Gnostik ‘Kurtarıcı Bilgi’ (Gnosis) Anlayışı ve İsmaililik’teki Tezahürleri

The Understanding of Gnostic “Redemptive Knowledge” and Its Reflections on Ismailism

Özet

İslam dini daha Hz. Ömer döneminde geniş bir coğrafyaya yayılmıştı. Bu farklı coğrafyalarda pek çok din, mezhep, cemaat ve grupla karşılaşıldı. Bunlar arasında gnostik karakterli, senkretik ve heterodoks bir siyasi-dini gelenek, İslam’daki Şii-Bâtınî din anlayışına fikri ve epistemik kaynaklık etme noktasında önemli bir yer edindi. Bu doğrultuda çalışmamızda gnostik geleneklerin kurtarıcı bilgi anlayışının İsmaililik’teki “bâtın” düşüncesi ile irtibatı ele alınacaktır. Çalışmanın amacı iki gelenek arasındaki organik bağı ortaya koymak ya da metin karşılaştırması yapmak değildir. Çalışmamızın hareket noktasını, Ortadoğu’daki gnostik çevrelerin İslamlaşması ya da gnostik olmayan ancak onlarla temasa geçen çevrelerin bu kültür üzerinden yeni dini yorumlama çabası neticesinde sosyokültürel bir etkileşimin zorunlu olarak ortaya çıktığı ve bu ilişkinin kendi doğal süreci içerisinde gerçekleştiği tezi oluşturmaktadır. Bu amaçla makalemizde İsmaililer’in bâtın anlayışlarının Gnostikler’in gnosis anlayışı ile örtüşen noktalarına ve Müslüman bir çevreye ait olmanın bir neticesi olarak bazı hususlarda ortaya çıkarılan yeni yorum ve yaklaşımlara işaret edilecektir.

Abstract

Islam has spread to a large geography during the period of Caliph Omar. In these different geographies, many religions, sects, communities and other groups have been encountered. Among these, a syncretic and heterodox political-religious tradition with a gnostic character has gained an important place in terms of providing intellectual and epistemic references to the Shiite-esoteric religious understanding of Islam. In this article, the relationship between the understanding of redemptive knowledge in the gnostic traditions and esoteric knowledge (bâtın) in Ismailism will be discussed. The aim of the article is not to reveal the organic relationship between the two traditions or to compare the text with each other. The starting point of our study is the thesis that a sociocultural interaction has emerged as a result of the Islamization of the gnostic circles or the efforts of non-gnostic but familiar circles to interpret new religion through this culture in the Middle East and that the interaction takes place in its natural process. In this article, it will be pointed out that the bâtin understanding of Ismailis that overlap with the gnosis understanding of Gnostics and, new interpretations and approaches had been developed at some points as a result of belonging to a Muslim environment.SummaryIslam came to a pagan society and soon spread to different geographies and cultural environments. Especially with the conquest of Mesopotamia and Khorasan since the period of caliph Omar, many people from different religions, languages, cultures, and civilizations started to live in Islamic lands. A significant portion of these became Muslims in a short time. However, they carried their cultural heritage from the Middle East geography to the new religion and social environment.When Islam emerged, there was a tradition of opposition in the heterodox circles of the Middle East, which remained outside power, against the religious and political repression of power. To survive, this tradition developed a syncretic understanding of religion by exploiting the different religious and philosophical tendencies of the Middle East. This rather gnostic tradition also actively used Hermetic, New Platonist, and New Pythagorean philosophy. The common feature of these traditions, which differed from each other depending on their social environment, was their epistemology based on a gnostic perspective.This tradition emerged for the first time in Islam as Bâtinî Shiism, and in later periods it became more systematic structures such as Ismailism and Nusayrism. Our aim in this article is to show how pre-Islamic gnostic religious traditions and Ismaili understanding of bâtin are similar by comparing them at the doctrine level.As a result, we found that there was a great similarity between the gnostic religions’ understanding of gnosis and the understanding of the bâtin in Ismailism. This similarity stands out in matters such as what gnosis or bâtin is, its origin, its relation to the zahir, its function, how to obtain it. According to the Gnostics, gnosis is the only redeemer knowledge that will save a person from this realm. The source of gnosis is not the material realm in which we live, and it is knowledge sent from the divine realm to the earth. One’s salvation is only possible if one acquires this knowledge. However, one cannot acquire it through his efforts and thus needs a guide to get it. Gnosis is hidden beneath the text so that it does not fall into the hands of the persecutors.. Only an apostle chosen by God can understand and explain it. In all of the above-mentioned matters, the Ismailis put forward a conception of the gnosis matching up with the gnostic religions. However, they differentiated themselves from the Gnostics, especially at two points. The first is about why gnosis is hidden beneath the zâhir. The Gnostics explain this with gnostic dualism based on the Light (Nur)-Darkness (Zulmat) distinction. According to this, the world is an arena where Light and Darkness struggle. The material world we live in belongs to the Darkness, and the Light fights the Darkness to save the souls of light that have fallen from the divine realm to earth. Gnosis, which belongs to the divine realm in gnostic understanding, has a nature that strengthens the supporters of the Light in this struggle. Therefore, it should not fall into the hands of the supporters of the Darkness. To strengthen their followers and save them from the bondage of darkness, the Light sends the gnosis as redeemer knowledge, hiding it under the sacred text. Thus, gnosis is prevented from getting into the hands of the supporters of Darkness.

Anahtar kelimeler: Gnosis, Gnostisizm, Hermetizm, bâtın, Bâtınîlik, Aşırı Şiiler, İsmaililik