Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
CUMHURIYET ILAHIYAT DERGISI-CUMHURIYET THEOLOGY JOURNAL, cilt.20, sa.2, ss.9-72, 2016 (ESCI)
Maturidism is an Ottoman identity and this identity was not limited, as is commonly believed, to the last period of the Empire. It maintained its formal existence throughout the Ottoman history. Nevertheless, the context in which the Maturidism was located or with which it was associated changed in the course of time. In the early period when the eclectic way of thinking was dominant, Maturidism as a creed was apparent mainly in the jurists whose ascetic identity was prominent and partly in the mystical currents that were essentially continuations of Yasawiyya. At this point, the Bukhara-centered Hanafi legal literature played a distinctiverole. At the time of Mehmed II and in the following period during which the philosophical kalam dominated the scene, the Maturidism was relatively passive and was in search of a position against the Ash'arism. The new Razian paradigm of thought that began to be felt strongly in the Ottoman lands with Me.med II as an attempt of integration into the global circulation of knowledge prevented to a certain extent the visibility of Maturidism. However, even in this period, Maturidism was remarkably reflected in the muqaddimat-i arba'a literature which was directly sponsored by Me.med II. The tradition of philosophical kalam in the Ottoman scholarship, just when it was about to yield significant results, was interrupted due to the struggle against the Hafawids. Transformation of this political tension, at the same time, into a fight against Shiism also brought about a constriction in the religious thought of the Ottomans. Shiism and its all other variants were bitterly attacked under the main heading of Rafida. Unfortunately such a refutational approach proved a boomerang and returned in time striking the Ottoman period who stood near the line of the Ardabil Shrine before its Shiitization Hanafifatwa literature was used extensively in the refutation texts against Hafawids. This brought to the fore at first the Hanafite and then the Maturidite identity. This paper attempts to analyze this changing emphasis on Maturidism in the Ottoman period and the political and intellectual factors that supported and nourished it.