha, Ahmed
portrays Mehmed II as the protector and leader of Muslims who is
poised to conquer Rome (see below). It is possible that later
readers saw in the DMs moralistic harangues a condemnation of the
Ottoman enterprise per se, but these passages of the work reflect a
generic form of social and religious criticism rather than
political opposition.
Bernard McGinn has eloquently addressed the problem of
interpreting the moral criticisms of the apocalyptists. Some
apocalyptic texts are not a reaction to a shattering crisis, but
rather an accommodation to a new pos-itive situation, such as the
conversion of the Roman Empire or the rise of the Reform Papacy . .
. It is not so much crisis in itself, as any form of
83 Op. cit., 560. These diatribes are in tune with various
apocalyptic texts studied by David Cook. Cf. Cook, Studies in
Islamic Apocalyptic, 241, 317-8.
84 See Envar, 368; Muhammediye, 313.85 For a very good summary
of the issue of moral apocalypse in the Islamic tradition,
see David Cook, Moral Apocalyptic in Islam, Studia Islamica 86
(1997): 37-69; idem., Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic, 230-68. For a
comparison of Ahmeds criticisms with other works in the Islamic
tradition, see Cooks selection of texts that display this
characteristic in ibid., 333-44.
86 Yerasimos, Lgendes dempire, 61, 69, 195-6.
-
K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010) 317-354
341
challenge to the established understanding of history, that
creates the situ-ation in which apocalyptic forms and symbols,
either inherited or newly minted, may be invoked.87 Similar
examples are found in Islamic history as well. For instance, in the
period immediately following the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258 and
the rise of the Mamluks of Egypt to promi-nence, an apocalyptic and
messianic imagery was used to adapt to the existing crisis and
legitimize Baybars (r. 1260-1277) as the Mamluk sul-tan.88 In the
case of Ahmed too, the main motivation was not to stand against the
Ottoman enterprise by producing its moral critique but rather use
the tropes of moral apocalypticism to create a readiness among his
readers for the message that he intended to deliver.
The Chronology of the End
The laments of the moral apocalyptist may apply to any human
society at any given time. The certainty, supported by various
chronological proofs, that the End is at hand, is a different
matter. For this purpose Ahmed uses prophetic sayings (hadith), the
chronological calculations of the Byzantine and Islamic traditions,
and dates provided through divination. The cen-tral idea is that
the lifespan of the world was determined by God at the time of the
Creation and that this lifespan is about to end.
Even though the nearness of the End, particularly emphasized by
the fact that Muhammad is the last prophet, permeates Islam from
the very beginning, it is also generally accepted that the exact
time of the Last Hour is known only by God.89 However, as David
Cook argues, merely watching the signs and portents of the End was
not prohibited, and even encouraged.90 The idea that the exact date
was only known to God was also diluted by a number of hadith that
provided the faithful with chrono-logical approximations.
87 Bernard McGinn, Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions in
the Middle Ages (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979),
31.
88 Remke Kruk, History and Apocalypse: Ibn al-Nafis
Justification of Mamluk Rule, Der Islam, 72, no. 2 (1995): 325-37;
Denise Aigle, Les inscriptions de Baybars dans le Bild al-m. Une
expression de la lgitimit du pouvoir, Studia Islamica 97 (2003):
57-85.
89 Suliman Bashear, Muslim Apocalypses and the Hour: A Case
Study in Traditional Reinterpretation, Israel Oriental Studies 13
(1999): 80.
90 Cook, Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic, 19.
-
342 K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010)
317-354
Ahmed indeed uses a number of prophetic sayings. For instance,
he says that Muhammads coming is in itself a sign that the
Resurrection (al-qiyama),91 the event that follows the destruction
of the world and pre-cedes the Last Judgment, is near.92 He quotes
another hadith according to which Muslims will not stay on Earth
for more than one day. He then explains that one day here
corresponds to a thousand years, thus implying that the Last Hour
may be scheduled for 1000 AH/1590-1 CE.93 To warn his fellow
Muslims about the events that await them in the near future Ahmed
then announces that the tribulations that will precede the Last
Hour will start around 900 AH/1494-95 CE; Muhammad himself is
quoted as having said that portents such as moral decay, plagues,
and nat-ural disasters will manifest themselves after 900 AH.
These chronological estimations are also supported by the
argument that the lifespan of the world was determined by God as
seventy thousand years. Adam descended on Earth in the year 62,960;
humans were allot-ted seven thousand years. The Last Hour would
thus occur in year 69,960. The Earth would remain empty for forty
years before the Last Judgment.94 There are indications that Ahmed
was informed about the seven-thousand-year cycle by the Byzantine
tradition.95 However, he revises the Byzantine tradition to make it
compatible with the Muslim tradition: 1492, determined by various
Byzantine scholars to be the end, is too close a date. Muhammads
sayings and divination treatises inform him otherwise. Ahmed
explains this discrepancy by arguing that the cal-culations of the
Byzantine tradition are based on solar years while the Muslims
utilize a lunar calendar. Thus, the 7,000 years of the
Byzantine
91 Louis Gardet, Kiyama, Encyclopedia of Islam 2, electronic
edition.92 DM/Kaptein, 546-7. The reference here is to the famous
hadith of the two fingers,
according to which Muhammad stated that his arrival and the
Resurrection (or the Last Hour [al-sa] in other versions) are as
close to each other as his middle and index fingers. For a
discussion of this hadith and its different versions, see Bashear,
Muslim Apocalypses and the Hour: 76-80.
93 DM/Kaptein, 575.94 Op. cit., 546.95 For the significance of
the year 7000 in the Byzantine tradition, see Podskalsky,
Byzantinische Reichseschatologie, 92-9; Magdalino, The history
of the future, 4 passim and throughout; Hanak, Some
Historiographical Observations, 43-4; Paul Alexander, His-toriens
byzantins et croyances eschatologiques, Actes du XII e Congrs
International des tudes Byzantines 2 (Belgrade, 1964): 6-7;
Congourdeau, Byzance et la fin du monde, 66-73.
-
K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010) 317-354
343
tradition correspond to 7,210 lunar years.96 The end is near, of
course, but it is distant enough to allow the cosmic battles
predicted by divina-tion to happen.
The Conquest of Constantinople as a Triggering Event
The chronological evidence clearly places Ahmed and his readers
in close proximity of the Last Hour. Ahmeds recourse to this
particular evidence begs one question here: why is it that, among
Ahmeds body of works, the DM is the only one that includes these
concerns? Ahmed, as a well-edu-cated individual, was obviously
aware of the apocalyptic chronology found in Muhammads sayings but
he does not dwell upon it in his previ-ous works. What separates
the DM from the others and gives it its apoca-lyptic tone is that
it is composed after the realization of a prophecy.
In Ahmeds Envar and his brother Mehmeds Muhammediye, both
com-posed before 1453, eschatological issues and the signs of the
Last Hour are treated to a considerable extent but no specific
dates or chronologies are provided. Ottoman history and recent
events do not play any role in their eschatological narratives.97
The Muslim capture of Constantinople and the subsequent attack of
the Blond Peoples are mentioned among the portents of the Last
Hour. It is remarked that the Muslim conquest of the city will be
followed, after seven years, by an attack of the Blond Peoples,98
but the attack is relegated to the distant future. Finally, the
tone of these two works radically differs from the DM: the warnings
and exhortations encountered in the DM are completely absent from
both the Envar and the Muhammediye.
In the DM, Ottoman history and the Ottoman sultan become
impor-tant reference points and actors in the apocalyptic theater.
Constantino-ples history and the citys apocalyptic significance
become important tropes; the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II is singled
out as the man who will rule the Ottoman realm during the final
troubles; Ottoman lands become the scene for battles between the
Muslims and the Blond Peoples. Under
96 DM/Kaptein, 555.97 For these eschatological passages, see
Envar, 293-9, 368-83; Muhammediye, 2: 311-32.
For a concise analysis of Islamic eschatology, see Marcia
Hermansen, Eschatology, in The Cambridge Companion to Classical
Islamic Theology, ed. Tim Winter (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 2008), 308-325. Hermansens emphasis on how
eschatology is interwoven with history is particularly relevant for
my analysis of the brothers works.
98 Envar, 368.
-
344 K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010)
317-354
the impact of the triggering event, that is, the Ottoman
conquest of Con-stantinople, Ahmed realizes a passage from
eschatology to apocalypticism, to an apocalyptic eschatology that
provides a particular view of history and its final events.99 The
author of the DM clearly believes that the last age itself is about
to end and sees the events of his own time as the last events
themselves.100
Ahmed radically differs from those who evaluate the conquest
outside its apocalyptic implications. First of all, he espouses a
number of Byzan-tine traditions, which no doubt circulated in the
Ottoman lands, to emphasize the misfortunes of the city and its
eventual destruction at the end of time. As shown by Stphane
Yerasimos, the author of the DM is very much concerned about the
history of the city and relevant Byzantine anecdotes and
prophecies. Constantinople, as it is presented in the DM, is a city
that was built at an inauspicious time, incurred Gods wrath, and
suffered throughout its history from plagues, earthquakes, and
man-made disasters; obviously the Ottoman conquest does not change
the fate of the city.101 Rather, the Ottomans inherit a doomed
city.
To make things even worse, the Byzantine tradition is supported
by the Islamic tradition itself. On the basis of his Muslim sources
Ahmed ascer-tains that Constantinople is captured by Muslims not
once, but on three separate occasions. The first Muslim (i.e., the
Ottoman) conquest is fol-lowed by a Christian onslaught and the
Muslims are pushed back into Syria. They reorganize, counterattack,
and enter the city a second time. However, while the Muslim
soldiers are advancing towards the city center, Satan appears to
them, claiming that the Dejjal (the Deceiver, an Islamic
apocalyptic figure similar to the Antichrist)102 appeared, and is
laying waste to their homes. Panicked, the Muslim soldiers retreat
pell-mell and once again return to Syria.103 The definitive Muslim
conquest happens
99 McGinn, Introduction: Johns Apocalypse and the Apocalyptic
Mentality, 5.100 Bernard McGinn, Early Apocalypticism: The Ongoing
Debate, in The Apocalypse
in English Renaissance Thought and Literature. Patterns,
Antecedents and Repercussions, eds. C. A. Patrides and Joseph
Wittreich (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984), 4,
10-12.
101 Yerasimos, Lgendes dempire, 69, 104, 110-111; DM/Kaptein,
457-8. For the Byz-antine traditions on the foundation of
Constantinople, see Dagron, Constantinople imag-inaire, 61-97.
102 A. Abel, Dadjdjl, Encyclopedia of Islam 2, electronic
edition.103 DM/Kaptein, 562-3. Here too, there is an interesting
mixture of Byzantine and
Muslim/Ottoman traditions. In the Byzantine tradition, after
Muslims enter the city, an angel descends from the skies, gives a
sword to a pauper who then becomes the Byzantine
-
K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010) 317-354
345
only under the leadership of the Messiah, who defeats the Blond
Peoples and enters Constantinople.104 This is the reason why Ahmed
is concerned about the fate of the city: the city, and the Ottomans
who hold it, will be at the center of the first phase of the final
battles, which are about to start.
Divination (Jafr)
The Islamic and Byzantine traditions talk about the lifespan of
the world and single out the Muslim conquest of Constantinople as a
sign of the end. The details of the events that will happen during
the period before the end, as well as further proof about the
nearness of the Last Hour, are provided by prophecies that are
found in divinatory treatises.
Divination in the Islamic tradition rests on the belief that
Muhammad transmitted to Ali b. Abi Talib a secret knowledge about
the future of humanity, and that this knowledge was written down by
Ali on a camel-skin parchment. It was generally accepted that this
knowledge was then preserved and transmitted by the Shiite imams,
Alis direct descendants. This did not prevent scholars and others
who defined themselves as Sun-nis from using divination, as seen in
the case of Ahmed as well as many others. Collections of prophecy,
astrological tables foretelling the future, deductions on the basis
of numerical values attributed to the letters of the Arabic
alphabet, apocalyptic narratives, etc. existed under the vague and
wide rubric of jafr throughout Islamic history. While jafr has not
been openly espoused as part of an orthodox Muslim corpus it was
recognized by a fairly large number of scholars and literati who
believed that a small number of adepts could dabble in it.105 The
relationship between Islamic apocalypticism and jafr was
established very early on, as shown by Toufic Fahd. The newly
resurgent apocalyptic atmosphere in the Islamic world after the end
of the thirteenth century carried this association further, and
divinatory techniques became very popular.106
emperor, and Muslims are chased all the way back to the Arabian
Peninsula. In Ahmeds version, the Byzantine angel becomes Satan,
and the Muslim defeat at the hands of the pauper emperor is turned
into a satanic deception and a retreat.
104 Op. cit., 565.105 On jafr, see Toufic Fahd, Djafr,
Encyclopedia of Islam 2, electronic edition; idem.,
La divination arabe, 219-24.106 Masad, The Medieval Islamic
Apocalyptic Tradition, 8-9, 13 and especially
108-48.
-
346 K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010)
317-354
It has been mentioned already that the intellectual atmosphere
in which Ahmed dwelled was particularly susceptible to the
influences of apocalyp-ticism and messianism. Ahmed probably knew
the divinatory master of the time, Abd al-Rahman Bistami, in
person. The DMs sixteenth chapter is entitled On the secrets of
divination, news of the world, and portents of divination. This
chapter is as much an attempt at developing an apoc-alyptic
narrative as introducing the Turkish readers of the Ottoman realm
to Bistamis work, to vernacularize the jafr literature that was
typically found in Arabic-language works. Through Bistami, Ahmed is
connected to a larger Islamic tradition of divination. For
instance, the information in the Ottoman Turkish passages of the
sixteenth chapter as well as a few Arabic quotations are taken, via
Bistami, from Kamal al-din Muhammad Ibn Talhas (d. 1254) al-Durr
al-muntazam (or -munazzam). This seminal work, written in the first
half of the thirteenth century, was studied by Bistami and partly
preserved in his Miftah.107
The sixteenth chapter of the DM opens with Ahmeds admission that
he uses Miftah as his source, and an invitation for learned readers
to con-sult the Miftah for further information. Bistami is called
the guide of those who search for the Truth, a scholar who
discovers Gods secrets and attri-butes (shaikh al-mukhakkikin,
al-alim bi kashf asrar Allah wa ayatihi).108 He is also qualified
as shib-i hurf, i.e. a practitioner of the science of letters, one
of the most important procedures to determine the secret meanings
of words and establish connections between words/letters and
dates/present history.109
107 On the link between Bistami and Ibn Talha see Masad, The
Medieval Islamic Apocalyptic Tradition, 68. On Ibn Talha and his
al-Durr, see ibid., 70-80 and passim. For a comparison of the
passages in the DMs sixteenth chapter and al-Durr, cf. DM/Kaptein,
553-4, 555; Kamal al-Din Muhammad ibn Talha, al-Durr al-muntazam fi
al-sirr al-azam: bahth ahl al-kashf wa-al-irfan fi alamat Mahdi
akhir al-zaman, ed. Majid al-Atiyah (Bei-rut: Dar al-hadi, 2004),
112-3, 145-55, 156, 158-9.
108 DM/Kaptein, 548.109 On the science of letters as a related
technique of interpreting the present and pre-
dicting the future, see Toufic Fahd, Huruf (Ilm AL-),
Encyclopedia of Islam 2, electronic edition; Denis Gril, La science
des lettres, in Les illuminations de la Mecque/The Meccan
Illuminations. Textes choisis/Selected Texts, ed. Michel
Chodkiewicz (Paris: Sindbad, 1988), 385-487, 608-36 (notes). The
pages between 439 and 489 provide a translation of sec-tions on the
science of letters from Ibn Arabis al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya, while
the preced-ing part has Grils analysis of translated passages and a
detailed discussion of the science of letters.
-
K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010) 317-354
347
The sixteenth chapter reflects all the aspects of a typical
divination treatise.110 The author is very careful in qualifying
divination as an extraor-dinary measure that has to be activated
only when necessary and only by a handful of initiates. He
emphasizes that this knowledge has to be hid-den from those without
the required qualifications (n-ehl ).111 Finally, he distinguishes
himself from fortune-tellers who, he says, are Satans instru-ments.
Ahmed, to the contrary, does not seek individual profit, but
searches after the key to a divine message.112
What is divination, as explained in the DM? First of all, the
idea is that there is a form of secret knowledge that goes back to
God through the Prophet himself. God sends Muhammad an apple, which
is mistakenly eaten by his grandchildrens tutor. On eating the
apple the tutor enters an ecstatic state and talks about hidden
affairs (mugayyebt). He is stopped by Muhammad, but not before his
words are heard by some Muslims, who then write them in versified
form.113 This accident is not all. There is also a book, called
Jafr Ali, (Alis Divination); it includes information about the
dynasties that will rule between Muhammad and the Last Hour, and
also details about the end itself.114
Indeed, the jafr tradition, together with Byzantine and Islamic
apoca-lypticisms, warns Ahmed that the conquest of Constantinople
is the beginning of the end.115 On the basis of jafr, Ahmed informs
his readers that political fortune (devlet) travels from dynasty to
dynasty. It resided in Iran in the past, then shifted to Khurasan
and to Cairo. Its next recipient is the Muslim dynasty that will
rule over the lands of the Byzantine Empire (Rm); however, soon
after this Muslim dynasty takes over Rm, various signs of the Last
Hour will manifest themselves. By giving an end to the rule of the
last Byzantine dynasty and completing the conquest of Rm,
110 For these typical aspects see Fahd, Djafr, Encyclopedia of
Islam 2, electronic edition. 111 DM/Kaptein, 550, 551. The idea
that the knowledge of the last things was available
only to a handful of initiates was not foreign to the Christian
tradition either: The early idea that the final events were
determined far back in the past and foretold in detail to certain
chosen men is . . . characteristic . . . The last things can be
known; indeed, they can be exactly calculated, but this is only
possible for the initiated (Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament
Theology, trans. D.M.G. Stalker, 2 vols. [New York: Harper,
1962-1965], 2: 301-2; quoted in McGinn, Visions of the End, 8).
112 DM-Kaptein, 536-7.113 Op. cit., 547-8. 114 Ibid.115 Op.
cit., 550.
-
348 K. ahin / Journal of Early Modern History 14 (2010)
317-354
the Ottomans thus become the blessed Muslim dynasty foretold in
the books but also find themselves in an apocalyptic setting.116
The Ottoman-ization of the apocalypse is supported by other
prophecies too. Accord-ingly, a young man name Mahmud or Muhammad
will be the sultan at the time of the tribulations.117 Mehmed,
whose name is the Turkish form of the Arabic Muhammad, was
enthroned for the first time when he was twelve years old, and
definitively succeeded his father when he was nineteen.
Jafr also provides its practitioners with specific dates and
geographical locations concerning the final tribulations. The key
date, after which there is no return, is 909 AH/1503-4 CE. The East
(Sharq) will be devastated by battles and various calamities after
that date; Syria and Rm will par-ticularly suffer; the Blond
Peoples will relentlessly attack the Muslims; three battles will be
waged in the Eastern Mediterranean and around Constantinople, and
the citys inhabitants will be decimated; a number of figures
identified only by their initials will come forward to play an
important role in this new era.118 Indeed, all the knowledgeable
and the initiated agree that the tenthand lastcentury will be
dominated by catastrophes.119
Mnteha (The Epilogue): Ahmeds Final Judgment
Th