THE OTTOMAN DYNASTY AND QURAYSH

In a paper presented at a congress held by the Turkish Historical Society in the 1930s, an attempt was made to prove that the Prophet Muhammad was of Turkish origin. Quraysh, it was claimed, meant "dogfish." The dog and the wolf were supposedly of the same lineage. The wolf was said to be the totem of the Turks, and so on. However, our subject has nothing to do with this. One of the conditions mentioned in the sources for the caliphate is to be from the Quraysh tribe. This is established by the hadith: "The imams are from Quraysh." The four rightly guided caliphs, as well as the Umayyads and Abbasids, were from Quraysh. However, scholars like Sadru’sh-Shari‘a al-Thani (Hanafi), Abu Bakr al-Baqillani (Shafi‘i), and Ibn Khaldun (Maliki) stated that this was no longer a requirement in their time. These scholars interpreted the hadith as being related to the tribal prestige of Quraysh. That is, at that time, Quraysh was considered the most honorable and powerful tribe; Arabs would not obey anyone else, and only the Quraysh had the authority to command the people. Some interpreted this principle as meaning that if there was a Qurayshite among those eligible for the caliphate, he should be prioritized. Others said that this principle only applied to the Rightly Guided Caliphs. Some said it should be considered for leading prayers. Indeed, the Prophet said, "Even if an Abyssinian slave becomes your leader, listen to him and obey."

Arab Ulama Step Forward

In the late 19th century, this principle was frequently brought up by imperialists as a propaganda tool to delegitimize the Ottoman caliphate and eliminate the caliph's influence over the world's Muslims. The British, in particular, paid some Arab nationalist journalists to write articles along these lines and had pamphlets printed.

In response, the ulama declared that being from Quraysh was not a condition for the caliphate; some Arab scholars even argued that the Ottoman dynasty was from the Prophet’s household (Ahl al-Bayt), and therefore from Quraysh. As early as the reign of Sultan Mehmed IV, a work written in Egypt by Sheikh Ibrahim ibn Amir al-Ubaydi al-Maliki, titled Kitab al-Qala’id al-Iqyan fi Mafakhir Dawlat Al-i ‘Uthman, is an example of this. This book, relying on earlier historians like Ibn Iyas and al-Maqrizi, who claimed the Ottoman dynasty was from Quraysh, was published in Cairo in 1899 by the owners of the newspaper Shams al-Haqiqa, at the height of imperialist propaganda.

Sayyid Ahmad ibn Zayni Dahlan, the Shafi‘i Mufti of Mecca who died in 1886, also repeated the same claim, citing the historian al-Sinjari and Ottoman historian Bahirullah Efendi as sources. In the book ad-Dawla al-‘Uthmaniyya min al-Futuhat al-Islamiyya, published in Cairo in 1888, on pages 109–110, he states that the ancestor of the dynasty was a young man from the lineage of Uthman (the third caliph), who took refuge among the Turks during a time of turmoil and was made head of the Kayı tribe.

The book Fuyuḍat al-Ilahiyya wa Anwar al-Nabawiyya, presented by Fadl Alawi Pasha to Sultan Abdulhamid II and published in 1895, and Habl al-I‘tisam wa Wujub al-Khilafa fi Din al-Islam, written in 1915 by Sayyid Ḥabib al-‘Ubaydi Efendi from Mosul and printed in Istanbul, are also works defending the legitimacy of the Ottoman caliphate. Among some Arab Sufi orders, there were those who claimed the Ottoman dynasty descended from a child of Husayn who survived Karbala.
 The truthfulness of the often-repeated slogans by certain circles over the years that “the Arabs were unhappy under Ottoman rule” can also be assessed here. The first to perceive the gravity of the situation and to immediately oppose European imperialist activities against the Ottoman caliphate were, in fact, the Arab ulama.

The Quraysh Ancestors of the Ottomans

Looking at historical sources, this claim is not entirely baseless. It is said that Sheikh Edebali, the father-in-law of Osman Ghazi, came from a sayyid family that migrated from Aleppo to Karaman, and then to Bilecik. One of the early chroniclers, Enveri, claimed that the Ottoman dynasty was Husayni (descended from Husayn). Leaving that aside, it is a fact that Devlet Hatun, the mother of Çelebi Sultan Mehmed I, was of Quraysh origin. She married the future Sultan Bayezid I in 1375. She was the daughter of Suleiman Shah, the ruler of the Germiyanids, and her mother Mutahhara Hatun was the daughter of Sultan Veled, son of Mevlana Jalal al-Din Rumi. That is where the title "Çelebi" for Sultan Mehmed and his brothers comes from, as it was traditionally used for those descended from Rumi.

Mevlana Jalal al-Din Rumi was the 12th-generation descendant of Abu Bakr (the first caliph). Additionally, through his mother and grandmothers, his lineage reaches ‘Umar (the second caliph) via Ibrahim ibn Adham, and to Fatima and thus the Prophet Muhammad via Imam Sarakhsi. Hanafi scholars like Kardari and Hassaf, noting that the Prophet Isa (Jesus) is referred to in the Qur'an by the names of Noah and Jacob, stated that lineage could be traced through the maternal line as well. The Prophet Muhammad said, "The son of a people’s sister is also of that people." The Prophet’s own lineage continued through his daughter Fatima. Therefore, the Ottoman dynasty is considered to belong to the Quraysh tribe through this lineage.

Nevertheless, since being from Quraysh was not a condition for the caliphate, the Ottomans throughout history did not feel the need to highlight this attribute. Even if they were not from Quraysh, it is evident that the Ottomans were far more beneficial to the ummah (the Muslim community) than many rulers who were. The famous Sufi mystic Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi, who passed away in Damascus 60 years before the foundation of the Ottoman state and was known for his mystical insights, said:
“Inna aslaha’d-duwali ba‘da’s-sahaba ad-Dawla al-‘Uthmaniyya fa la inqirada li-dawlatihi hatta zuhur al-khatm wa’l-qiyam”
(“The most righteous state after the Companions [Sahaba] is the Ottoman state, and it will not perish until the advent of the Day of Judgment.”)