Traditionalism in Turkish cultural life: for further investigation

A new open-access article points to a possible new direction in the study of the impact of Traditionalism on twentieth-century Turkish cultural life. It is Büşra Çakmaktaş, “From Cinema to Sufism: The Artistic and Mystical Life of Turkish Screenwriter Ayşe Şasa (1941–2014),” Religions 2025, 16, 787, available here. 

Çakmaktaş writes that the Turkish film-maker Ayşe Şasa (1941–2014) read Guénon and Lings, and “frequently referred to the works of these intellectuals… and adopted their metaphysical and spiritual perspectives on Islam as a guiding framework for her artistic works.” The article does not give any examples of this, however, and instead points to general “Sufi” influences on Şasa and her work, deriving from Ibn Arabi and Rumi. Şasa was a Jerrahi, attending the Istanbul tekke led by Safer Dal (1926–1999), the successor of Muzaffer Ozak (1916-1985), who made a big impact in the West through his visits to New York in the 1980s.

The writings of Şasa cited by Çakmaktaş are Yeşilçam Günlüğü (Yeşilçam Diaries, 1993) and Delilik Ülkesinden Notlar (Notes from the Land of Madness, 2006). In Yeşilçam Günlüğü, a long passage is quoted from Lings' What is Sufism  on “the correspondence between inner and outer vision, and between signs in the material world and divine meanings.” “This field offers untouched treasures for cinematic interpretations based on a metaphysical understanding,” wrote Şasa. In Notlar, Guénon is cited four times, mostly as saying that knowledge of the infinite is the only true knowledge, but also as ascribing the crisis of the modern world to the loss of traditional civilization, a proposition with which Şasa explicitly agrees.

These two books certainly indicate familiarity with the Traditionalists, but not exactly their use “as a guiding framework.” More research is needed.