The Cyclical Time and Burūz (Projection) of the Saint: Thematic Connections in the Early Modern Islamic Landscape

Abstract

Abstract This essay studies the concept of burūz, i.e. the spiritual projection of saints, as found in the Ṣoḥbetnāme (The Book of Companionship), a compilation of Oğlan Shaykh Ibrahim’s (d. 1655) oral discourses as recorded by his disciple, Ṣunʿullāh Gaybī (d. ca. 1676). Raised in the Balkans among a non-conformist Sufi milieu, Ibrahim Efendi operated as a prominent Sufi shaykh in the Ottoman capital for over fifty years. He was also a poet, and his instructions as recorded in the Ṣoḥbetnāme provide a rare view into a world that was defined by a consciousness of poetry and oral traditions. They also offer insight into the psyche and terminology that defined the mystico-messianic movements of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in various corners of the Islamic world. In this sense, the essay tries to foster a more detailed discussion of Turkish “heterodoxy” in connection with the broader Islamic world.