batiniyya
{{short description|Allegoric type of scriptural interpretation in Shi'i Islam}}
{{Expand Turkish|date=March 2021}}
Batiniyya ({{langx|ar|باطنية|Bāṭiniyyah}}) refers to groups that distinguish between an outer, exoteric (zāhir) and an inner, esoteric (bāṭin) meaning in Islamic scriptures.{{cite encyclopedia|last=Halm|first=Heinz|title=BĀṬENĪYA|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bateniya|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Iranica|volume=III|pages=861–863|access-date=4 August 2014}}
Ismaili Batiniya
The term has been used in particular for an allegoristic type of scriptural interpretation developed among early Ismaili Shia groups, stressing the bāṭin meaning of texts.{{EI2|last=Hodgson |first=M.G.S. |title=Bāṭiniyya|volume=1 |pp=1098–1099|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_1284}} It has been retained by all branches of Isma'ilism and various Druze groups as well. The Alawites practice a similar system of interpretation. Batiniyya is a common epithet used to designate Isma'ili Islam, which has been accepted by Ismai'lis themselves.{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Islamica|author=Daadbeh, Asghar, Gholami, Rahim|title=Bāṭiniyya|editor1=Wilferd Madelung|editor2=Farhad Daftary|year=2013|doi=10.1163/1875-9831_isla_COM_000000100}}
Sunni writers have used the term batiniyya polemically in reference to rejection of the evident meaning of scripture in favor of its bāṭin meaning. Al-Ghazali, a medieval Sunni theologian, used the term batiniyya pejoratively for the adherents of Isma'ilism.{{cite book |first=Farouk |last=Mitha |title=Al-Ghazali and the Ismailis: A Debate on Reason and Authority in Medieval Islam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iD5_3W_oqlYC&pg=PA19 |year=2001 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=978-1-86064-792-5 |page=19}} Some Shia writers have also used the term polemically.
Sufi Batinya
When the Islamic world of the Fatimid dynasty entered an Ismaili age in the 10th century, Batinya became less practiced. As Ismailism turned into political conflicts, the Ayubid Kurds began their the de-Ismailization of Upper Mesopotamia and beyond, reversing the Fatimid forced Ismailization policies.{{cite web | url=https://www.academia.edu/26861778 | title=Method in Madness: Reconsidering Church Destructions in the Fatimid Era | last1=Pruitt | first1=Jennifer }} The Kurdish core of the Ayubid empire itself reverted to Sufi Sunni Islam and appropriated the Batini Ismaili beliefs into Sufi Islam.
See also
References
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{{Islamic Theology|state=expanded|schools}}
{{Religious slurs}}
{{Authority control}}
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