The Khalwati order (also known as Khalwatiyya, Khalwatiya, or Halveti, as it is known in Turkey and Albania) is an Sufi brotherhood ( tariqa). Along with the Naqshbandi, 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.”
The order emerged from the Safavid order-Bektashi Order millieu
The Khalwati order is known for its strict ritual training of its dervishes and its emphasis of individualism, their poetry is also notable for being influenced by Hurufism like Naimi and Nesimi.
History
Origins
The Khalwati has two lineages, but it is safe to say that it goes back to
Ali, Hasan and Husayn, most likely via the
Hasan al-Basri or Baghdadi tradition, out of which the
Greater Khorasan Khwajagan generation eventually emerged, the most famous of which being
Yusuf Hamadani, Abu al-Hassan al-Kharaqani and Abu Ali Farmadi, from which the students of
Ahmad Yasawi taught
Zahed Gilani, who then ultimately went on to be the teacher of Muhammad-Nur al-Khalwati and Umar al-Khalwati; the Khwajagan also often connected to
Bayazid Bastami, whom the Khalwati have special reverence for.
The lineages of the order are also very frequently linked to the Malamatiyya in some way, and their traditions of khalwa and malamah are believed to be directly related.
Sectarianism and the establishment of the Khalwati order
Due to the dual lineage of Khalwatis, their early history is heavily disputed, especially due to them being split into
Sunni Islam and
Shia Islam, with Sunnis generally favoring the
Hasan al-Basri lineage due to enmity with followers of the
Ahl al-Bayt, and Shias favoring the Baghdadi lineage, due to it being connected to
Ali al-Rida, as well as the previous
shia imams.
A popular narrative dictates that the orders practice emerged upon the death of Umar al-Khalwati after having died from 40 days in fasting and seclusion. The practice of seclusion in virtually all Sufi orders is traced to at least one Khalwati pir present in their lineage. Despite the authority of Muhammad-Nur al-Khalwati, Umar al-Khalwati is usually considered its founder, or the "first pir".
Yahya Shirvani lived during a time of great political instability in the wake of the Mongol invasion. After the Mongol invasions, Turkish nomads began to gather into urban centers of the Islamic world. All these cities had Sufi 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.
Under the Ottomans
The time of greatest popularity for Khalwati order was during the thirty-year reign of “
Sufi Bayazid II” (1481–1511) in
Ottoman Empire Turkey after undergoing sunnification.
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.
Here, they rebuilt a former church into a
Khanqah, or Sufi lodge. The tekke became known as the Koca Mustafa Pasha Mosque.
These buildings spread throughout the region as Khalwati's popularity grew. The order spread from its origins in the
Central Asia and
Azerbaijan to the
Balkans, especially in
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,
Sunbul Efendi. He was considered a very spiritual man that saved the Koca Mustafa Pasha Mosque.
According to the miraculous account, the new sultan
Selim I, was suspicious of the Khalwati order and wanted to destroy its
tekke.
Selim I sent workers to tear down the
tekke, but an angry Sunbul Efendi turned them away. Hearing this, Selim I went down there himself only to see hundreds of silent
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.
The attacks from the ulama, the orthodox religious class, were more serious in the long run. Their hostility were on many Sufi orders, not just the Khalwatiya. Their criticism was a political concern, which suggested that they Khalwatis were disloyal to the Ottoman state, and a doctrinal concern, that the Sufis were thought by the ulama to be too close to folk Islam and too far from the shari'a. The ulama also held a cultural hostility towards them, which made the ulama intolerant of the Sufis.
The periods of the Wali Shaʿban-i Kastamoni and ʿOmer 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
Ottoman Empire social and religious life. A good example of this is the branch of the order founded by
Shaban Veli (d. 1569) in
Kastamonu. Whereas Shaʿban was a retiring ascetic who kept a low profile in the 16th century, by the 17th century his spiritual follower ʿOmer el-Fu'adi (d. 1636) wrote multiple books and treatises that sought to cement the order's doctrines and practices, in addition to combatting a growing anti-Sufi feeling that later took shape in the form of the Kadizadeli movement.
[John J. Curry, The Transformation of Muslim Mystical Thought in the Ottoman Empire: The Rise of the Halveti Order, 1350-1650, .] Also during this period, the order sought to reassert its
Sunni identity, by disassociating itself with the 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.
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.
The Khalwati was very conscious of their public image and wanted the order to become more of an exclusive membership for the upper class. From here, the Khalwati order broke off into many suborders. In 1650s rose one of the most famous Anatolian Khalwati shaykhs,
Niyazi al-Misri. Niyazi was famous for his poetry, his spiritual powers, and public opposition to the government.
He was a leader that represented the old Khalwati order, one for the masses.
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"
Revival of the Khalwati
Most scholars believe that the Khalwati themselves went through a major revival during the 18th century when Mustafa ibn Kamal ad-Din al-Bakri (1688–1748)
[http://www.academy.ac.il/data/egeret/70/EgeretArticles/weigert%20article%201.pdf ] was in charge. Al-Bakri was considered a great shaykh who wrote many books, invented Sufi techniques, and was very charismatic.
He travelled throughout Jerusalem, Aleppo, Istanbul, Baghdad, and Basra. Before he died he wrote 220 books, mostly about
adab.
It is said that he saw the prophet nineteen times and
al-Khidr three times. In many cities, people would mob al-Bakri to receive his blessing.
After al-Bakri died, Khalwati dome scholars believe that al-Bakri set “a great Sufi renaissance in motion.”
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.
After the influence of al-Bakri faded, the Khalwati order began gradually splitting into popular break-off branches, which were led by figures such as Ismail Haqqi Bursevi, Aziz Mahmud Hudayi, Mustafa Gaibi, Mustafa Devati, Osman Fazli and Shaban Veli, whom are nonetheless still highly esteemed and venerated by mainstream Khalwati followers.
19th-century political influence
Members of the Khalwati order were involved in political movements by playing a huge role in the
Urabi Revolt 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.
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.
20th century to modern day
The situation varies from region to region. In 1945, the government in
Albania recognized the principal
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.
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.
Khalwati tekkes
The Khalwati order had many tekkes in
Istanbul, the most famous being the
Jerrahi,
Ussaki,
Sunbuli, Ramazani and
Nasuhi. Although the Sufi orders are now abolished in the 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
-
Pîr İlyas Amâsî branch
-
Seyyid Yâhyâ-yı Şirvânî branch
-
Molla Hâbib Karamanî sub-branch
-
Cemâli’îyye sub-branch (Followers of Çelebi Hâlife Cemâl-i Halvetî)
-
Sunbuli
-
Assâl’îyye
-
Bahş’îyye
-
Şâbân’îyye
-
Karabaş’îyye
-
Bekr’îyye
-
Kemal’îyye
-
Hufn’îyye
-
Tecân’îyye
-
Dırdîr’îyye
-
Sâv’îyye
-
Semmân’îyye
-
Nasuhi
-
Çerkeş’îyye
-
İbrahim’îyye/Kuşadav’îyye
-
Halîl’îyye
-
Ahmed’îyye sub-branch (Followers of Yiğitbaşı Ahmed Şemseddîn bin Îsâ Marmarâvî)
-
Ramazan’îyye
-
Cihângir’îyye
-
Sinan’îyye
-
Muslih’îyye
-
Zeherr’îyye
-
Hayât’îyye
-
Ussaki
-
Niyâz’îyye/Mısr’îyye
-
Beyûm’îyye
-
Rûşen’îyye sub-branch (Followers of Dede Ömer-i Rûşenî)
-
Şems’îyye sub-branch (Followers of Şemseddîn Ahmed Sivâsî)
Khalwati practices
The hallmark of the Khalwatiyya
tariqa way, and its numerous subdivisions is its periodic retreat (khalwa) that is required of every novice.
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.
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.
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."
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.
Lineage
The following are two commonly cited spiritual chains (silsilas) tracing back to Prophet Muhammad:
-
Muḥammad
-
Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib
-
Hasan ibn Ali
-
Husayn ibn Ali
-
Hasan al-Basri
-
Habib al-Ajami
-
Dāwūd al-Ṭāʾī
-
Maʿrūf al-Karkhī
-
Sari al-Saqati
-
Jūnayd al-Baghdādī
-
Mumshād al-Dīnawarī
-
Muḥammad al-Bakrī
-
Qaḍī Wajīh al-Dīn ʿUmar al-Bakrī
-
Abū al-Najīb al-Suhrawardī
-
Ahmad Ghazali
-
Quṭb al-Dīn al-Abharī
-
Rukn al-Dīn al-Najāshī
-
Shihāb al-Dīn al-Tabrīzī
-
Khwājah Jamāl al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī
-
Zahed Gilani
-
Muḥammad ibn Nūr al-Khalwatī
-
ʿUmar al-Khalwatī
Another version of the spiritual lineage, is as follows:
-
Muḥammad
-
Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib
-
Ḥasan ibn Alī
-
Ḥusayn ibn Alī
-
Ali al-Sajjad
-
Muḥammad al-Baqir
-
Jāfar as-Sādiq
-
Musa al-Kazim
-
Ali al-Rida
-
Maʿrūf al-Karkhī
-
Sari al-Saqaṭī
-
Jūnayd al-Baghdâdî
-
Abū Bakr al-Shiblī
-
Abū Saʿīd ibn al-Aʿrābī
-
Abū ʿAlī al-Kātib
-
Abu Uthman al-Maghribi
-
Abu al-Qasim Gurgani
-
Abu al-Hassan al-Kharaqani
-
Abu Ali Farmadi
-
Arystan Baba
-
Yusuf Hamadani
-
Ahmed Yesevi
-
Shaykh Luqman Perende
-
Zāhed Gilānī
-
Muḥammad ibn Nūr al-Khalwatī
-
ʿUmar al-Khalwatī
sub-orders
See also
Notes
-
Clayer, Nathalie, Muslim Brotherhood Networks, European History Online, Mainz: Institute of European History, 2011, retrieved: May 23, 2011.
External links
