From Rumi to Buddha: Crossing Spiritualities in the Transition from the Ottoman to the Republican Era

Abstract

Buddhism and the figure of the Buddha were not initially of significant interest to Ottoman intellectuals. However, both spiritual movements and Buddhism eventually entered the intellectual agenda of Ottoman thinkers who closely followed Western—particularly French—press and intellectual trends. Filibeli Ahmed Hilmi, Mehmed Ali Ayni, and Asaf Halet Çelebi were among the Turkish intellectuals who began to take Buddhism seriously within the context of modern religious historiography. In some of their works, they went beyond a purely historical approach and treated Buddhism as a legitimate mystical alternative. Ahmed Hilmi and Mehmed Ali Ayni approached spirituality as part of a universal historiography that included Sufism. For them, the Buddha was a spiritual guide in the search for truth, offering insights that were valid and effective in his own time. Çelebi, in contrast, saw the Buddha’s spiritual and moral guidance as still relevant, while remaining rooted in the Mawlawi tradition that shaped his familial and spiritual background. For him, the Buddha became a gateway to a form of spiritual pluralism. This study explores these spiritual intersections and the figures who embodied them during the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Republican era.