Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State by Kafadar Cemal

Author:Kafadar, Cemal [Kafadar, Cemal]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 1995-05-07T16:00:00+00:00

ALTRHISTOIRE IN THE FIFTEENTH

CENTURY: THE VITA OF SEYYD ‘AL

SULN AND TALES OF C LBEG

The best sampler of the garlic flavor must be the differing accounts of the gazis’ achievements in different “historical” narratives. That is, some of the sources leave no doubt that they present us with alternative accounts that cannot be treated as different layers of one tradition. For example, even the harshest of the anonymous chronicles seems tame when compared to one particular source that, ironically, has no direct criticism to make of the House of Osman. The challenge to Ottoman historiography here is through an unabashed “altrhistoire” that distributes the credit for the conquest of Thrace, one of the most glorious feats of the fourteenth-century gazis of western Asia Minor, in a shockingly different manner from all the other known chronicles.

A detailed analysis of the Vita of Seyyid l Suln, an enigmatic source among the fifteenth-century flurry of frontier narratives, would be inappropriate here.144 Given the fact that it seems to be trying to defend one of its protagonists against defamation and his followers against loss of some of their rights, it was most likely written during Memed IPs expropriation drive or soon afterward when the names and rights of the losers were being restored by Memed’s son.

The most curious aspect of this work is its radical departure from the accepted story line of the conquest of Thrace. Here, too, the House of Osman is the royal family, and in fact the Ottoman ruler is a higher political authority than the protagonists, but the role of the other gazis is much grander than in any of the chronicles of the House of Osman. The real heroes of the work are Seyyid l Suln, also called izil Deli, and his companions, who leave their home in Khorasan for the land of Rm after the appearance of the Prophet to Seyyid l in a dream. Seyyid l and company are perfect combinations of warrior and dervish; their military role is more pronounced than that of many other holy figures who represent a similar combination, even more than San alu. The work was clearly produced after the izil Deli cult (near Dimetoka, now Dhidhimoteichon, in Greek Thrace) had been incorporated into the Bektaiyye, because our protagonists pay a homage-visit to c Bekta as soon as they arrive in Rm. Once the latter blesses them and assigns them to specific ranks (i.e., formats the Khorasanian raw material into a Rm configuration), they join the Ottoman sultan, who happens to be on the Anatolian side of the Dardanelles pondering ways of sending his forces across the channel into Rumelia.145

Süleymn Paa, an Ottoman prince who is the champion of the earliest conquests in Thrace according to Ottoman historiography, is among the forces that successfully undertake the crossing, but he is not the leader. His death, a major story in Ottoman chronicles, is reported here without much significance attached to it; nor does it imply anything in terms of the future of the venture.

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