İsmailağa

It is aligned with the Naqshbandi spiritual order of Sunni Islam Sufism[1] in the silsilah of Khalidiyya and was led by Mahmut Ustaosmanoğlu, imam of the İsmailağa Mosque from 1954 to 1996.

According to Ahmet Hakan Coşkun, the jamia requires strict Islamic-clothing, with members wearing beards, Kaftans, and shalwar trousers, and turbans of white muslin when praying.

[1][3] A number of leading Turkish politicians are associated with the wider Naqshbandi order; President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is said to have links with the stricter İsmailağa branch.

[4] This might explain how the wire-tapping ordered by public prosecutor İlhan Cihaner in 2007 to 2009 in relation to İsmailağa included Erdoğan.

[5] In the 1990s the group sent missionaries to parts of the Caucasus (particularly Azerbaijan), and trained people at its madrassa in the İsmailağa Mosque.