L’Ordine della Khalwatiya (in arabo: ﺧﻠﻮﺗﻴـة‎; in turco, Halvetiye) è una confraternita islamica sufi. Con la Naqshbandiyya, la Qadiriyya e la Shadhiliyya è tra gli ordini mistici più diffusi. L’Ordine prende il suo nome dalla parola araba khalwa, che significa “metodo di abbandono a Dio o isolamento dal mondo per fini mistici”.

L’Ordine della Khalwatiyya

L’Ordine fu fondato da Zahīr al-Dīn ʿOmar al-Khalwatī (nato a Lāhij, nel Gilan, e morto a Tabriz nel 1397) nell’antica Persia, ma si diffuse soprattutto in Turchia dal XIV secolo, acquistando particolare importanza nel periodo ottomano. In tale epoca furono numerosi i sapienti e i funzionari imperiali che fecero parte di tale confraternita.

Tuttavia fu il discepolo di ʿOmar,   Sayyed Yaḥyā Shirvānī, a istituire la cosiddetta “Via Khalwati”. Costui redasse il Wird al-Sattar, una raccolta di litanie recitato da tutti i membri dell’Ordine della Khalwatiyya.

L’Ordine della Khalwatiyya è noto per il severo addestramento rituale dei suoi Dervish e per l’enfasi data alla pratica del Ricordo (Dhikr).  La pratica del Dhikr è descritta come preghiera ripetitiva. Il praticante ripete diversi nomi divini fino ad immergersi nel Ricordo di Dio, tanto che uno dei primi Maestri dell’Ordine afferma: “il vero Dhikr consiste nel dimenticare il tuo Dhikr”.

Di particolare importanza nella tradizione dell’Ordine è inoltre l’ascetismo individuale (zuhd), la nobiltà di comportamento (Adab) e il “ritiro spirituale” (khalwa), differenziandosi dagli altri ordini del tempo.

L’Ordine è considerato scuola ispiratrice di molte altre confraternite sufi.

Al-Hasan Al-Basri, Umar al-Khalwati, the establishment of the Khalwati order, and Sayyeed Yahya Shirvani

The origins of the Khalwati order are obscure but according to a Khalwati shaykh named Osman Shehu (born 1970 died 2017, was the leader of the Khalwati Karabas order in Junik, Kosovo) Al-Hasan Al-Basri was the founder of the Khalwati order. Many parts are against this fact due to the intern conflicts that exist in the tariqa on who is the founding fathers. Shaykh Osman continued and added that Khalwa or seclusion is a practice that Al-Hasan Al-Basri mainly lived by and is the fundamental practice in the Khalwati order.  Al-Hasan Al-Basri is known as pir of the pirs which by all the 12 tariqa orders have their silsilas from. He also added that Umar al-Khalwati is a shaykh that died in seclusion after being in it for 40 days. He continued to point out that all the other orders have their silsila from Khalwati. Because in order to achieve self-fulfilment a murid or dervish need to practice Khalwa. Then we have the others that attribute Umar al-Khalwati as its founder, or the “first pir“.  However, Umar- Khalwati was considered a mysterious man who did very little to spread the order. Shaykh Yahya Shirvani was considered “the second pir” that was responsible for the spread of the Khalwati order. Yahya Shirvani lived during a time of great political instability in the wake of the Mongol invasion. After the Mongol invasions, Turkish nomads began to gather into urban centers of the Islamic world. All these cities had Sufi shaykhs performing miracles for the nomads. Thus, these Turkish nomads were easily converted to mystical Islam when the Sufi shaykhs promised them union with Allah. Yahya Shirvani entered Baku at this time of religious fervor and political instability, and he was able to start a movement. Yahya Shirvani was able to gather ten thousand people to his movement. Yahya had many popular, charismatic disciples to spread the order, including Pir Ilyas.

The period of the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid II and Sheikh Chelebi Khalifa

The time of greatest popularity for Khalwati order was during the thirty-year reign of “Sufi Bayazid II” (1481–1511) in Ottoman Turkey. During this time, the sultan practiced Sufi rituals, which, without a doubt, brought in many people to the order who wanted to advance their political career. This is the time period where members of the upper class, Ottoman military, and higher ranks of civil services were all involved with the Khalwati order. The Sufi sheikh, Chelebi Khalifa, moved the headquarters of the Khalwati order from Amasya to Istanbul. Here, they rebuilt a former church into a tekke, or Sufi lodge. The tekke became known as the Koca Mustafa Pasha Mosque. These buildings spread throughout the region as Khalwati’s popularity grew. The order spread from its origins in the Middle East to the Balkans (especially in southern Greece, Kosovo and North Macedonia, to Egypt, Sudan and almost all corners of the Ottoman Empire.

The period of Sunbul Efendi

After Chelebi Khalifa’s death, the power was passed to his son-in-law, Sunbul Efendi. He was considered a very spiritual man that saved the Koca Mustafa Pasha Mosque. According to the miraculous account, the new sultan Selim I, was suspicious of the Khalwati order and wanted to destroy its tekke. Selim I sent workers to tear down the tekke, but an angry Sunbul Efendi turned them away. Hearing this, Selim I went down there himself only to see hundreds of silent dervishes gathered around Shaykh Sunbul dressed with his khirqa. Selim was astonished by Sunbul’s spiritual power and canceled the plans to destroy the tekke.

The attacks from the ulama, the theological religious class, were more serious in the long run. Their hostility were on many Sufi orders, not just the Khalwatiya. Their criticism was a political concern, which suggested that they Khalwatis were disloyal to the Ottoman state, and a doctrinal concern, that the Sufis were thought by the ulama to be too close to folk Islam and too far from the shari’a. 

The periods of the Wali Sha`ban-i Kastamoni and `Omer el-Fu’ad-i, and the Kadizadeli movement

The order began to transform itself over the course of the 16th and 17th centuries as it became more embedded in Ottoman social and religious life. A good example of this is the branch of the order founded by Sha`ban-i Veli (d. 1569) in Kastamonu. Whereas Sha`ban was a retiring ascetic who kept a low profile in the 16th century, by the 17th century his spiritual follower `Omer el-Fu’adi (d. 1636) wrote multiple books and treatises that sought to cement the order’s doctrines and practices, in addition to combatting a growing anti-Sufi feeling that later took shape in the form of the Kadizadeli movement. Also during this period, the order sought to reassert its Sunni identity, by disassociating itself with the Shi’i enemy. With the reign of Sulayman the Magnificent and Selim II the order entered a revival. They had links with many high-ranking officials in the Ottoman administration and received substantial donations, which helped to recruit more members.

The influences of Niyazi al-Misri

By this time, members of the Khalwati order broke ties with the common people, who they previously aligned themselves so closely. They attempted to rid the order of folk Islam to a more orthodox order. The Khalwati was very conscious of their public image and wanted the order to become more of an exclusive membership for the upper class. From here, the Khalwati order broke off into many suborders. In 1650s rose one of the most famous Anatolian Khalwati shaykhs, Niyazi al-Misri. Niyazi was famous for his poetry, his spiritual powers, and public opposition to the government. He was a leader that represented the old Khalwati order, one for the masses. Niyazi gave the common people and their spiritual aspirations a voice again in the Khalwati order. Niyazi’s poetry demonstrates some of the Khalwati’s aspects of retreat. He writes in one of his poems:

“I thought that in the world no friend was left for me–

I left myself, and lo, no fiend was left for me”

18th and 19th centuries: Khalwati reform

Most scholars believe that the Khalwati went through a revival during the 18th century when Mustafa ibn Kamal ad-Din al-Bakri (1688-1748) was in charge. Al-Bakri was considered a great shaykh who wrote many books, invented Sufi techniques, and was very charismatic. He travelled throughout Jerusalem, Aleppo, Istanbul, Baghdad, and Basra. Before he died he wrote 220 books, mostly about adab. It is said that he saw the prophet nineteen times and al-Khidr three times. In many cities, people would mob al-Bakri to receive his blessing. After al-Bakri died, Khalwati dome scholars believe that al-Bakri set “a great Sufi renaissance in motion.” He was considered the reformer who renewed the Khalwati order in the Egypt. The Khalwati order still remains strong in Egypt where the Sufi orders do receive a degree of support from the government. The Khalwati order also remains strong in the Sudan.

However, not all scholars agree with al-Bakri’s influence. Frederick de Jong argues in his collected studies that al Bakri’s influence was limited. He argues that many scholars speak of his influence, but without much detail about what he actually did. Jong argues that al-Bakri’s influence was limited to adding a prayer litany to the Khalwati rituals. He made his disciples read this litany before sunrise and called it the Wird al-sahar. Al-Bakri wrote this prayer litany himself and thought it necessary to add it to the practices of the Khalwati order. Jong argues al-Bakri should not be attributed with the revival of the Sufi order for his limited effect.

20th century to modern day

The situation varies from region to region. In 1945, the government in Albania recognized the principal tariqas as independent religious communities, but this came to an end after the Albanian Cultural Revolution in 1967. In 1939 there were twenty-five Khalwatiyya tekkes in Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo. In 1925 the orders were abolished in Turkey and all tekkes and zawiyas were closed and their possessions confiscated by the government, and there is no data available on the status of the Khalwatiyya. In Egypt there are still many active branches of the Khalwatiyya.

Modernity has affected the Orders to have quite different forms in different environments. They vary depending on the locality, personality of the shaykh and the needs of the community. There may also be different prayer practices, patterns of association, and the nature of relations linking the disciples to the shaykh and to each other.