Alevi

Islam is by far the most practiced religion in Turkey. Most Turkish people are Sunni Muslims, and most of them belong to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. Smaller numbers belonging to the Alevi, Ja'fari and Alawite minorities. The established presence of Islam in the region that now constitutes modern Turkey dates back to the later half of the 11th century, when the Seljuks started expanding into eastern Anatolia.

While official records indicate the population of Turkey to be 99.8% Muslim, most surveys estimate the percentage to be around 85 to 95%. The Hanafi school of fiqh (maddhab) of Sunni Islam makes up about 90% of the Muslim population, with the remaining Muslim sects consisting of Alevis (close to 10%), Ja'faris (representing 1%) and Alawites (with an estimated population of around 500,000 to 1 million, or about 1%). With a sizeable part of population being Cultural Muslims, there is also a minority of Sufi and non-denominational Muslims.

The Twelve Imams (Arabic: ٱلْأَئِمَّة ٱلْٱثْنَا عَشَر, al-ʾAʾimmah al-ʾIthnā ʿAšar; Persian: دوازده امام, Davâzdah Emâm) are the spiritual and political successors to the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Twelver branch of Shia Islam, including that of the Alawite and Alevi.

According to Twelver theology, the Twelve Imams are exemplary human individuals who not only rule over the community with justice, but also are able to keep and interpret sharia and the esoteric meaning of the Quran. The words and deeds of Muhammad and the imams are a guide and model for the community to follow; as a result, they must be free from error and sin (known as ismah, or infallibility) and must be chosen by divine decree through Muhammad.

A cemevi or cem evi (pronounced and sometimes written as djemevi; meaning literally "a house of gathering" in Turkish) is a place of fundamental importance for Turkey's Alevi-Bektashiyyah tariqa populations. Certain Alevi organizations describe cemevis as places of worship, and ask for this to be officially recognized. However, the Directorate of Religious Affairs of Turkey does not recognise cemevis as Muslim places of worship, and only recognises Sunni and Ja'fari-Shi’ite mosques.

Hadım Ali Pasha (Turkish: Hadım Ali Paşa; died July 1511), also known as Atik Ali Pasha (Turkish: Atik Ali Paşa), was an Ottoman statesman and eunuch (hadım means "eunuch" in Turkish) of Ottoman Bosnian origin. He served as governor of Rumeli, and led the Ottoman army in the Ottoman–Mamluk War of 1485–1491, but was defeated at Adana in 1488. He was then named Grand Vizier from 1501 to 1503, and again from 1509 to 1511. During his latter tenure, he led the suppression of the Alevi-led Şahkulu Rebellion, but died in battle near Sivas along with the rebel leader Şahkulu himself.