SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY AND POLITICAL POWER MURAD AL-BUKHARI AND OTTOMAN MUJADDIDI NETWORKS

This article examines how Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi spiritual authority intersected with Ottoman elite society through the case of Murad al-Bukhari. It presents a qualitative historical synthesis of selected published studies and scholarly reference entries, with contextual comparisons to Central Asian Mujaddidi networks. The analysis distinguishes religious teaching, personal affiliation, institutional patronage and demonstrable political intervention. The selected literature documents elite connections and the institutional development of a lodge associated with Murad, while also reporting conflict with an Ottoman officeholder. These findings support an interpretation of spiritual authority as embedded in negotiated social relationships rather than equivalent to governmental control. The comparison with Khoqand indicates that governmental appointment constitutes a different form of evidence from discipleship or patronage. The article also identifies a chronological discrepancy between reference accounts of the Istanbul lodge. No archival documents or manuscripts were independently examined. The principal contribution is an evidence-sensitive framework for separating religious recognition, access to resources and claims of policy influence.