Transformation of a Naqshbandi group in Turkey: The case of Menzil community

The religion, which is an important social institution since the beginning of mankind, is one of the essential issues of the sociology that examines the society from every point of view; the founders and prominent names of sociology have studied the concept of religion and thus the sociology of religion has emerged as a growing branch of sociology. Religious groups comprise one of the important study areas of the sociology of religion. It is seen that activities of the religious groups in Turkey continue by increasing and diversifying from past to present. The society and religious groups are in constant interaction because these groups acquire their members from the society and carry out their activities in the social field. Political, legal, economic and similiar changes, and variables such as the impacts of secularization ant modernization on society's level of religiosity and view of religion, lead also the transformation of religious groups. The transformation process of the religious groups in Turkey is tried to be explanied with this field work on the Menzil group affiliated with the Naqshbandi order and that comes into prominence both due to the largeness of the number of its members and of the geographical area in which it's active, and the variety of its activities. In this study starting with conceptual explanations, it has been emphasized the interation during the historical process berween religious groups and Turkish modernization; and evaluations have been carried out related with religious groups in the context of secularizationand latent secularization. The Naqshbandi order and Menzil group have been examined in all their aspects, especially their founders and pioneers, their history, doctrines and rituals, fields of activity, behaviours and attitudes, at the same time it has been tried to be explained to what extent this community has changed in the historical process with the aid of data collected from religious-sufistic sources, academic studies and fieldwork. The level and froms of institutionalization and organization of the Menzil group and its working and policies in this direction have been examined. The level of professionalization and specialization of the members within the group and studies in this direction have been handled within the scope of the research. The attitudes of the group members towards the transformation process as well as the adaptation period and information about group membership are included in this study.