Khalwati order

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The Khalwati order (

Qadiri, and Shadhili orders, it is among the most famous Sufi orders. The order takes its name from the Arabic word khalwa, meaning “method of withdrawal or isolation from the world for mystical purposes.”[1]

The order was founded by

Yahya Shirvani, who founded the “Khalwati Way.”[2] Yahya Shirvani wrote Wird al-Sattar, a devotional text read by the members of nearly all the branches of Khalwatiyya.[3]

The Khalwati order is known for its strict ritual training of its

zuhd) and retreat (khalwa), differentiating themselves from other orders at the time.[3]
The order is associated as one of the source schools of many other Sufi orders.

History

14th to 17th centuries

There were two major historical movements of the Khalwati order. The first one started in the late 14th century and ended in the 17th century. The first historical movement marks its origins and spread in vast area, now being part of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.[1] The second movement began in the late 15th century to the mid-19th century mostly focused in Egypt, considered the reform period of the Khalwati order.[2] The order lost popularity in 1865, but many of its leaders branched off to form different orders to expand Islam throughout Africa.[4] The order resided mostly in large urban areas.[1]

Al-Hasan Al-Basri, Umar al-Khalwati, the establishment of the Khalwati order, and Sayyeed Yahya Shirvani

Main article:
Seyid Yahya Bakuvi

The origins of the Khalwati order are obscure but according to a Khalwati shaykh named Osman Shehu (born 1970 died 2017, was the leader of the Khalwati Karabas order in Junik, Kosovo) Al-Hasan Al-Basri was the founder of the Khalwati order. Many parts are against this fact due to the intern conflicts that exist in the tariqa on who is the founding fathers. Shaykh Osman continued and added that Khalwa or seclusion is a practice that Al-Hasan Al-Basri mainly lived by and is the fundamental practice in the Khalwati order.[

shaykhs performing miracles for the nomads. Thus, these Turkish nomads were easily converted to mystical Islam when the Sufi shaykhs promised them union with Allah.[4] Yahya Shirvani entered Baku at this time of religious fervor and political instability, and he was able to start a movement. Yahya Shirvani was able to gather ten thousand people to his movement. Yahya had many popular, charismatic disciples to spread the order, including Pir Ilyas.[1]

The period of the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid II and Sheikh Chelebi Khalifa

The time of greatest popularity for Khalwati order was during the thirty-year reign of “

Bayazid II” (1481–1511) in Ottoman Turkey.[1] During this time, the sultan practiced Sufi rituals, which, without a doubt, brought in many people to the order who wanted to advance their political career. This is the time period where members of the upper class, Ottoman military, and higher ranks of civil services were all involved with the Khalwati order. The Sufi sheikh, Chelebi Khalifa, moved the headquarters of the Khalwati order from Amasya to Istanbul.[1] Here, they rebuilt a former church into a tekke, or Sufi lodge. The tekke became known as the Koca Mustafa Pasha Mosque.[1] These buildings spread throughout the region as Khalwati's popularity grew. The order spread from its origins in the Middle East to the Balkans (especially in southern Greece, Kosovo and North Macedonia, to Egypt, Sudan and almost all corners of the Ottoman Empire
.

The period of Sunbul Efendi

After Chelebi Khalifa's death, the power was passed to his son-in-law,

dervishes gathered around Shaykh Sunbul dressed with his khirqa. Selim was astonished by Sunbul's spiritual power and canceled the plans to destroy the tekke.[1]

The attacks from the

Sunbul Efendi

The periods of the Wali Sha`ban-i Kastamoni and `Omer el-Fu'ad-i, and the Kadizadeli movement

The order began to transform itself over the course of the 16th and 17th centuries as it became more embedded in

Shi’i enemy. With the reign of Sulayman the Magnificent and Selim II the order entered a revival. They had links with many high-ranking officials in the Ottoman administration and received substantial donations in cash and property, which helped to recruit more members.[6]

The influences of Niyazi al-Misri

By this time, members of the Khalwati order broke ties with the common people, who they previously aligned themselves so closely. They attempted to rid the order of folk Islam to a more orthodox order.

Niyazi al-Misri. Niyazi was famous for his poetry, his spiritual powers, and public opposition to the government.[1] He was a leader that represented the old Khalwati order, one for the masses.[1]
Niyazi gave the common people and their spiritual aspirations a voice again in the Khalwati order. Niyazi's poetry demonstrates some of the Khalwati's aspects of retreat. He writes in one of his poems:

"I thought that in the world no friend was left for me--
I left myself, and lo, no fiend was left for me"[7]

18th and 19th centuries: Khalwati reform

Most scholars believe that the Khalwati went through a revival during the 18th century when Mustafa ibn Kamal ad-Din al-Bakri (1688-1748)

al-Khidr three times. In many cities, people would mob al-Bakri to receive his blessing.[1] After al-Bakri died, Khalwati dome scholars believe that al-Bakri set “a great Sufi renaissance in motion.”[1] He was considered the reformer who renewed the Khalwati order in the Egypt. The Khalwati order still remains strong in Egypt where the Sufi orders do receive a degree of support from the government. The Khalwati order also remains strong in the Sudan
.

However, not all scholars agree with al-Bakri's influence. Frederick de Jong argues in his collected studies that al Bakri's influence was limited. He argues that many scholars speak of his influence, but without much detail about what he actually did.[9] Jong argues that al-Bakri's influence was limited to adding a prayer litany to the Khalwati rituals.[2] He made his disciples read this litany before sunrise and called it the Wird al-sahar. Al-Bakri wrote this prayer litany himself and thought it necessary to add it to the practices of the Khalwati order. Jong argues al-Bakri should not be attributed with the revival of the Sufi order for his limited effect.[2]

19th-century political influence

Members of the Khwalti order were involved in political movements by playing a huge role in the

Urabi insurrection in Egypt. The order helped others oppose British occupation in Egypt. The Khalwati groups in Upper Egypt protested British occupation due to high taxes and unpaid labor, which, in addition to drought, made living very hard in the 1870s.[2] Their protests blended with the large stream nationalist protests that lead up to the Urabi insurrection. It can be said that the Khalwati's fight to improve living conditions eventually lead to the larger nationalist protests.[2]

Further information:
Urabi Revolt

20th century to modern day

The situation varies from region to region. In 1945, the government in Albania recognized the principal tariqas as independent religious communities, but this came to an end after the Albanian Cultural Revolution in 1967. In 1939 there were twenty-five Khalwatiyya tekkes in Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo. In 1925 the orders were abolished in Turkey and all tekkes and zawiyas were closed and their possessions confiscated by the government, and there is no data available on the status of the Khalwatiyya. In Egypt there are still many active branches of the Khalwatiyya.[10]

Modernity has affected the orders to have quite different forms in different environments. They vary depending on the locality, personality of the shaykh and the needs of the community. There may also be different prayer practices, patterns of association, and the nature of relations linking the disciples to the shaykh and to each other.[11]

Khalwati tekkes

The Khalwati order had many tekkes in

Republic of Turkey, the above are almost all now mosques and/or places of visitation by Muslims
for prayer.

Active branches in the Ottoman era

Khalwati practices

The hallmark of the Khalwatiyya tariqa, way, and its numerous subdivisions is its periodic retreat (khalwa) that is required of every novice.[12] These can last between three days to forty days. The khalwa for some offshoots of the Khalwatiyya is essential in preparing the pupil, murid. The collective dhikr follows similar rules throughout the different branches of the Khalwatiyya order.[13] The practice of dhikr is described as repetitive prayer. The practitioner is to be repeating Allah's name and remembering Allah. The dervish is to be attentive to Allah in their repetitive prayer.[14] They are to be completely focused on Allah, so much so that an early Sufi master says "True dhikr is that you forget your dhikr."[15] Another practice that distinguishes the Khalwatiyya from other tariqas is that for them it is through participation in the communal rites and rituals that one reaches a more advanced stage of awareness, one that the theorists of the order described as a face-to-face encounter with Allah.[16]

Khalwati sub-orders

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Keddie, Nikki R. (1972). Scholars, Saints, and Sufis. Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 401.
  2. ^
    ISBN 975-428-178-5
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-19-512058-2
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-0-520-02027-6
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0-7486-3923-6
    .
  6. ISBN 90-04-10717-7
    .
  7. ISBN 978-0-8078-1223-5
    .
  8. ^ http://www.academy.ac.il/data/egeret/70/EgeretArticles/weigert%20article%201.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  9. ISBN 0-8156-2402-6
    .
  10. ISBN 90-04-10717-7
    .
  11. ISBN 978-1-85043-854-0
    .
  12. ISBN 90-04-10717-7
    .
  13. ISBN 90-04-10717-7
    .
  14. doi:10.1207/s15327582ijpr0604_1
    .
  15. ISBN 0-8078-1271-4
    .
  16. ISBN 90-04-10717-7
    .

References

External links

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