A Rūmī ḥurūfī: Ibn Firishte and reconstructing ḥurūfism in the early 9th/15th century Rūm

The fundamental subject of this thesis is Ḥurūfi views of Ibn Firishte, an early 9th/15th century Ḥurūfi missionary who produced first prose works of Turkish Ḥurūfi literature in Rūm. Researchers' interest on his works has remained at the level of primary text publication. Also, researchers evaluate Ibn Firishte's works as verbatim Turkish translations of the Persian Ḥurūfi works on the basis of the ongoing approach in the field that presents Ḥurūfism as a monolithic movement. Therefore, Ibn Firishte's views have not been examined as a distinct and full-fledged belief system. Moving from this defect in the literature, Ibn Firishte's works are going to be evaluated from a differentiative and comprehensive perspective. Ibn Firishte is an example of the intellectual model conceptualized as vernacular intellectual by Cevat Sucu. Ibn Firishte was not a passive translator transmitted a set of fixed beliefs from Persian to Turkish, but a propagandist-translator who produced translations to support the spreading of his belief system. Appropriately with this proselytizing agenda, he developed a new technical vocabulary to adapt Ḥurūfism to the cultural, politicoreligious, sociopolitical contexts and intellectual milieu of the early 9th/15th century Rūm. Also, his high selectivity in which parts of the Persian Ḥurūfi texts to be translated into Turkish was a part of this agenda. Through analyzing Ibn Firishte's works as interrelated and original texts this thesis aims to show that Ibn Firishte's works were translations in which he restructured Ḥurūfism. In this thesis, Ibn Firishte's works are going to be examined in three categories as cosmogony-cosmology, anthropology-prophetology and eschatology. Ibn Firishte started to produce his works in Āydīn region after the defeat of Bedrü'd-dīn-Börklüce Muṣtafā movement in 819/1416. It is highly possible that his target audience were the certain dervish groups called ābdāl that affiliated with this movement. Ibn Firishte through emphasizing 'Alī image and utilizing Akbari vocabulary aimed to address these 'Alid groups that had Akbari beliefs. Also, he used Christian elements in order to appeal to Christians and Islamized Christians in Rūm. Ottoman political authority that dissolved after the Battle of Ankara increased its influence throughout the 822's/1420's. During this period, ṣūfi leaders who could appear as political factors threatening the Ottoman dynasty through utilizing velī-quṭb political model weakened. Qiyāmah that was associated with Fażlullāh's coming as a saviour by Ḥurūfīs evolved in Ibn Firishte's works that were produced in this political context from an immediate Last Hour with political implications to an abstract, spiritual-intellectual and present salvation. In conclusion, the main thesis of this work is that Ibn Firishte's Ḥurūfism is a full-fledged and original belief system that has been developed in accordance with the sociopolitical and socio-religious contexts of Rūm after 819/1416.