ARKĀN-NĀME OF BABAGÂN BEKTASHI ORDER DESCRIBING A SHAVING RITUAL: AN INITIATION RITUAL OF BEKTASHI TARIQA

Abstract

Arkān-nāme titled Der Beyân-ı Erkan-ı Tırâş ve İntisâb-ı Tarîk-ı Bektâşiyye, which is the subject of our study, is in the library of Hacı Bayram Veli University, The Application and Research Centre for Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli Studies in Terms of Turkish Culture with archive number B-311-183 and registered under the name of Albania Arkān-nāme. There is no information about the author or the copyist of the work written in the same handwriting. There is also a record of the date on which it was written. The beginning and the end of the text missing and it was written in Ottoman Turkish. There are Arabic verses and prayers and short Persian quotations in the text. In the section that starts with the title Der Beyân-ı Erkân-ı Tırâş and İntisâb-ı Tarîk-i Bektaşiyye, which is among the 32b-35b leaves of the manuscript, the shaving practice of the people who belonged to the Bektashi order is described. In the Bektashi sect, there are various ceremonies in which the shaving method is practiced. One of these ceremonies is arkān applied to people who join the sect. As can be understood from the title, in the manuscript, the shaving practices of those who joined the Bektashi order are described in this section. For this reason, this part of the manuscript was transcribed and the shaving practice applied to people who belonged to the sect rather than other shaving practices was evaluated. Naturally, our work is not only a translation work, but also includes research on the shaving method in the Bektashi order and the content analysis of the text. Der Beyân-ı Erkan-ı Tırâş and İntisâb-ı Tarîk-i Bektâşiyye gives a brief and concise statement and tells the shaving practice of the soul who will enter the Bektashi order. It is important to translate the written sources of Bektashism into the language used today. It is extremely important to translate all the arkan-nāmes containing the shaving arkān into today’s language in terms of revealing their common and different aspects. Increasing studies on this subject will greatly contribute to reveal common and different aspects among ṣūfī orders.