Inspection and supervision of tribes and religious orders in the Alaca district of Çorum (According to the report dated 1925)

This study is based on a report commissioned in 1925 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs concerning the tribes and sheikhs of religious orders residing in the Alaca district. The Sheikh Said Rebellion, which broke out in the eastern regions of the country in the same year, along with the subsequent enactment of the Law on the Maintenance of Order (Takrir-i Sükûn), played a decisive role in the preparation of this report. Within this framework, the study examines which tribes and religious orders were present in the district and evaluates their activities within a broader historical context. In the sixteenth century, Turkmen tribes were observed to have lived in the district as nomadic groups, some of whom gradually transitioned to a sedentary lifestyle. In the seventeenth century, the Kavli tribe from the Çemişgezek district of Tunceli was settled in Alaca and its surrounding areas. By the nineteenth century, the Dede Garkın tribe, migrating from Malatya, had established itself in the district. Field research conducted at the pir lodges in the villages of Büyük Keşlik and Camili provided valuable information on these communities. By 1925, the Bektashi order had become particularly influential in the district. The order's sheikh conducted rituals at the Hüseyin Gazi lodge, while the custodian performed ceremonies at the Garipçe zawiya in the village of Eskiyapar. Members of the order did not demonstrate opposition to the Republic; on the contrary, they supported the reforms of the early Republican period. Furthermore, oral testimonies and visual data were collected from the Garipçe shrines located in the Alevi-Bektashi villages of Alacahöyük, Karatepe, and Çelebibağ.