Prophet Muḥammad in the Sufi Tradition of the Fifteenth-Century Turkish-Islamic World
Historical Identity and Ontological Reality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52541/isiri.v65i2.7585Keywords:
Prophet Muḥammad, Sufism, Islam, Ḥaqīqat-i Muḥammadiyya, Khorasan, Ottoman, Anatolia.Abstract
This study examines the historical and ontological dimensions of Prophet Muḥammad (peace be on him) within the fifteenth-century Turkish Sufi tradition, considering different regions and Sufi orders. In Islamic scholarship, the Prophet occupies a central position as both the messenger who conveys divine revelation and the exemplary figure who brings about transformation at both the individual and social levels. Sufi literature deepens this understanding through the Nūr-i Muḥammadī (the Muhammadan Light), which regards the Prophet as the ontological source of creation and thus situates him as a cosmic and metaphysical reality. The present research focuses on the regions of Khorasan, Azerbaijan, and Anatolia, selecting three prominent Sufi figures as case studies representing these intellectual and geographical spheres: Sayyid Yaḥyā al-Shirvānī (d. 1466), Ashraf-Ughlī (Eshrefoghlu) Rūmī (d. 1469), and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (d. 1492). Representing different Sufi orders and distinct Turkish-Islamic regions, the works of these figures are comparatively analysed to reveal how the Prophet’s historical personality and ontological status were conceptualized. In doing so, the study offers, for the first time in the literature, a comparative perspective on the Prophet’s portrayal in these Sufi traditions and provides significant insights into the conception of the Prophet among fifteenth-century Turkish-Muslim societies.
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