The Role of the Sufi Order of Halvatia in the Formation of Balkan Islam
The Role of the Sufi Order of Halvatia in the Formation of Balkan Islam

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses the role of the Khalwatiya order in the formation of Balkan Islam. Representatives of the heterodox Sufi orders occupied a special place in the processes of Islamization in the Balkans. In the 14th century, heterodox movements heading from Anatolia to the Balkans formed a unique folk Islam here – a phenomenon of religious and cultural syncretism. The Ottoman Empire, which took control of the caliphate, attached special importance to the reconciliation of folk Islam with orthodox Islam. It was from this period that the strengthening of the Khalwatiya order, one of the Sufi orders close to the Sunni denomination of Islam, began. The Ottomans intended to use the power of the Khalwatiya order to integrate heterodox Islam based on Sufism into Sunnism. In the 16th century, the targeted activities of the schools of the Khalwatiya order, which divided into numerous branches, led to the transformation of folk Islam, characteristic of the Balkans. Since that time, Balkan Islam began to form – a unique cultural, religious, and philosophical phenomenon. Balkan Islam is an Islam formed as a result of alternating cultural and religious transformations during certain historical processes.

• Details
• Contents