28 | The Giving Divide
Sixteenth-Century France, provides a useful survey of the more recent anthropological schol-
arship and its use for historiographical work in a variety of contexts. As for the Muslim world
in particular (especially the central Islamic lands), see Singer, Charity in Islamic Societies.
. This term, which could mean either “the poor” or “dervishes,” is examined in further
detail later in this chapter.
.ɇÂşıkpaşazâde, Die Altosmanische Chronik Des ɇšikpašazâde, 104. See also Aflâkî,
Manâqib al-ɇÂrifîn, sec. 3, par. 85. All translations in this chapter are my own.
. Ibn Battutah, Voyages d’Ibn Battûta, 261. The classic English-language translation,
based on a nineteenth-century edition by Defrémery and Sanguinetti, is by H. A. R. Gibb: The
Travels of Ibn Battûta, A.D. 1325–1354. Ibn Battutah also mentions similar groups on a number
of other occasions. For examples of food gifts by urban folk that do not include direct reference
to the Akhîs, see Aflâkî, Manâqib, sec. 8, par. 23, and Ibn Battutah, Vo ya ge s, 276.
. Aflâkî, Manâqib, sec. 3, par. 219.
. A fl â k î , Manâqib, sec. 3, par. 457. See also sec. 3, par. 172; sec. 3, par. 219; and sec. 8,
par. 50, as well as “Vilâyetnâme,” a manuscript facsimile published in an appendix to the popu-
lar edition by Abdulbâkî Gölpınarlı, Manakıb-ı Hacı Bektâş-ı Velî: Vilâyetnâme (see pp. 43b–
44a and 111b).
. Gölpınarlı, Vilâyetnâme, 78b.
.Abdal is another term for a saintly individual. Gölpınarlı, Vilâyetnâme, 100b.
.Va k fiy e, 595:103, ser. 96, Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü [General Directorate of Endow-
ments], Ankara, Turkey. Another vakfiye (589:256, ser. 423, Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü) lists the
fuqarâɆ among other categories of people professionally dealing with religion (“pious people,
people of taqwâ,fuqarâɆ, students, etc.”).
.Va k fiy es, 591:12, ser. 16; 582(1):271, ser. 183; 608(2):63, ser. 52; 581(2):298, ser. 300;
608(2):296, ser. 240; 593:255, ser. 201; 582(1):20, ser. 11; 611:93, ser. 89; 582(1):286, ser. 195; 579:362,
ser. 158; 601:175, ser. 230; 608(1):123, ser. 123, Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü. The expression is also
used in Aflâkî, Manâqib (sec. 8, par. 22) and in Ibn Battutah, Vo ya ge s (276). Ibn Battutah, how-
ever, as an outsider, had much less insight into Anatolian society.
. However, in other contexts it does carry a slightly different connotation from faqir/
fuqarâɆ. A faqir is absolutely destitute and dependent on charity for survival, whereas a miskin
is part of what we would call the working poor. For more on this topic, see Singer, Charity in
Islamic Societies, 157–159.
.Va k fiy es, 596:151, ser. 134; 593:255, ser. 201; 611:93, ser. 79; 582(2):328, ser. 236 (which
uses the phrase “the fuqarâɆamong the Muslims and the fuqarâɆamong the monotheists”);
589:256, ser. 423, Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü. Another vakfiye (632:415, ser. 88, Vakıflar Genel
Müdürlüğü) uses the phrase “among the aghnâɆ [rich] and among the fuqarâɆ,” which also
clearly refers to economic status rather than spiritual activity.
. Sipahsâlâr, Risâlah-i Farîdûn ibn Ahmad Sipahsâlâr dar Ahvâl-i Mavlânâ Jalâl al-Dîn
Mavlavî, 123. This text, commonly known as Risâlah-i Sipahsâlâr, is the second-best source for
the life of Rumi, but it has yet to be translated into English.
. Aflâkî, in Manâqib al-ɇÂrifîn, suggests on numerous occasions the existence of con-
flict that surrounded the early decades of the Mavlâvî order, which might have something
to do with the latter’s fasting habits. On this subject, see Trépanier, “Starting without Food,”
esp. 14–15.