ABSTRACT
Prominent Sufi leaders are often assumed to be important infl uences on contemporary political fi gures in pre-modern Islamic civilization. The nature of this interaction, however, has been diffi cult for historians to quantify. Since contemporary sources that document the lives of both rulers and Sufi mystics are frequently bound up with ideological concerns that problematize their reliability, scholars have been forced into speculative discussions about the actual range of Sufi infl uence. This chapter tries to break that deadlock by examining several Sufi mystics’ involvement with the Ottoman state during a unique period in its history: the pivotal transition marked by the reign of Sultan Murād III (982-1003/157495). While the close involvement of mystical leaders with the Ottoman Sultanate during Murād’s reign was unusual even by contemporary standards, these case studies nevertheless challenge how Ottoman scholars have located mysticism within their historiography.
