Taste of Modernity: Sufism, Salafiyya, and Arabism in Late Ottoman Damascus

358 Pages·2000·3.419 MB·English

by  Itzchak Weismann

TASTE OF
MODERNITY:
Sufism, Salafiyya,
and Arabism in Late
Ottoman Damascus
Itzchak Weismann
BRILL
IHC.Weismann.34.vwc 29-09-2000 13:21 Pagina 1
TASTE OF MODERNITY
IHC.Weismann.34.vwc 29-09-2000 13:21 Pagina 2
ISLAMIC HISTORY
AND CIVILIZATION
STUDIES AND TEXTS
edited by
WADAD KADI
VOLUME 34
IHC.Weismann.34.vwc 29-09-2000 13:21 Pagina 3
TASTE
OF
MODERNITY
Sufism, Salafiyya, and Arabism
in Late Ottoman Damascus
BY
ITZCHAK WEISMANN
BRILL
LEIDEN •BOSTON •KÖLN
2001
IHC.Weismann.34.vwc 29-09-2000 13:21 Pagina 4
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weismann, Itzchak.
Taste of Modernity : Sufism, Salafiyya, and Arabism in Late Ottoman
Damascus / by Itzchak Weismann.
p. cm. — (Islamic history and civilization. Studies and
texts, ISSN 0929-2403 ; v. 34)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9004119086(alk. paper)
1. SalafÊyah—Syria. 2. Sufism—Syria. 3.Islam—Syria. I. Title II. Series.
BP195.S18 W44 2000
297’.095691’09034—dc21 00- 040337
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek – CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
Weismann, Itzchak :
Taste of modernity : Sufism, Salafiyya, and Arabism in Late Ottoman
Damascus /by Itzchak Weismann. – Leiden ; Boston ; Köln : Brill, 2000
(Islamic history and civilization ; Vol. 34)
ISBN 90–04–11908–6
ISSN 0929-2403
ISBN 90 04 11908 6
© Copyright 2001 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written
permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal
use is granted by Brill provided that
the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright
Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910
Danvers MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
contents v
To Gerda for your endurance
And to Tomer, Maya, and Shay
Voorw.p65 5 9/17/00, 9:27 PM
This page intentionally left blank
contents vii
This is the gravest danger that to-day threatens civilization: State
intervention; the absorption of all spontaneous social effort by the
State, that is to say, of spontaneous historical action, which in the
long run sustains, nourishes, and impels human destinies.
The mass-man does in fact believe that he is the State, and he will
tend more and more to set its machinery working on whatsoever
pretext, to crush beneath it any creative minority which disturbs it—
disturbs it in any order of things: in politics, in ideas, in industry.
Jose Ortega Y Gasset. The Revolt of the Masses.
Y§ ayyuh§ alladhÊna §manå aãÊ#å All§h wa-aãÊ#å al-rasål wa-ålÊ al-
amr minkum.
O believers, obey God, and obey the Messenger and those in author-
ity among you.
Qur"an, al-Nis§" (4), 59.
Voorw.p65 7 9/17/00, 9:27 PM
This page intentionally left blank
contents ix
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Part One: In Support of the Sultan—The Naqshbandiyya-
Kh§lidiyya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Chapter 1. The Mystical Praxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
The Sufi Roots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
The Organizational Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
The Affinity to Orthodoxy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Involvement in Social and Political Affairs. . . . . . . . . . . 45
Chapter 2. Shaykh Kh§lid’s Legacy (1823-1832). . . . . . . . . 56
The Support of the Local #Ulama. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Ibn #$bidÊn’s Reformism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
The Collapse of the Succession Arrangement . . . . . . . . 75
Sultan MaÈmåd II’s Turn against the Kh§lidiyya. . . . . 78
Chapter 3. Fragmentation during the Reform Era
(1832-1880) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Leadership and Power Base under the Egyptian Rule 84
The Split under the Aegis of the Early Tanzimat
Regime. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
The rise of the New Ottoman Tendency . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
The Lapse during the Late Tanzimat Period. . . . . . . . . 100
Chapter 4. The Struggle for Supremacy under the Auto-
cratic Regimes (1880-1918). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Challenging the Leadership under the \amÊdian
Regime. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
The Decline of the Local Branch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
The Consolidation of the Ottoman—Orthodox
Tendency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
In the Service of the Committee for Union and Progress 132
Voorw.p65 9 9/17/00, 9:27 PM