ABSTRACT
This chapter starts the story of the rise of the Qadizadelis with reference to the life of Qadizadelis Mehmed, the movement’s eponym. The Qadizadelis, also known as the fakiler (legists), were named after Mehmed Qadizade, a scholar and activist born to an Anatolian judge in Balikesir, close to the Marmara coast, in 1582. For sure the Qadizadelis were locked in antagonistic relations with a number of orders, including the Khalwatis, Bayramis, the Mawlawis, aside from the spectrum of antinomian Sufi orientations. With respect to Sufism, early in Majalis al-abrar we get an indication of the centrality of spiritual wayfaring for the Qadizadelis. Fazlur Rahman argued that Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim were the avant-garde of neo-Sufism. They demonstrated the possibility of delivering Sufism from innovative practice (bidca) whilst maintaining many of the claims of intellectual Sufism and employing the whole range of essential Sufi terminology.
