45 Hk 2937/3, ff. 27v–36r.
13) Risāla fī man‘ al-taṣliya wa l-tarḍiya wa l-ta’mīn waqta l-khuṭba – Epistle on the interdiction to ask for God’s blessings on the Prophet and for His satisfaction with the Companions, as well as to say “Amen”, during the Friday prayer’s sermon.5 MSS. Harput 429, ff. 77v–84v; Kılıç Ali Paşa 1035, ff. 69v–70r; Reisülküttab 1182, ff. 57v–64r; Reşid Efendi 985, ff. 87v–92r; Şehid Ali Paşa 1189, ff. 98r–104r. Yazmalar: Manisa İHK, Akhisar Zeynelzade Koleksiyon, 45 Ak Ze 5998/2, ff. 20v–29r (1310/1891).
14) Risāla fī anna l-muṣāfaḥa ba‘da l-ṣalawāt al-khamsa bid‘a makrūha – Epistle explaining that shaking hands after the five prayers is a detestable innovation.1 MSS. Harput 429, ff. 72r–73r; Reisülküttab 1182, ff. 64v–65r. See also Esad Efendi 3599, ff. 218v–237v (same incipit but longer and other explicit). Yazmalar: Manisa İHK, Akhisar Zeynelzade Koleksiyon, 45 Ak Ze 1602/12, ff. 123r–v; 45 Ak Ze 6548/5, ff. 62r–63v (1311/1892).
15) Risāla fī ḥurmat al-raqṣ wa l-dawarān – Epistle on the prohibition of dancing and whirling. MS. Harput 429, ff. 65r–72r.2 See also Hafid Efendi 453, ff. 79r–85r, which ends differently.
16) Risāla fī l-radd ‘alā maqābiriyya – Epistle refuting the visitors of tombs. Or Radd al-Qabriyya – Refutation of the visitors of tombs.3 MSS. Fatih 5398, ff. 71r–86v; Hafid Efendi 453, ff. 90r–117v; Harput 429, ff. 100r–118v; Kılıç Ali Paşa 1035, ff. 49v–68r. Yazmalar: Manisa, İHK, 45 Hk 2937/1, ff. 3v–20v.
17) Risāla fī ḥukm al-dukhān – Epistle on the [Legal] status of tobacco [smoking]. Or Risāleh dukhāniyyeh – Epistle on tobacco.4 MSS. Darülmesnevi 258, ff. 70v–74v; Harput 429, ff. 194v–199v; Kılıç Ali Paşa 1035, ff. 31v–36v; Reisülküttab 1182, ff. 52v–57r. See also the extract copied in MS. Giresun 114 (28 Hk 3587/7), p. 27: Maṭlab fī ḥaqq al-dukhān – Inquiry concerning tobacco. Yazmalar: Manisa İHK, Akhisar Zeynelzade Koleksiyon, 45 Ak Ze 1602/1, ff. I + 1v–6r; İHK, 45 Hk 2937/5, ff. 43r–47v.
Beginning of the Risāleh dukhāniyyeh1
18) Risāla fī l-ṭā‘ūn – Epistle on the plague. MS. Harput 429, ff. 164v– 184v.
19) Risāla fī l-arāḍī – Epistle on the [Legal nature] of lands. MSS. Ali Emiri Arabi 4343, ff. 40–46 (1114/1702); Darülmesnevi 258, ff. 130v–137r; Haci Beşir Ağa 662, ff. 194v–204v; Harput 429, ff. 185r–194r; Kasidecizade 682, ff. 45v–57v (1089/1678); Kılıç Ali Paşa 1035, ff. 71v–80r; Ragip Paşa 461, ff. 154v–157v (1066/1655). Yazmalar: Manisa, İHK, 45 Hk 2937/7, ff. 63v–71r.2
There is nothing peculiar in the fact that an Ottoman religious scholar like al-Aqḥiṣārī was interested in writing on the Qur’ān and the Ḥadīth, monotheism and prophethood, worship, spiritual wayfaring and submission to religious authorities. As for the topics dealt with in several of his other writings, how could they leave the historian indifferent? The dual nature of innovations, Raghā’ib and Berāt prayers, the remembrance of God (dhikr), the invoking of divine blessings during the Friday sermon, shaking hands after the collective prayer, Sufi dancing and whirling, the visiting of tombs and tobacco are indeed some of the very hot issues having divided Qāḍīzādelis and their Sufi opponents. With the exception of dhikr, Kātib Çelebi notably devotes a chapter of his amazing Balance of Truth to every one of them.1 Now, needless to say, on each of these issues, al-Aqḥiṣārī does not appear to have been among those whom Kātib Çelebi calls “the intelligent ones”, i.e. those who kept out of “a profitless quarrel, born of fanaticism”.2 He rather seems to have been, on all these issues, among the “foolish people” persistently attached to one side, in this case, as easily predictable, that of the strict ulema and prohibitionists who shared in some measure the views of Qāḍīzāde, Birgivī, Ibn Qayyim and Ibn Taymiyya.
The present book is devoted to one of al-Aqḥiṣārī’s epistles, namely his Risāleh dukhāniyyeh – Epistle on tobacco. The choice of this particular text has probably no other reason than the interest in the use of drugs in Islamic societies that has already led me to translate Ibn Taymiyya’s fatwā on cannabis and to study opium addiction and coffee in Ottoman Turkey.3 Besides tobacco, al-Aqḥiṣārī indeed also has something to say about these three substances in his Dukhāniyyeh. Before presenting this particular epistle, it will be worthwhile taking a little time to explore further the age and personality of its author.
THE COMPLEXITIES OF A RADICAL PIETISM
AL-AQḤIṢĀRĪ lived in a period marked by a financial crisis around 1008–9/1600, by the disintegration of the imperial Ottoman authority and the corruption of the elites, by a deep societal unrest and by grave tension between popular mosque preachers and medresse ulema, puritanical zealots and licentious or innovating shaykhs.1 The hundred topics entered upon in his Majālis show that he is mainly concerned with personal piety, commercial righteousness, religious and social issues, rather than with affairs of court, political and military matters.
1 The remembrance of God (dhikr Allāh)
2 The eminence of dhikr
3 The eminence of faith
4 Love of the Prophet
5 Faith in his teachings
6 Tasting the savour of faith
7 Faith in the Prophet
8 Obeying and disobeying the Prophet
9 Following the Prophet
10 Believer (mu’min), Muslim, mujāhid…
11 The best dhikr and invocations
12 The intercession of the Prophet
13 Pure monotheism (ikhlāṣ al-tawḥīd)
14 The faith that will save
15 The natural state of Islam (fiṭrat al-islām)
16 The various kinds of unbelief
17 The prohibition of praying near tombs
18 The various kinds of innovations
19 Raghā’ib & other innovated prayers
20 The eminence of ḥajj & its innovations
21 The eminence of almsgiving & forsaking it
22 The eminence of fasting
23 The eminence of fasting in Sha‘bān
24 Laylat al-barā’a: sunna and innovations
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