part of the answer; hence my interest in him. Perhaps, moreover, one will eventually have to speak of those ideas as “thriving” rather than “surviving”, at various moments of the history of Turkey.
The truth however remains that Aḥmad al-Rūmī al-Aqḥiṣārī is almost completely absent from modern studies of the Ottoman 10th/16th– 11th/17th centuries.2 This is also the case for the impact of his Majālis, before and after it was translated into Urdu,3 on the genesis of contemporary Indian Islamic thought, be it Deobandi or Barelvi: it is still to be explored in detail. The fact that the Majālis is explicitly quoted, together with Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, in al-Balāgh almubīn, an anti-Hindu tract in Persian falsely attributed to Shāh Walīullāh Dihlawī (d. 1176/1762) but most probably written in India after 1831, nevertheless testifies to the centrality of its author and holds the promise of potentially surprising developments. In his study of al-Balāgh al-mubīn,4 Marc Gaborieau acknowledges having “no further information” on al-Aqḥiṣārī’s Majālīs. He does not therefore realize that this pre-Wahhābī Ottoman work of Ḥanafite puritanism, alongside reports of pilgrims coming back from Arabia and other forms of ideological “digestion” by Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhāb or Muḥammad al-Shawkānī (d. 1250/1834), might have been an important channel through which reformist teachings, Taymiyyan and others, influenced the pseudo-Walīullāhan text which he calls “an Indian “Wahhābī” tract” and, more generally, the so-called Indian “Wahhābism”.1 Whatever its appeal might be, this hypothesis will of course need to be confirmed.
Indian avatars of al-Aqḥiṣārī’s Majālis2
There is no scholarly bibliography of Aḥmad al-Rūmī al-Aqḥiṣārī. Apart from the Majālis, his Risāleh fī l-‘aqā’id, his Radd al-Qabriyya and his commentary on Birgivī’s al-Durr al-yatīm, he authored several epistles that can be read in majmū‘as like the MSS. Istanbul, Darülmesnevi 258, Harput 429, Kılıç Ali Paşa 1035, Reşid Efendi 985, as well as in several other manuscripts. I established the following list of his Arabic epistles during a short period of research at the Süleymaniye Library in May 2008 and by consulting the manuscripts’ catalogue on the Yazmalar website of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.1 It can’t in any way be considered complete and its only purpose is to give some idea of the range of al-Aqḥiṣārī’s interests:
1) Ta‘līqa ‘alā tafsīr al-Qāḍī al-Bayḍāwī “La-hu mā fī al-samā’ wa larḍ…” – Note on al-Qāḍī al-Bayḍāwī’s exegesis of the Qur’ānic verse ”To Him belongs what is in heaven and on the earth…” MS. Kasidecizade 736, ff. 115v–125v.
2) Sharḥ al-Durr al-yatīm fī l-tajwīd – Commentary on Birgivī’s Unique Pearl, concerning the Recitation of the Qur’ān. MSS. Ali Emiri Arabi 53 (copied in 1083/1672), 4347, ff. 13–43 (1066/1655); Beyazit 189; Çelebi Abdullah Efendi 408, ff. 67v–113v; Harput 429, ff. 1v–28r; Ibrahim Efendi 29, ff. 1v–54r; Kılıç Ali Paşa 1035, ff. 1v–30r; Laleli 3094, ff. 132v–189v; Reşid Efendi 1008, ff. 75v–95r; Tırnovali 7, ff. 36v–56v; Yazma Bağışlar 1124, ff. 1v–31v; Yozgat 853, ff. 167v– 188v. Yazmalar: Amasya, Beyazıt İl Halk Kütüphanesi, 05 Ba 1207/1, ff. 1v–49v (1161/1747); Ankara, Adana İHK, 01 Hk 192/1, ff. 1v–36r (1091/1679); 01 Hk 467/6, ff. 37v–70v; 01 Hk 816/4, ff. 37v–65 (1122/1709); Afyon Gedik Ahmet Paşa İHK, 03 Gedik 17581/4, ff. 171v–203r (1106/1693); Çankırı İHK, 18 Hk 389/3, ff. 101v–130r; Eskişehir İHK, 26 Hk 277/5, ff. 15v–55r; Nevşehir Ürgüp Tahsin Ağa İHK, 50 Ür 46/2, ff. 8v–47r (1135/1722); 50 Ür 181/4, ff. 51v–86r (1123/1710); 50 Ür 389 (1167/1753); Ordu İHK, 52 Hk 901/4 (1129/1716); Balıkesir, İHK, 10 Hk 973/3, ff. 41v–68r (1144/1730); Çorum, Hasan Paşa İHK, 19 Hk 204/2, ff. 20v–43r (1135/1722); 19 Hk 3678/1, ff. 1v–56v; 19 Hk 3679/3, ff. 15v–51r; 19 Hk 3685/1, ff. 1v-30v; 19 Hk 3692/1, ff. 1v–37r (1078/1666); Diyarbakır, İHK, 21 Hk 252/6, ff. 119v–138v (1196/1781); Erzurum, İHK, 25 Hk 23892/1, ff. 1v–37v (1131/1718); Kastamonu, İHK, 37 Hk 334/9, ff. 231v–262v (1141/1727); 37 Hk 419/1, ff. 1v–37v; 37 Hk 475/4, ff. 96v–123r; Konya, İHK, 42 Kon 353/3, ff. 89v–106r (1165/1751); 42 Kon 1555/3, ff. 5v–31r; 42 Kon 4983/4, ff. 55v–80; 42 Kon 5687/2, ff. 28v–59r (1292/1875); Gaziantep İHK, 27 Hk 88/4, ff. 72v–104r (1083/1671); 27 Hk 93/11, ff. 148v–171r; Isparta İHK, 32 Hk 452/2, ff. 28v–59r (1292/1874); Isparta Uluborlu İHK, 32 Ulu 396/4, ff. 35v–80v; Manisa, İHK, 45 Hk 381/1, ff. 1v–55v; 45 Hk 948/1, ff. 1v–34v (1137/1723); 45 Hk 1656/3, ff. 64v–93r (1039/1629); 45 Hk 2937/9, ff. 82v–110v (1035/1625); 45 Hk 3599 (1130/1717); 45 Hk 4559/2, ff. 124v–163v (1180/1765); 45 Hk 6911/2, ff. 41v–72v; 45 Hk 8469; Akhisar Zeynelzade Koleksiyon, 45 Ak Ze 594/8, ff. 93v–132v (1148/1734); Trabzon, İHK, 61 Hk 321.
3) Risāla fī l-radd ‘alā l-Ṣaghānī fī mawḍū‘āti-hi – Epistle refuting al-Ṣaghānī, concerning his invented traditions. MS. Darülmesnevi 258, ff. 143r–147r.
4) Risāla fī l-tawḥīd – Epistle on monotheism. MSS. Hafid Efendi 453, ff. 116v–117v; Harput 429, ff. 118v–119v; Kılıç Ali Paşa 1035, ff. 68v–69r.
5) Risāla fī anna l-nubuwwa afḍal mina l-wilāya – Epistle explaining that Prophethood is more eminent than Friendship [of God]. MSS. Harput 429, ff. 38r–48r; Reşid Efendi 985, ff. 91r–95r.
6) Risāla fī bayān marātib al-nafs wa marātib al-‘ibāda wa marātib altawḥīd – Epistle making clear the degrees of the soul, the degrees of worship, and the degrees of monotheism. MSS. Harput 429, ff. 93v– 100r; Reşid Efendi 985, ff. 110v–113v. Yazmalar: Manisa İHK, Akhisar Zeynelzade Koleksiyon, 45 Ak Ze 1602/11, ff. 116v–123r.
7) Risāla fī dhikr al-lisān wa l-qalb – Epistle on the remembrance of God by the tongue and by the heart.1 MSS. Darülmesnevi 258, ff. 99v–104r; Harput 429, ff. 48v–54v; Şehid Ali Paşa 1189, ff. 88v– 94r. See also a Risāla fī l-dhikr – Epistle on the remembrance of God, in MS. Harput 429, ff. 84v–93r. Yazmalar: Çorum, Hasan Paşa İHK, 19 Hk 797/4, ff. 8v–12r; Manisa, İHK, 45 Hk 2224/10, ff. 82r–93r; 45 Hk 2937/4, ff. 36v–42r.
8) Risāla fī l-sulūk wa anna-hu lā budd li-l-sālik min murshid – Epistle on the wayfaring, and that the wayfarer must inevitably have a guide. MS. Harput 429, ff. 73r–77v.
9) Risāla fī l-taqlīd – Epistle on the imitation of an authority.1 MSS. Darülmesnevi 258, ff. 84v–91v; Harput 429, ff. 29r–37r; Kılıç Ali Paşa 1035, ff. 38v–48v. Yazmalar: Konya, İHK, 42 Kon 3824/12, ff. 38v–43v; Isparta İHK, 32 Hk 1484/9, ff. 38v–44v; Manisa, İHK, 45 Hk 2937/6, ff. 53v–62v.
10) Risāla fī l-bid‘at al-sayyi’a wa ghayr al-sayyi’a – Epistle on the innovation that is bad and that which is not bad.2 MSS. Darülmesnevi 258, ff. 104v–109v (1093/1682); Harput 429, ff. 158r–164v; Reşid Efendi 985, ff. 83r–86r.3 Yazmalar: Manisa, İHK, 45 Hk 2937/2, ff. 21v–27r.
11) Risāla fī dhamm al-bid‘a – Epistle on the censure of innovation. MS. Harput 429, ff. 54v–65r. Yazmalar: Manisa İHK, Akhisar Zeynelzade Koleksiyon, 45 Ak Ze 1602/10, ff. 106v–116v.
12) Risāla fī bayān kull min ṣalāt
