“Islam in Turkish” and its materiality: praising Nur Muhammad, loving Ahl Al-Bayt, remembering Karbala

This article revisits the history of Muslim Turkish society, questioning its essentialist portrayal as a “religious society,” with religiosity narrowly defined through Sunni Islamic doctrines. It examines the content of Sunni folk Islam through the Mevlid, Karbala, and Ebâ Müslim books published by İstanbul Maarif Kitaphanesi until the 1980s, as well as their political appropriation by elite actors during the early Cold War period. I argue that Sunni and Alevi religiosity shared key elements beyond saint veneration, particularly praising the Prophet through Nur Muhammad, love of Ahl Al-Bayt, and mourning for Karbala. Using these books as religious media through a material approach to religion, I maintain that they made Muhammad and Ahl Al-Bayt “accessible,” “tangible,” and “sense-able” in the world in oral, pictorial, and scriptural forms. Since the publishers, editors, authors, readers, and listeners of these books were descendants of Turkish speakers dating back to the twelfth century, I propose the term “Islam in Turkish” as a conceptual framework to capture these shared elements. I argue that this concept, denoting a vernacular form of religiosity, has the potential to replace the modern category of Turkish folk Islam and contribute to global critical discussions on Islam.