OTTOMAN-SAFAVID RELATIONS AND THE HADJIS OF TURKESTAN

This study examines the political influence and rivalry shaped around the pilgrimage of Turkestani hadjis (pilgrims) to the holy places, their visits and prayers, and their return, and draws attention to the cultural and economic dimensions of the pilgrimage in the context of Ottoman-Safavid struggles. It is known that the Safavids were the state with which the Ottoman Empire competed the most in the political, military, economic and religious fields. Since the pilgrims from Turkestan adopted the same Sunnite understanding as the Ottomans and stood close to the Ottoman Empire, unlike the Safavids who embraced the Shiite understanding of Islam, they became a part of the rivalry between the two states. Although the distance between Turkestan and the Hijaz region created alternative pilgrimage routes and the use of each route changed according to the political conjuncture, road safety, religious and sectarian conflicts, the route through Istanbul was preferred the most. In addition to road safety, this was associated with the fact that the caliph-sultan, the patron of all Muslims, was residing there, which in time turned into a rhetoric that complemented the pilgrimage. In studies on the subject, the political and religious competition between the two states and the journeys of Turkestan pilgrims are discussed under independent headings. We associate the preference for the much more distant routes of Istanbul and India instead of the shortest pilgrimage route of Iran, the closure of the Iranian route to Turkestan pilgrims due to sectarian differences, and when the Iranian route was opened to Turkestan pilgrims, the prohibitions and restrictions on Iranian pilgrims on the Ottoman side, the increase in their severity during periods of military conflict, and the Ottoman rapprochement with the Turkestan Khanates with this rivalry. The political and religious rivalry between the Ottoman, Safavid, Russian, Mughal states and the Turkestan khanates undoubtedly determined the routes that Turkestan pilgrims traveled and the nature of the difficulties and conveniences they encountered along the way. The pilgrims who chose the most preferred northern route traveled to Istanbul via Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, Khiva, the Caspian Sea, Astrakhan, Kefe and the Black Sea via Özi. By joining the pilgrimage caravan here, they came under the protection of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman State’s interest and sensitivity towards the pilgrims in the region was reflected in the documents of the period, and there were orders such as providing political and military support to the caravans, providing financial aid to pilgrims stranded on the road, and not charging ship fees from poor pilgrims coming from Bukhara. Although some restrictions were imposed on Shiite pilgrims during the periods when the rivalry with the Safavids intensified, the fact that the pilgrimage was not prohibited to them reflects the Ottoman caliph-sultan’s characteristic of being the protector of all Muslims, not only Sunnis. It is possible to see the same understanding in Kanuni’s visits to the Ahl al-Bayt shrines in Najaf and Karbala and the maintenance and repair of these shrines. In this way, the Ottoman sultan constructed the image of a caliph who encompassed all Muslims, regardless of Sunni-Shia division.