A Heterodox Community under the Siege of Sunni Islam in Turkey

The name Tahtaci is derived from the Turkish word tahta (wood). The name, which was due to the community’s working with woodcraft for long years, later turned into an ethnic and religious label. In some of the western regions of Turkey, they are also known by the names Turkmens or Tahtaci Turkmens. In Turkey, the Tahtacis had a seminomadic lifestyle until one hundred years ago. Today, they have a fully settled lifestyle, living along the south and western coastline of Turkey, mainly in the rural forest areas of Mersin, Adana, Antalya, Muğla, Denizli, Aydın, İzmir, Balıkesir, and Çanakkale. The first appearance of the Tahtacis, who are the important members of the Qizilbash identity, can likely be traced to the sixteenth century, when Qizilbash appeared in Iran and Anatolia during the Safavid Dynasty.1 There is strong evidence that the Tahtacis migrated from Central Asia through Khorasan and Northwestern Iran to Anatolia. One hundred years before the name “Tahtaci” was heard in Anatolia (as Cemaat-i Tahtaciyan, the “Tahtaci community”), the name Agaceri had been used in the sources.2 The Agaceris are considered to be the ancestors of today’s Tahtacis.3 The question of whether the Agaceris, who were first seen in the written sources in the thirteenth century, are a Turkic tribe separate from the Oghuz tribes is a controversial one. Faruk Sümer mentions that according to the information given by Iranian historian Resideddin Fazlullah in the fourteenth century, during the Oghuzs’ migration to Anatolia, the ones who settled down in forest areas were named Agaceri, which means “Forest Men.”4 The concept had not been used before that. In our opinion, there is a strong chronological ethnic tie between the Agaceris and the Tahtacis, as well as common points between the names Agaceri and Tahtaci. Both of these names are based on economic trade. Accordingly, both names refer to populations in the same trade but coming from different tribal origins instead of just one.

Ancient history · Islam · Siege · Theology · History · Islamic Studies and History · Islamic Thought and Society Studies · Philosophy · Religious studies · Turkey's Politics and Society

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