142 Islam and Modernity
Re-emergence of the orders after their suppression in
Turkey and the (former) Soviet Union
The absence of state patronage, or active repression, in Kemalist Turkey and
the Soviet Union has defi nitely weakened the Sufi orders there, virtually wiping
them out in the latter and forcing them underground in the former. Political lib-
eralisation, however, has resulted in the remarkable revival of some of the orders
in Turkey, in various new forms (Yavuz 1999; Raudvere 2002; Saktanber 2002;
Silverstein 2007); and in some of the former Soviet territories the pilgrimage
to Sufi shrines re-emerged almost immediately after the break-up of the Union
(e.g. Privratsky 2001). Scholars disagree on the extent to which functioning Sufi
orders can presently be said to exist in the former Soviet world (with the excep-
tion of the Northern Caucasus, where they were never completely suppressed),
but Turkey has witnessed a remarkable revival of several Sufi orders.
The Mevlevi order (the famous ‘whirling dervishes’) was the fi rst to resurface
when the government allowed the public performance of its music and dance
(semah) as an expression of ‘Turkish Islamic culture’ in the 1950s. To some, this
may initially have been little more than folklore and a tourist attraction, but
more and more semah groups were established and attracted an educated public
interested in Sufi spirituality and the poetry of Mevlana (Mawlana Jalaluddin
Rumi, the patron saint of the order). The growing international interest in
Rumi no doubt contributed to the increasing respectability of the Mevleviyye
in Turkey.
The most important order of Turkey is no doubt the Naqshbandiyya, of
which four or fi ve major branches are active. One of these was closely involved
in the rise of the country’s Islamic political parties from the 1970s onwards, in
the sense that these parties’ founders were affi liated with this Naqshbandi branch
and frequently consulted with the shaykh. The order could continue functioning
despite the formal ban on tariqa activity in Turkey because it had adopted new
forms of public activity. Sohbet (suhba), close proximity and communication with
the shaykh, which had always been an important element in spiritual guidance,
became modernised in the form of seminars and lectures, which were also made
available as audio and later video recordings as well as in printed form. The dis-
ciplining of daily life was facilitated by the establishment of housing complexes
where only families affi liated with the order lived, dormitories for students, and
foundations that carried out charitable work as well as successfully engaging in
profi t-making economic enterprises.^20
Turkey’s most important religious movement, the Nur movement, is not a
Sufi order strictly speaking (it has no silsila, no baya, no set of specifi c prayers
and exercises), but its teachings are pervaded with a Sufi ethos. It has, moreover,
adopted various forms of disciplining that are reminiscent of those of the orders:
regular meetings where the writings of the founder, Said Nursi, are read and