106 | Ibn-i Kemal’s Confessionalism
first attempt to outline seventy-two mistaken sects, this contribution provided a
concise explanation of what could not be acceptable within the correct system of
beliefs for a believing Ottoman subject.
In addition to providing his taxonomy of incorrect belief systems, Ibn-i Ke-
mal delineated the boundaries of state-sanctioned belief by clarifying who held
correct belief and some differences between those considered acceptable. The pri-
mary division was between two theological schools of thought considered to be
following correct dogma called the Ashɇarī and Māturīdī schools. The Ashɇarī
school had long been one of Islam’s primary theological trends, the followers
of which mostly affiliated with the highly systematized Shāfiɇī legal school. The
Māturīdī school, on the other hand, had historically attracted few followers out-
side Central Asia. Under Ibn-i Kemal’s direction, however, the empire came to
align closely with both this Māturīdī theological school and the equally minori-
tarian and relatively flexibleণanafī legal school. To outline the differences and
shape the debate, Ibn-i Kemal devoted a treatise to clarifying what he consid-
ered the twelve key differences between the Māturīdī and Ashɇarī theological
approaches. Although dating this doctrinal shift is difficult, it appears likely
that Ibn-i Kemal finalized this twin Māturīdī-ণanafī belief preference early in
the reign of ānūnī Süleyman (r. 1520–1566). Fifteenth-century Ottoman ma-
drasa treatises did not address the issue at all, and certain prominent figures like
Şehzāde orলud tended toward an Ashɇarī-Shāfiɇī personal preference.
While it would be a stretch to argue that the Ottomans invented the broad
concept of Sunnism, religious preferences delineated by Ibn-i Kemal ensured that
the empire supported the flourishing of the H·anaf ī legal school, Māturīdī the-
ology, an Ibn ɇArabī–influenced philosophy, certain approved Sufi orders, and
limited celebratory ritual practices. At the same time, practices deemed by Ibn-i
Kemal and others to signify apostasy were aggressively prosecuted, leading to the
gradual shaping of a distinctly Ottoman religious identity that has been tenta-
tively identified as Ottoman Sunnism.
Suggestions for Further Reading
Krystić, Tijana. Contested Conversions to Islam: Narratives of Religious Change in the
Early Modern Ottoman Empire. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011.
This book surveys conversions to Islam during the Ottoman age of confessional-
ization.
Mazzaoui, Michel. The Origins of the Safawids: Shīɇism, Sūfism and the Ghulāt. Wies-
baden, Germany: Franz Steiner, 1972. This book analyzes changes in religious
identity following the rise of the Safavid Empire.
Ménage, V. L. Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2nd ed. S.v. “Kemāl Pasha-zāde,” 4:879–881. This
entry offers the most detailed biography of Kemālpaşazāde in English.
Repp, Richard Cooper. The Mufti of Istanbul: A Study in the Development of the Ottoman
Learned Hierarchy. London: Oxford University Press, 1986. This book provides the