A General Outlook on the Ash'arism-Maturidism Relationship in the Ottomans

The first intellectual interactions between Asharites and Maturidites started in the V./XI. century and, in the later period, continued in an undulant manner. While initially it was a struggle of two theological schools intellectually equivalent to each other, the intellectual expansion of Asharism as a result of its contact with philosophy made Maturidite discourse, which insisted on theology, nonfunctional. Therefore, Maturidism failed to sufficiently appear against the philosophical theology that became the rising value in the time of Mehmed II the Conqueror. However, the fact that Asharism cut step by step its relationship with philosophy, pushed it again to the theological field. In this point, Asharism and Maturidism encountered again. In parallel with this, in the Ottomans a stress on Maturidism which started in the X./XVI. Century and reached a peak in the XII/XVIII. century came to the fore. When a great number of works composed on the theological disagreements between the two schools are considered, it is seen that they go beyond the attempts made by the members of two schools to understand each other and that Maturidism was brought to the fore as an Ottoman identity. In this paper, the emphasis of Maturidism, which was initially insignificant, but in later process was brought into the fore, and the political and intellectual factors that supported it will be analyzed.