Body of the Shāh

In contemporary Turkey, the pseudo-portraits depicting ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, the spiritual fountain head of ‘ Alid piety, are abundant in Bektashi as well as Alevi spaces. Since their adoption, they have become an integral part of the material repertoire of ‘Alid culture . Of note, however, is the fairly recent introduction of these portraits into the Bektashi/Alevi and especially Turkish context, the archetypes of which have their origins in paintings widely disseminated throughout Qajar Iran. The itineraries that these portraits have taken from an Iranian-Twelver Shi’i framework are especially noteworthy. These journeys have significant implications on how we come to understand said objects and the means by which their owners come to “know” them. Based on observations in the field, this contribution inquires as to the new properties and meanings assigned to these images in their enthusiastic incorporation into a modern Turkish Islamic context. By considering the exit and entry of these images into new nodes of convergences as well as the relationality between these reproductions and the populations who produce and deploy them, can we deepen our understanding as to the processes by which Alevis and Bektashis put them to use?