A Supplement to Bahâeddinzâde’s Political Thought: Critical Edition and Analysis of the Nasihatnâme

Authors : Enes Taş

Pages : 451-469

Doi:10.52637/kiid.1731497

View : 86 | Download : 129

Publication Date : 2025-12-15

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This article examines the political thought of Muhyiddin Mehmed b. Bahāeddin (known as Bahāeddinzāde), a sixteenth-century Ottoman scholar, through the lens of his major works: Siyasetnāme, Asl al-tashrīʿ, Risāla mutaʿalliqa bi-amr al-jihād, and Nasihatnāme. Bahāeddinzāde’s political philosophy is grounded in a metaphysical sufi framework. He conceives of the state not merely as an institution that responds to social needs. Rather, he understands it as the terrestrial manifestation of the cosmic order and an extension of humanity’s divinely ordained role of khilāfa (vicegerency). In this respect, he occupies a unique position at the intersection of Islamic philosophy and sufi thought. His political theory reflects an original synthesis that integrates sufi (Akbarī), classical (siyasetnāme–nasihatnāme) and philosophical (Fārābī, Ibn Khaldūn) traditions. Bahāeddzāde’s Nasihatnāme represents an early example of the transformation that took place in the nasihatnāme literature during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. While nasihatnāme texts of the sixteenth century primarily focused on individual morality and sufi training, those of the seventeenth century began to center on discourses of corruption in state order and problems of governance. Bahāeddinzāde’s work, however, combines both tendencies by offering moral advice on individual conduct alongside warnings concerning justice, politics, and social order. In this respect, the work functions as a bridge between the classical moral-religious nasihatnāme tradition and the increasingly state and order-oriented advisory literature. The political theory underlying Bahāeddinzāde’s entire corpus stands out for its system of mutual responsibility and balance. This system is structured particularly around the quartet of the sultan, the sharīʿa, the ʿulamāʾ, and the vizier. Bahāeddinzāde adopts a sharīʿa-centered approach in his works and sharply criticizes instances in which political authority violates the sharīʿa through ʿurf-based (customary) practices. By highlighting the tension between sharīʿa and ʿurf, he offers a critical reading of political transformations in the Ottoman Empire. He grounds political legitimacy in sharīʿa principles and identifies several key areas of concern: the weakening of the independence of the ʿulamāʾ, the precedence of ʿurf-based norms over the sharīʿa, and the erosion of the principle of competence and merit (ahlīyya and liyāqa). This article approaches Bahāeddinzāde’s understanding of politics within a multilayered framework that incorporates fiqh, kalām, and Sufism. It shows that he not only developed a theoretical vision of political order but also offered practical solutions to the challenges of his time. His articulation of a connection between Akbarian metaphysics and political order places him in an original position within classical Ottoman thought. In this context, Bahāeddinzāde emerges not merely as a critical voice, but rather as a constructive thinker aiming to establish a sharīʿa-based political order.
Keywords : Osmanlı Siyaset Düşüncesi, XVI. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Tarihi, Bahâeddinzâde, Siyaset Teorisi, Şeriat-Örf İlişkisi, Nasihatnâme

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