The “Sunna-minded” Trend 243
period; the second is devoted to the personalities who lived under Ottoman
rule and covers the period up to 1612.41
As mentioned above, in addition to the breadth of the biographical infor-
mation it offers, Silsile also contains significant criticism of the current state
of affairs. Belgradi’s criticisms constitute one of the earliest examples of the
Sufi outlook on the Ottoman “decline”, one which would be often echoed in
the writings of seventeenth-century Ottoman Sufis. Moreover, these criticisms
highlight the complexities of the Sufi identity by revealing the sensitivities
and priorities of an early-modern Ottoman Sufi. Most of Belgradi’s criticisms
are embedded in the biographies of influential Sufi sheikhs. For example, the
biography of the famous illuminationist scholar Suhrawardi (d. 1191) leads to
the account of how respected sheikhs from Iranian and Arab lands arrived in
the Ottoman Empire only to be disappointed by the corruption introduced
by viziers and defterdars. Excessive inflation, the oppression of the reaya, and
the desecration of imperial practice by a new, ignorant cadre of political elites
who did not know what real religion was led to the eventual impoverishment
and diminished status of the real meşayih who were marginalized by the new
order of things (B117, 156). Belgradi gives an especially detailed account of
the inflation that hit the markets from the time of Süleyman the Magnificent
onwards, leading to the capture of this world by malice (fesad) and bribery
(rüşvet) and leaving no room for the dervishes’ modesty and the religiosity of
the pious (B118). Timars were bought and sold, the gazis could not be trusted
anymore, the ulema was preoccupied with buying and selling posts instead of
with ilm, impious people became judges, ignorant viziers engaged in bribery,
and the poll-tax (haraç) registers were given to bums (B158). While discuss-
ing the life of Sheikh Mahmud Buhari (d. 1587), Belgradi broached the subject
of the 1585 famine, which led to an excessive shortage of essential goods and
therefore caused inflation. Mutes and dwarfs intervened in the business of the
state, while the masters of the old custom were long gone (B181–186). While
relating the miraculous deeds of Sheikh Sinan Efendi (d. 1601), he engaged in
a long harangue against judges who were “clueless about the Sharia but knew
the income that their posts generated quite well” (B205). In his biography of
Sheikh Bali Efendi of Sofia (d. 1553), Belgradi compared the conquests of the
old days with the absence of any concern for gaza in his own: “When cam-
paign season arrives, everyone disappears”. Zeamets were distributed as pocket
money (B209) and the janissary garrison, which used to be the garrison of the
righteous ones working for religion and holy war, became totally corrupted
(B213). Spread among these observations are several direct admonitions that
41 Belgradi – Bitiçi 2001, 32, 33.