Khalwati order
The first historical movement marks its origins and spread in vast area, now being part of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
After the Mongol invasions, Turkish nomads began to gather into urban centers of the Islamic world.
Thus, these Turkish nomads were easily converted to mystical Islam when the Sufi shaykhs promised them union with Allah.
[4] Yahya Shirvani entered Baku at this time of religious fervor and political instability, and he was able to start a movement.
[1] The time of greatest popularity for Khalwati order was during the thirty-year reign of “Sufi Bayazid II” (1481–1511) in Ottoman Turkey.
[1] 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 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.
[1] According to the miraculous account, the new sultan Selim I, was suspicious of the Khalwati order and wanted to destroy its tekke.
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.
They had links with many high-ranking officials in the Ottoman administration and received substantial donations in cash and property, which helped to recruit more members.
[6] By this time, members of the Khalwati order broke ties with the common people, who they previously aligned themselves so closely.
He writes in one of his poems: Most scholars believe that the Khalwati went through a revival during the 18th century when Mustafa ibn Kamal ad-Din al-Bakri (1688-1748)[8] was in charge.
Al-Bakri was considered a great shaykh who wrote many books, invented Sufi techniques, and was very charismatic.
[9] Jong argues that al-Bakri's influence was limited to adding a prayer litany to the Khalwati rituals.
[2] Members of the Khwalti order were involved in political movements by playing a huge role in the Urabi insurrection in Egypt.
The Khalwati groups in Upper Egypt protested British occupation due to high taxes and unpaid labor, which, in addition to drought, made living very hard in the 1870s.
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 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.
Although the Sufi orders are now abolished in the Republic of Turkey, the above are almost all now mosques and/or places of visitation by Muslims for prayer.
"[15] Another practice that distinguishes the Khalwatiyya from other tariqas is that for them it is through participation in the communal rites and rituals that one reaches a more advanced stage of awareness, one that the theorists of the order described as a face-to-face encounter with Allah.
