Revisiting the 1826 Bektaşi Purge: Political-Economy of Confiscating Endowment Lands

Abstract

This paper analyzes Mahmud II's famous purge of Bektashi lodges after the Vâkâ-yı Hayriyye (Auspicious Event) in the first half of the nineteenth century with a novel approach. In the current scholarship, the government's attempt to confiscate Bektashi properties has been discussed mainly in the economic and fiscal contexts. Furthermore, the ulema was depicted as indifferent to the confiscation of the Bektashi lodges in this narrative. Instead, this article sheds light on three essential aspects of the confiscation process. Firstly, it argues that many members of the ulema showed active and passive resistance to the abolishment of Bektashi lodges, managing to limit certain policies of the central government over the Bektashi lodges. The second argument of the paper is that the government took the ulema seriously throughout the process and created a careful religio-legal language to justify the procedure. Finally, it asserts that the Bektashi purge of Mahmud II did not reach its immediate aim to abolish Bektashism and create an additional financial resource for the newly established central army. However, this event became the starting point of a new government policy over religious endowments by redefining the central government's limits over the religious sphere.