This article examines a contemporary Turkish Sufi order's devotional practice of sohbet—translated here as “companionship in conversation”—to show how characteristically modern practices and techniques have come to take a role in the constitution of dispositions that are central to the viability of Islamic virtues. In the act of oral transmission sohbet cultivates the kinds of relationships considered liable to constitute a morally structured disposition in the practitioner. These relationships are subject to reformulation in the context of the mass mediation of the social environment and use of radio by the order, as practices of discipline based on face‐to‐face interaction articulate with models of liberal citizenship.

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1 7 1 C o m p a r a t i v e S t u d i e s o f S o u t h A s i a , A f r i c a a n d t h e M i d d l e E a s t V o l . 2 9 , N o . 2 , 2 0 0 9 d o i 1 0 .1 2 1 5 / 1 0 8 9 2 0 1 x -2 0 0 9 -0 0 2 © 2 0 0 9 b y D u k e U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s Sufism and Governmentality in theLate Ottoman Empire Brian Silverstein n 1918 a Sufi sheikh in the Ottoman capital found himself filling in blank spaces on a printed questionnaire sent to him, as it was to all other sheikhs in the city. 1 This is what he wrote in response to the questions: My name is Hüseyin Şerafeddin. I am one of the grandsons of Mehmet Ali Pasha. I follow the Mezheb of Imam-ı Azam Ebu Hanife. In 1904 I took an oath [müstahlef oldum ] to the Halvetîye-i Uşakîye Tarikat. In the presence of my sheikh I was trained in the path [of Sufism ] [terbiye-i seyr-i suluk eyledim ]. My dear sheikh is among the notables of the Uşakî tarikat at Kal'a-yi Sultaniye [Çanakkale]. He passed away in 1916. I was born in Istanbul in 1872. My father is Mehmet Recai Pasha, retired from the Çanakkale artillery commanders. After completing the Rüştiye Mektebi and upon my graduation from the Mekteb-i Mülkiye-i Şahane I studied Arabic to a practicable [tatbikat ] level and the text of the Gülistan [Persian] with Kırımlı [Crimean] Hacı İbrahim Efendi at Bayezit Mosque. I read and write French and speak Greek. For formal correspondence I use [kitabet ] Ottoman, which comprises three languages [üç lisandan mürekkeb ]. I have no published works. I previously worked in the Ministry of Justice, and for more than twenty years I have been working in several secretariats of the Directorate of the Central Registries [Defter-i Hakanî Emaneti ]. . . . [Our] dergâh [sufi lodge] was rebuilt and reanimated in the name of Deniz Abdal by your humble servant [Şerafeddin himself ] in my garden (which was empty land) located near the Prefecture on Tramway Street in the Deniz Abdal neighborhood. The work was done by my dervishes. As is customary in the Halvetîye-i Uşakîye [order], our devotions [ayîn] are practiced on Monday and Friday nights. At present nothing has been determined regarding succession or appointments, and our foundation [vakıf ] documents are in order. Besides the Rüştiye teacher Ahmet Fazıl Efendi I have no assistants. Though outwardly [zahiren] it appears that I have more than two thousand dervishes, in reality [hakikatte ] there is not more than one. 2

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