Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
Probably this process was not uniform throughout the empire and on its periphery the production of yataghans did not slow down so much (most likely in Albania and Croatia, where bektashi (banned by Mahmud immediately after the destruction of the Janissaries) and fugitive Janissaries found refuge).
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Addition:
there were 4 big Sufi orders present in the Balkans, moreover Albania and Bosnia ( Croatia being for the bigger part a part of the Austrian Habsburg Empire and Catholc) :
Mevlani, Bektashi, Halveti, Naqshbandi ( to a lesser degree also the Tabani and Rifā῾īyah).
The biggest was actually Mevlani, followed by the Bektahsi and Naqshbandi in which the latter 2 had a more militant connection.
Regardless the sultan's ban...the Balkans were far away and Sufism still maintained its strong presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Till the present day. Even after 1945 Tito's communists could not surpress them and there teki's and zikrs were practising, till the present. So Saracen is right in his statement ! That is why still some blacksmith "masters"can put a horse shoe onto an egg....
These skills have been passed on from father to son and I can tell you from my own experience that it did not take more than one minute for these gents, from father to son for centuries in Sarajevo also during the tragic events in the 1990ies to change from nice fancy tourist copper items to bullets and guns.
From fancy tourist bicaqs to real frontline trench dagger.
The Sultan's words didn't count and did not mean much in the Balkans as you can also read in the books of Andric, Kadare and a few others