Veneration of Ali as a divine manifestation

Alevis venerate Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet, with exceptional devotion, and a strong current of Alevi and Bektashi thought regards him as a manifestation of divine light, sometimes expressed through the triad of Allah, Muhammad, and Ali. Alevism is a heterodox tradition rooted in Anatolia, shaped by Twelver Shia loyalty to the Twelve Imams, by Sufism, and by older regional currents. Its worship centres not on the mosque and the five daily prayers but on the communal cem ceremony, with its music, poetry, and the ritual dance of the semah.

Estimates of the Alevi population in Turkey vary widely, commonly cited in the range of ten to twenty million, since Turkish census data does not record sect and the community has often kept a low public profile after historical persecution. Alevi worship centres on the cemevi (cem house) rather than the mosque, led by a dede, a hereditary spiritual guide descended, tradition holds, from the family of the Prophet through Ali.

The closely related Bektashi Sufi order, historically tied to the Ottoman Janissary corps, was banned by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826 when he abolished the Janissaries, and though Bektashi lodges were suppressed in Ottoman territory, the order's teaching continued to shape Alevi devotional life and remains active openly in Albania and the Balkans today.

Alevi understandings of Ali range from intense reverence to frankly mystical and metaphorical language about divine manifestation, and Alevis themselves differ on how far such expressions are to be read literally. The tradition's distinctive worship, its de-emphasis of the outward law in favour of inner meaning (linking it to the batin), and its veneration of the family of the Prophet set it apart from Sunni Islam and give it a character that some describe as a distinct tradition rather than a school within Islam. This article describes Alevi devotion as Alevis express it.

Turkey's official religious authority, the Diyanet, has historically recognised and funded only Sunni mosques and clergy, treating Alevism as a cultural current within Islam rather than a faith requiring its own state-supported houses of worship or clergy; cemevis were long denied the legal status, utilities concessions, and funding given to mosques. The European Court of Human Rights, in its Grand Chamber judgment in Izzettin Dogan and Others v.

Turkey (26 April 2016), ruled that this differential treatment breached the applicants' freedom of religion, and Turkish authorities subsequently created a Presidency of Alevi Bektashi Culture and Cemevis, though many in the Alevi community argue the changes fall well short of full institutional recognition equal to that given the Sunni majority.