e-Makalat Mezhep Araştırmaları Dergisi

Öz

Islam has spread to a large geography during the period of Caliph Omar. In
these different geographies, many religions, sects, communities and other
groups have been encountered. Among these, a syncretic and heterodox
political-religious tradition with a gnostic character has gained an important
place in terms of providing intellectual and epistemic references to the
Shiite-esoteric religious understanding of Islam. In this article, the
relationship between the understanding of redemptive knowledge in the gnostic
traditions and esoteric knowledge (bâtın) in Ismailism will be discussed. The
aim of the article is not to reveal the organic relationship between the two
traditions or to compare the text with each other. The starting point of our
study is the thesis that a sociocultural interaction has emerged as a result of
the Islamization of the gnostic circles or the efforts of non-gnostic but
familiar circles to interpret new religion through this culture in the Middle
East and that the interaction takes place in its natural process. In this
article, it will be pointed out that the bâtin understanding of Ismailis that
overlap with the gnosis understanding of Gnostics and, new interpretations and
approaches had been developed at some points as a result of belonging to a
Muslim environment.

Summary

Islam came to a pagan society and
soon spread to different geographies and cultural environments. Especially with
the conquest of Mesopotamia and Khorasan since the period of caliph Omar, many
people from different religions, languages, cultures, and civilizations started
to live in Islamic lands. A significant portion of these became Muslims in a
short time. However, they carried their cultural heritage from the Middle East
geography to the new religion and social environment.

When Islam emerged, there was a
tradition of opposition in the heterodox circles of the Middle East, which
remained outside power, against the religious and political repression of
power. To survive, this tradition developed a syncretic understanding of
religion by exploiting the different religious and philosophical tendencies of
the Middle East. This rather gnostic tradition also actively used Hermetic, New
Platonist, and New Pythagorean philosophy. The common feature of these traditions, which differed
from each other depending on their social environment, was their epistemology
based on a gnostic perspective.

This tradition emerged for the first time in Islam as Bâtinî Shiism, and in
later periods it became more systematic structures such as Ismailism and
Nusayrism. Our aim in this article is to show how pre-Islamic gnostic religious
traditions and Ismaili understanding of bâtin are similar by comparing them at
the doctrine level.

As a result, we found that there was a great similarity between the gnostic
religions’ understanding of gnosis and the understanding of the bâtin in
Ismailism. This similarity stands out in matters such as what gnosis or bâtin
is, its origin, its relation to the zahir, its function, how to obtain it.

According to the Gnostics, gnosis is
the only redeemer knowledge that will save a person from this realm. The source
of gnosis is not the material realm in which we live, and it is knowledge sent
from the divine realm to the earth. One’s salvation is only possible if one
acquires this knowledge. However, one cannot acquire it through his efforts and
thus needs a guide to get it. Gnosis is hidden beneath the text so that it does
not fall into the hands of the persecutors.. Only an apostle chosen by God can
understand and explain it.

In all of the above-mentioned matters, the Ismailis put forward a
conception of the gnosis matching up with the gnostic religions. However, they
differentiated themselves from the Gnostics, especially at two points. The
first is about why gnosis is hidden beneath the zâhir. The Gnostics explain
this with gnostic dualism based on the Light (Nur)-Darkness (Zulmat)
distinction. According to this, the world is an arena where Light and Darkness
struggle. The material world we live in belongs to the Darkness, and the Light
fights the Darkness to save the souls of light that have fallen from the divine
realm to earth. Gnosis, which belongs to the divine realm in gnostic understanding,
has a nature that strengthens the supporters of the Light in this struggle.
Therefore, it should not fall into the hands of the supporters of the Darkness.
To strengthen their followers and save them from the bondage of darkness, the
Light sends the gnosis as redeemer knowledge, hiding it under the sacred text.
Thus, gnosis is prevented from getting into the hands of the supporters of
Darkness.