Taymiyyan Influences in an Ottoman-Ḥanafī Milieu: The Case of Aḥmad al-Rūmī al-Āqḥiṣārī

Shaykh Aḥmad al-Rūmī al-Āqḥiṣārī (d. 1041/1632) is one of the most intriguing religious personalities of seventeenth-century Ottoman Turkey: although progress towards disclosing key aspects of his thought has been made recently – such as the association of al-Āqḥiṣārī with the Ottoman puritanical movement, the Qāḍīzādelis – the intellectual world-view of al-Āqḥiṣārī and, in particular, intellectual influences on his thought, are still hazy. This paper aims to make progress in this regard by studying the intellectual spring from which al-Āqḥiṣārī takes his conceptualisation of the religio-legal term bidʿa, the central theme of his seminal work, the Majālis al-abrār. In doing so, the paper finally puts to rest the vexed question over whether Shaykh al-Islām Taqī al-Dīn b. Taymiyya's writings had any influence in Ottoman Turkey prior to the advent of the 19th century reformist movements.