This new project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust and the Khalili Research Centre for the period 2024-27, investigates the collection of the shrine of Hacı Bektaş during the Ottoman period. The Hacı Bektaş shrine holds a crucial place in modern Turkey’s religious, socio-political, and cultural world as the central institution and the primary pilgrimage destination for today’s Bektashis and Alevis (historically referred to as Kizilbash in the Ottoman period). These groups form the second-largest ethno-religious community in Sunni-majority Turkey, encompassing Turks, Kurds, and Zazas, with smaller populations in the Balkans. Historically, they were persecuted by the Ottoman state, labelled as ‘heretics’ (ghulat) in the public eye—a perception shared by other marginalised communities in the early modern Middle East, including the Ahl-i Haqq, Druze, Nusayri Alawites, and Yazidis. Rejecting the doctrines, rituals, and social norms of Sunnism and shari’a-based Twelver Shi’ism, the Kizilbash-Bektashis embraced an esoteric interpretation of Islam, uniting various dispersed dervish, ‘Alid, and military networks under a shared identity.
While the history of the Kizilbash/Alevis-Bektashis provides the opportunity to move beyond mainstream Ottoman historiography and the binary Sunni-Shi’a framework in Islamic scholarship, it has been studied either through ‘othering’ views in Turkish-language scholarly literature or largely ignored in international scholarship.
This project centres on these overlooked communities with a focus on their cultural heritage. It aims to digitise the collection of their principal shrine, a largely unknown resource, and create an accessible database of its holdings. The digitised materials will include manuscripts, some featuring paintings, daily and liturgical objects ranging from seals to candelabrums, and illustrations such as portraits and calligraphic panels. The project will not only be the first comprehensive study of the Hacı Bektaş collection, but also provide a rare opportunity to examine a well-preserved body of material evidence securely linked to a known shrine in the Islamicate world. Additionally, it will offer insights into the formation of Kizilbash/Alevi-Bektashi identity through their internal sources, situating this process within the broader context of Ottoman, Sufi, and ‘Alid art and material culture.
Researcher: Dr Yeliz Teber
