Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Academic article on the Rifa'i Marufi tariqa

Hu...
This is a juicy one for anyone interested in the history of Rifa'i Marufi. It is an article by Turkish professor Atabey Kilic about the order. Unfortunately, it is all in Turkish, except for this abstract:

MA’RİFÎLİK IS A TARİQA WHICH SHOWS ALEVÎ-BEKTAŞÎ-RIFÂ’Î
CHARACTERISTICS IN MANİSA-DEMİRCİ


Ma’rifilik is a tariqa, which was alive between 19-20th centuries, shows Alevî-Bektâşî-Rıfâ’î characteristics and it’s âsitâne takes place in Kartal. Today we can see it’s tradition in Ege Region especially in Manisa-Demirci. There are many mecmuas in Ege University Centural Library about this tariqa. In this paper we aim to give informatin about this tariqa’s tradition, rules and apparel


Here is the article itself (in Turkish)
http://www.turkishstudies.net/sayilar/sayi6/3k%C4%B1l%C4%B1%C3%A7atabey.pdf

Even if you don't know Turkish, it's still a useful thing for any Rifa'i Marufis in America or elsewhere to take a look at. Lots of great pictures from Kartal, and some really interesting pictures from old documents showing the clothing worn in the order 200 years ago. I'm particularly intrigued with the fact that he particularly seems to focus on the Alevi and Bektashi connections. As some of you know, this is one of my major interests as well, and was a major part of my anthropology master's thesis. (which if any curious person would like to read is called "Mending Fences and Setting Fires" and is in the Thomas Cooper Library at the University of South Carolina).

By the way, if any kind person who speaks better Turkish than I do would like to give me a quick summary of his article, I'd be eternally grateful... ;)

As-salaamu aleykum.

Nedim

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