{"id":284764,"date":"2026-04-06T06:30:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T06:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/?p=284764"},"modified":"2026-04-06T06:30:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T06:30:57","slug":"power-rivalries-in-islamic-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/power-rivalries-in-islamic-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Power-Rent Struggles in Islamic History"},"content":{"rendered":"

The letter sent to me by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sel\u00e7uk \u00d6zda\u011f, Deputy Group Chairman of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey \u201cA different reading of history\u201d a<\/strong>d, I went through the chronology of religions in the entire history of mankind like a movie.<\/p>\n

From pagan religion to all religions, celestial and non celestial.<\/p>\n

I also thought about the wars, bloodshed and suffering in the Middle East and the entire Islamic geography today.<\/p>\n

I also thought about the relentless unjust practices and reckless persecution of the so-called religious governments that ruled the Republic for a hundred years and the current Ak Parti government.<\/p>\n

I also thought about how rent, lust, unlimited power can make a country, a nation groan.<\/p>\n

Without further ado, let us listen to Sel\u00e7uk \u00d6zda\u011f who summarizes what happened in Islamic history.<\/p>\n

Here is \u00d6zda\u011f's reading of history: <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHistory is the production of those who write rather than those who do. Because it is the mental worlds and stereotypes of those who write it that determine every historiography. What is reflected in his mirror is not the naked truth, but what he wants to see and present. Today, this fact lies behind the different, even contradictory interpretations of the same event.<\/p>\n

Ahmet Ya\u015far Ocak criticizes the understanding of historiography distorted, decontextualized and altered by various sensitivities in the introduction of his book \u201cA Different History of Islam\u201d as follows: \u201dThe bond of love and faith we have established with the first Muslim generation should not prevent us from revealing the truth.<\/p>\n

In the history of Islam, the first mistakes were made in the political sphere and then spread to the religious and scientific spheres.<\/p>\n

Instead of questioning and correcting these mistakes, they have been sanctified and faced with sacred ignorance. Since we have not been able to solve the problems produced by the political mind, these problems have become deeper and more entrenched. The Muslim mind seeks the future in the past; moreover, it embellishes this with the discourse of ideal generations. The Muslim mind is surrounded by prejudices stemming from ignorance.<\/p>\n

The glorification of having faith without knowledge;<\/p>\n

Muslim reason has become dysfunctional. However, the Qur'an commands us to prioritize knowledge. Islam, as interpreted by the Muslim tradition through history, has lost its guiding quality. Confining the interpretation of religion to a certain period of time has created a \u2018temporal clergy\u2019.(p.31-32)<\/p>\n

These statements in the introduction summarize the dominant perspective in the following chapters of the book. For, to confine today to yesterday means to accept that life has never changed from yesterday to today, that it is frozen, and in a sense, that the sacralized yesterday is the end of history. However, life is very much alive and changing. Today carries yesterday and yesterdays within it, but it is never yesterday, today is a different day, a different social situation.<\/p>\n

According to the author, this is determined by four basic dynamics: geography, economy, politics and religion. Classical historiography has neglected these dynamics while analyzing the main developmental process of Islamic history, and therefore the beginning and maturation stages of Islamic history have not been presented in a satisfactory way.(p.36)<\/p>\n

The book is not a chronological work of history, as Ocak puts it;<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an effort to identify, analyze, evaluate and interpret the various ruptures and transformations that deeply affected the life of Muslims from the early period of Islam to the Mongol invasion. ...The aim is to show by means of a kind of \u2018historical photogrammetry\u201d method which breaks and transformations during the medieval Islamic history have influenced the process of backwardness of the Islamic world.\" (p.40) What drives the author to this method is the fact that some of the events that contain the roots of today's divisions have been covered up by classical historians, and that talking about them is almost disrespectful, sacrilege, trivialization of the sacred, and even deviation from religion.<\/p>\n

With this work, the author lifts the shawl over these events that have been covered up and says here is the truth. In doing so, he does not neglect to present a historical and socio-psychological portrait of the perpetrators and actors of these events.<\/p>\n

According to Ocak, the first rupture and social disintegration was the martyrdom of Prophet Osman. While analyzing this event, he first gives the following warning: \u201cThe historian has to reveal the facts and explain them. For this reason, he cannot look at the events like an ordinary Muslim with the logic of a matter of faith.\u201d(43) Such a view not only prevents seeing the truth but also makes it the cause of other rifts.<\/p>\n

And so it was, the martyrdom of Hazrat Uthman was the trigger for Jamal, Siffin, Karbala, the Sunni-Shiite divide and many other historical events. For this reason, while analyzing the causes and consequences of the events, the author also puts the actors on the table and reveals their mistakes and the role of Muslims in drawing the sword against Muslims.<\/p>\n

The fault of Hazrat Uthman in this first rupture was the administrative and economic privileges he gave to his relatives, the expectations and complaints of the soldiers due to the unequal distribution of the spoils, the introduction of new innovations, and the discomfort caused by the humiliation and exile of some of the old Companions.<\/p>\n

The author elaborates on all these topics with striking examples. For example, to those who criticized his arbitrary spending from the beyt\u00fclmal to his wife and relatives, he said, \u201dThis property belongs to Allah. I can give it to whomever I want\u201d, and when Ammar b. Yasir, one of the Companions, objected, the sons of Umayyah did not hesitate to pounce on him and beat him.(p.59) Perhaps the biggest mistake of Hazrat Uthman was that he could not accept that he had lost the support of the people.<\/p>\n

Although he was under siege for days, the people of Medina did not make any attempt to protect him. Because his view of the caliphate was very different from the two caliphs before him. While they acted with the awareness that the society brought them to that position, Hazrat Uthman told those who wanted him to leave office that he would not take off the caliphate shirt that Allah had put on him just because they wanted him to do so (p.74), indicating that there was no relationship between his duty and social approval.<\/p>\n

This approach also eliminates the possibility of accountability to society or taking it seriously, since it is God who gives the task. Indeed, in later years the Umayyads would legitimize their reign in this way.<\/p>\n

The subsequent battles of Jamal and Siffin were the result of political ambition overriding ideals and the blood feud over the blood of Hazrat Uthman. Tens of thousands of Muslims slaughtered each other in the two battles. Among them were thousands of Companions, including pioneers and elders, such as Talha b. Ubaydullah and Zubair b. Awwam, who were killed in Jamal. Although the war was seen as a quest for justice and justice for the blood of Hazrat Uthman, the real motive was the greed of some of these men and their past issues with Hazrat Ali.<\/p>\n

Hz. Aisha had turned against Hz. Ali with all the intensity of a wounded pride due to the incident of Ifk.(p.97) For this reason, Ocak, while discussing both the Jamal incident and Siffin, does not take into account the fact that the Ahl al-Sunnah see it as a difference of ijtihad, and objectively reveals the real motives of the events, considering that even if they were Companions, they were also human beings.<\/p>\n

The issue is not to settle accounts for the blood of Hazrat Uthman, but to settle accounts with Hazrat Ali. If he could be removed, the way would be paved for others - who had their heart set on the caliphate. Talha and Zubair expected a governorship from Hazrat Ali and when they realized that this was not going to happen, they regretted their allegiance and joined the opposition.(p100)<\/p>\n

Hazrat Ali was not brought up in an environment like that of the Umayyahs, where political games had been played since pre-Islamic times.(p.92) This purity of character and decency should have paved the way for him, but it became his weakness and led him and his followers to fall into traps easily.<\/p>\n

The incident of Hakem is a historical turning point in the showdown between the politics of power and commitment to truth and justice, in which the politics of power won. While narrating this event, the author reveals with examples the recklessness and ambition of Muawiya against the meticulousness shown by Hz.Ali to avoid bloodshed. Until the last moment, Hz.Ali sent envoys to Muawiya to prevent the war, the Qurras came and went, but without any result.<\/p>\n

The battle lasted for days, going back and forth, and when Mu'awiya's side finally began to disintegrate, the Damascenes shouted to the Iraqis under the command of Hazrat Ali, \u201cWe have the Book of Allah between us and you,\u201d and they put the pages of the Qur'an on their spears and said, \u201dHere is the Book of Allah that will judge between us and you.\u201d(p.132) Hazrat Ali immediately understood this trick and called his army, \u201cO servants of Allah!<\/p>\n

Although he warned, \u201dStand up for our rights, be loyal, do not give up, neither Mu'awiya nor Amr b. al-As and his followers are friends of religion and the Qur'an\u201c (p.132), his army did not listen to him and left the war saying, \u201dOf course we will follow the book of Allah.\" (p.133) Later, with the arbitration incident, which was fabricated by Mu'awiya and Amr b. al-As, Hz. Ali was tricked and turned into a loser when he would have been the winner of the war.<\/p>\n

While describing the historical and socio-psychological portrait of Amr b. al-As, Ocak explains that Mu'awiya and Amr b. al-As \u201dwere people who did not hesitate to resort to any means, including murder, if necessary, to achieve their goals.\u201d (p.137) The demand for the blood of Hazrat Uthman was just a pretext and a material to seize power.<\/p>\n

When Hazrat Uthman was besieged in his house, Mu'awiya did not lift a finger when he had the opportunity to rescue him, and after he seized the caliphate, he forgot about his blood and his murderers. The most important result of the Battle of Siffin and Tahkim was the \u201dirreversible fragmentation and disintegration of the Islamic community\u201d (p.148).<\/p>\n

Perhaps another consequence is that the pages of the Qur'an have been turned into a tool to be used forever at the tip of political spears. The author says that the biggest strategic mistake of Hazrat Ali in Siffin was his acceptance of Tahkim, which put Mu'awiya, the Governor of Damascus, on an equal footing with him.(p.149) Isn't the same mistake repeated today?<\/p>\n

In the book, the event of Karbala is also dealt with in great detail and with all the consequences it caused.<\/p>\n

According to Ocak, this event \u201dplayed a major historical role in reinforcing the Shi'ite faith and keeping it alive, paving the way for the birth of Shi'ism.\" (p.173) This heartbreaking event is one of the examples, perhaps the most tragic, of how political ambition knows no bounds or limits. Prophet Hussein was left in the middle by those who invited him, he wanted to return from Karbala but was prevented from doing so. In the end he was brutally murdered. He was not allowed to drink a handful of water.<\/p>\n

Even his clothes are looted.<\/p>\n

His head was separated from his body and sent first to Ibn Ziyad and then to Yazid in Damascus.<\/p>\n

After three days of being displayed on a spear, he is put in the weapons treasury. His funeral prayer was not even performed. It remained there for 35 years until the Caliph Sulayman b. Abdul Malik. It was only during the reign of this caliph that his head was taken from the treasury of arms, shrouded and buried after the funeral prayer. Then the Fatimids took his head to Egypt, buried it and built the famous mashhad called \u2018Taj al-Husayn\u2019 on it.(p.170) It is pointed out how some Sunni circles displayed blindness to absolve Yazid of responsibility even in this grave incident, claiming that \u201dYazid was the de facto ruler and opposing him was a crime of rebellion.\" (p.174) In reality, both Mu'awiya and his son Yazid put political ambition and tribal loyalties ahead of their beliefs in these events.<\/p>\n

According to Zaydhan, Mu'awiya was a soft, permissive and favorable person who did not hesitate to eliminate his opponents, enemies and opponents whom he could not convince with his favorable policy by poisoning them. As a matter of fact, he poisoned Abdurrahman b. Khalid b. Walid when he realized that he could not cope with pressure and threats.<\/p>\n

He was served in such matters by the physicians in his entourage.\u201d(p.204) Ocak's view on the battle of Siffin is also in this center:\u201d \"This battle was a terrible and bloody showdown between the Umayyahids and the Hashimites in the struggle for power between the latter and the former before Islam existed, in which the Umayyahids' growing sense of revenge against the Hashimites, who had gained the upper hand thanks to Islam, reached its climax.\"(p.170)<\/p>\n

The study deals with the Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimids, Mongol invasion and the transition of political power to Turks with great insight. With the Umayyads, the caliphate was replaced by Islamic monarchy and sultanate. Indeed, Al-Jahiz will say that \u201dthe imamate became the kingdom of Khusraw and the caliphate became the despotism of Kaiser.\u201d (p.180)<\/p>\n

After the events of Siffin, Jamal and Karbala, the Islamic world would be divided into Kharijites, Shiites and Sunnis, and political differences would become a matter of faith by acquiring a religious character over time. In this period, the main problem was the form, nature, nature, nature, powers and authority of the government and by whom it would be represented and executed.<\/p>\n

According to some historians, the reason for this dilemma is the silence of the Qur'an and Sunnah. In response to criticism of the silence of the Qur'an, Ocak justifies this silence and says:<\/p>\n

\u201cThese criticisms of the silence of the Qur'an and Sunnah have overlooked the following sociological fact about the governance of societies. The Qur'an and its explanatory Sunnah have been silent in this field because they have left to man himself an ever-changing structure such as politics, administration, organization, etc., which is produced by man himself, whose subject is an ever-changing being.<\/p>\n

Instead of intervening in the ever-changing political and administrative conditions, the Qur'an and the Sunnah have left them to the people themselves, provided that they abide by the eternal measure of justice, which will never change. \u201c(p.182) However, this is not how the Qur'an and Sunnah have been understood, and society has been imprisoned in the practices or conclusions of the past, seeing man and society as an unchanging entity.<\/p>\n

Some ulema even began to consider all sciences other than religious sciences and medicine as bidat.(p.189) Where science fled, religion fled, and issues that should be the subject of science were perceived as the subject of religion, and this way of perception became the key to decline and decline.<\/p>\n

Ocak sees the ruptures in Islamic history as a means of mentality formation, and this is true. In the book, not only the effects of the wars of the early period on the formation of the Muslim mind, but also the emergence of new centers of power, the Mongol invasion, the transfer of political power to the Turks, the influence of new elements (mawali) entering Islam, the birth of sects, the belief in the Messiah-Mahdi, Sufism and the change in mentality it created are dealt with with insight.<\/p>\n

According to him, the emergence of Sufism and the integration of the mawali into Islamic society are simultaneous.(p.512)The vast majority of the great Sufis, the producers of Sufi theories, did not come from among the Arabs, but from the mawali community.(p.514)Sufism is one of the most important social and cultural factors among the political, social and economic factors and traumas in the theological differentiation, change, metamorphosis and transformation that occurred in Islamic culture and the world...<\/p>\n

Many Muslims today are no longer in a position to free themselves for a while from the powerful dominance of Sufism, which is rooted in centuries of Sufism, and to leave aside the value judgments it has implanted in their minds and to compare and analyze the situation of Islamic history before and after Sufism...<\/p>\n

Theoretical Sufism is one of the most important factors in the \u2018degeneration\u2019 of Islam in the historical process, with its great positive and negative impact and contribution on Islamic beliefs and societies.(p514-516) Although there are exceptions, this is the dominant mentality. It is possible to see traces of this approach even in the view of the War of Independence and the Republic.<\/p>\n

From the 11th century onwards, the institution of Sufism became Islam itself, and the notions of discovery and miracles became one of the most exploited areas.(p.516-522)A new and negative path has been opened with the concepts of velayat, discovery, and keramet, and the main principle of Islam, which encourages Muslims to use reason and science, has been indirectly humiliated.(p.524) This has almost turned Sufism into a parallel religion, and sheikhs and heads of sects have been made partners of absolute will and power through ulama.<\/p>\n

Those who attribute to the awliya the power and might to rule the world - with the polar theory - have not questioned, for example, why these mighty ones could not intervene in the deaths of thousands of children in Gaza. They have failed to see that guardianship is not about ruling the world, but about turning towards Allah.<\/p>\n

According to Ocak, the way out of this spiral is to \u201dsee this differentiation in practice by concentrating on the Qur'an and the Prophet's authentic hadiths and Sunnah, which show how it should be put into practice through his own life, and thus on its main principles\" (p.534) and weeding it out.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, it is not possible to see the realities of the history of the Muslims through patronizing myths and sanctification. It should not be forgotten that the Companions, those great people, were human beings like all human beings.<\/p>\n

They had certain flaws, ambitions, jealousies and that is why they fought each other...The history of Islam is not Islam itself. According to Islamic belief, it is a religion based on revelation, but the history of Islam is the history of what the followers of that religion, with the exception of the Prophet, have done in time and space according to their own perceptions and mentalities. Therefore, it cannot be identified with Islam.<\/p>\n

Because nothing is more natural than that it contains flaws and mistakes.(p.535)<\/p>\n

In this valuable work, Ocak has dealt with the reasons for the disorganization and mental deformation we are in with great insight. He has paved the way for a new perspective by pulling the veil over the events that have been covered up, revealing their effects on today and the -human- situations that caused these events. The way to get rid of the current perception of history and Sufism that has captured the society is to increase the number of such works.\u201d Says Sel\u00e7uk \u00d6zda\u011f...<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is not possible to see the realities of the history of the Muslims with hamas and sanctification.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":284766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[286],"tags":[289],"class_list":{"0":"post-284764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-yazarlar","8":"tag-manset"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284764"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284767,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284764\/revisions\/284767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}