Şâbânî-Kuşadavî Mektuplaşma Geleneğinin Devamı: Mehmet Ali Yitik’in Nuh Naci Erdem’e Mektupları

Abstract

Sufi letters have maintained their literary importance from the formation of the Sufi writing tradition to the present day. In the 10 th century, al-Sarraj drew attention to the importance of letters and recommended reading Sufis’ letters in order to become familiar with their language. Sufis were prompted to write letters for natural reason such as distance and safety. The addressees of the letters were sometimes Sufis and other times the ulama with whom they would correspond for defending or exchanging ideas, and sometimes the statements requested advice or served as a warning. The letters the murshids wrote to their followers on navigating their sülûk [spiritual path] are of great importance in terms of illuminating the history of a tariqa [Sufi school/order], such as in the formation and continuance of a tradition, as well as explaining the intricacies of the science of sülûk . Mehmed Ali Yitik ABSTRACT Sufi works started being written in the 10th century and conveyed the written and verbal knowledge of previous centuries. Sufi correspondence has an important place in written knowledge. Al-Sarraj and al-Hargushi were 10 th -century Sufi authors who have Sufi letters included among their works. Unlike al-Harguşi, however, al-Sarraj not only conveyed letters but also drew attention to their literary importance. Despite attributing special importance to the poems of his predecessors, the texts of letters have priority in analyzing and understanding the symbolic language peculiar to Sufis according to al-Sarraj. With this approach, he attributed special importance to a type of Sufi literature that has yet to be exhausted, due to the Sufi principles regarding privacy, namely protecting information from non-professionals, do not appear in the letters. Therefore, aside from their historical documental quality and literary value, the value of letters is indisputable in terms of being a source for the specific field of knowledge and unique methods of Sufism. The exact percentage of the Sufi literature that is composed of Sufi letters, which differ in terms of their content and addressees, is unknown. However, al-Sarraj talked about a numerical multiplicity enough to fill the volumes at that time.