Late Ottoman Intellectual History

The monograph From Ambivalence to Hostility focuses on writings on Zionism published in the Arabic newspaper Filasṭīn (ʻPalestineʼ) in the pre-WWI period (1911–1914). It covers a broad range of subjects treated by the periodical including Jewish land purchases in and immigration to Palestine, violent incidents between the Jewish and the Arab communities, Zionist boycott and Zionist Congresses. The second chapter of the book offers a detailed analysis of the gradual yet profound transformation of Filasṭīnʼs editorial policy vis-à-vis Zionism before World War I.

The «turk trend» in religious architecture of Republic of Turkey
Summary: The development of Turkish religious architecture in the XX cent. can be divided into several stages, all of which are marked by the architect’s search for the elements of a Turk tradition as distinct from the official mainstream (neo-Ottoman style, modern, "international architecture"). Despite the different scope, goals and effectiveness, such periodic rhetorical "self-identity" has become a powerful impetus to the study of the historical heritage and the revitalization of contemporary artistic life.

The Alawis or Alawites are a minority Muslim sect, predominantly based in Syria, Turkey and Lebanon. Over the course of the 19th century, they came increasingly under the attention of the ruling Ottoman authorities in their attempts to modernize the Empire, as well as Western Protestant missionaries.

Using Ottoman state archives and contemporary chronicles, this book explores the Ottoman government's attitudes and policies towards the Alawis, revealing how successive regimes sought to bring them into the Sunni mainstream fold for a combination of political, imperial and religious reasons. In the context of increasing Western interference in the empire's domains, Alkan reveals the origins of Ottoman attempts to 'civilize' the Alawis, from the Tanzimat period to the Young Turk Revolution. He compares Ottoman attitudes to Alawis against its treatment of other minorities, including Bektashis, Alevis, Yezidis and Iraqi Shi'a.

An important new contribution to the literature on the history of the Alawis and Ottoman policy towards minorities, this book will be essential reading for scholars of the late Ottoman Empire and minorities of the Middle East.

Αντικείμενο του βιβλίου είναι το ζήτημα των μεταρρυθμίσεων στο χώρο του Οικουμενικού Πατριαρχείου και πιο συγκεκριμένα το πρόβλημα της ερμηνείας των Γενικών Κανονισμών , οι οποίοι επηρέασαν τη διαδικασία ανασυγκρότησης του ορθόδοξου μιλλέτ . Η μελέτη δεν περιορίζεται στην ανάλυση του κειμένου των Κανονισμών, αλλά διερευνά το πολιτικό πεδίο που συγκρότησε ο καταρτισμός τους. Οδηγεί έτσι, όχι μόνο σε πλούσιο πρωτογενές υλικό, αλλά και σε συμπεράσματα που φωτίζουν σημαντικές πλευρές της ζωής της ελληνορθόδοξης κοινότητας στην Κωνσταντινούπολη. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, οι στόχοι της εργασίας είναι:
- Να αναλύσει τι πολιτικές και κοινωνικές προϋποθέσεις της ανασυγκρότησης του ορθόδοξου μιλλέτ, ξεκινώντας από τα δίκτυα ισχύος και τις ομάδες συμφερόντων που συγκροτήθηκαν ήδη από τη δεκαετία του 1830.
- Να εξετάσει διεξοδικά το σχηματισμό των δύο πτερύγων , της κληρικαλικής και της μεταρρυθμιστικής και την αντιπαράθεσή τους κατά τις εργασίες του Εθνικού Προσωρινού Συμβουλίου.
- Να περιγράψει και να ερμηνεύσει το πεδίο πολιτικών ανταγωνισμών, όπως διαμορφώθηκε στο Πατριαρχείο, μετά τη ψήφιση των Γενικών Κανονισμών.
Σύμφωνα με την ερμηνεία που επιχειρείται εδώ, η ενδεχόμενη «λαϊκοποίηση» της Εκκλησίας δεν σημαίνει απαραίτητα και μια ώθηση στη διαδικασία εκκοσμίκευσης, δηλαδή, στη θεμελιακή διάκριση της θρησκευτικής από την πολιτική σφαίρα . Κι αυτό δεν οφείλεται τόσο στην αδυναμία του λαϊκού στοιχείου να επιβάλει την παρουσία του στον εκκλησιαστικό κόσμο, όσο στην ικανότητα του κλήρου να εγκολπώνεται τα «κοσμικά» ιδεολογικά σχήματα, συμμετέχοντας στη διαμόρφωση της δημόσιας σφαίρας που υπό κανονικές συνθήκες θα έπρεπε να τον περιθωριοποιήσει.

This article investigates late nineteenth-century Ottoman illustrated journals as a key
site for the articulation of new, popular, and visualised forms of historical knowledge
and sensibility in the imperial domain. Focusing on the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid
II, a period from 1876 to 1909 marked by the beginnings of print industry and rising
levels of literacy in the Ottoman world, the article situates photography within a
mixed, hybrid, and highly image-based media environment that radically transformed
Ottoman modes of looking and remembering. Allowing new forms of reading,
viewing, and popular participation, the journals helped refashion and pluralise
collective images of the empire’s material past. The article argues that the new visions
of history and antiquity that emerged in the Ottoman journals were not merely an
ideological package imposed by the state and passively consumed by the readers. The
journals played an essential role in creating a highly visualised interface where
popular and official forms of historical imagination mingled and interpenetrated.

The South African War of 1899−1902 or Anglo-Boer War was one of the modern examples of propaganda in history. It revealed an enormous agitprop conducted by British and Boer forces. The European and American public closely followed the struggle between the mighty British Empire and the “little white Christians”.
This thesis examines the pro-British propaganda of the Ottoman intellectuals and policy-makers by focusing on the work of Ismail Kemal Vlora, Transval Meselesi. Ismail Kemal Bey’s pamphlet on the war is a crucial propagandist instrument and legitimiser of British imperialism in South Africa and in other British colonies.
This work aims to grasp the understanding of imperialism and civilisation by the pro-British Ottoman intelligentsia, by looking at their attitude towards the South African War of 1899-1902. In this sense, it aims to make a contribution to Ottoman and South African history.

Spiritism reached the Ottoman Empire very quickly via the European and Levantine communities in Istanbul in the 1850s. At the outset of 1910, spiritism had become a very popular topic in the press. Spiritist publishing burst in Ottoman Turkish is connected to the environment of a more or less liberal press in the aftermath of the Young Turk revolution of 1908. As was the case in the history of spiritism elsewhere, in the Ottoman Empire reactions against spiritism came mainly from two intellectual circles: the positivistic (or scientific and materialist) ones and the non-positivistic (or religious-spiritual and anti-materialist) ones. Besides, all this spiritist, para-spiritist and anti-spiritist publishing activity involved a respective translation activity into Ottoman Turkish, which enhanced cultural transfer processes.

This article deals with the journal of Terakki (Progress) published by the Progressive Association of Nevşehir. The journal is part of the Karamanli (in Turkish written with Greek letters) periodical literature of the late nineteenth century. Its readership mainly consisted of Turkish speaking Anatolian Orthodox immigrants of Istanbul or other important urban areas of the Empire but also it had customers in the local Anatolian Orthodox communities themselves. Among the Anatolian Orthodox immigrants in the capital of the Empire those from Nevşehir formed an important segment. The journal has an encyclopedic orientation since it provided its readership information on topics concerning education, family life, religion, health, history, geography etc. It defended a
conservative modernist perspective in an age that the rhythm of
socioeconomic change threatened existing social relations and hierarchies. The journal served as a vehicle for the expression of the ideas of the educated younger generation and the emerging new segment of professionals of the Turkish speaking Anatolian Orthodox immigrants. This new educated elite through their vehicles of expression like the journal Terakki, served a very crucial role in the process of
adoption and/or appropriation of the social, cultural and linguistic standards of the Ottoman Greek millet by the Turkish speaking Anatolian Orthodox.

Tekin, Ayşe Betül. “Serbestzâde’nin Tercüme-i Celâl’i Örneğinde 19. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Kelâm Tercümelerine Genel Bir Bakış”. Sahn-ı Semân’dan Dârülfünûn’a XIX. Yüzyıl Osmanlı’da İlim ve Fikir Dünyası: Âlimler, Müesseseler ve Fikri Eserler. ed. Ahmet Hamdi Furat. 435-459. İstanbul: Zeytinburnu Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2021.

Bu çalışmamızda 19. Yüzyılda Türkçeye tercüme edilen kelâm eserlerinden Adudüddîn el-Îcî’nin Akâid risalesi üzerine Celâleddin Devvânî’nin 1499 tarihinde telif ettiği Celâl ismiyle meşhur şerhinin bir tercümesi ele alınmaktadır. İskilipli Serbestzâde Ahmed Hamdi Efendi (1864-1939) tarafından çevrilen ve İlm-i Kelâmdan Akâid-i Adudiyye Şerhi Celâl Ter- cümesi adıyla 1894’te yayımlanan bu tercüme, âlemin hudûsu hakkın- daki tartışmalara odaklanarak hem metinsel hem de tarihsel bağlamda incelenmekte; tercüme etme sebepleri ile kullanılan metot ve kaynaklar ortaya konmaktadır.

*** Daha önce farklı dergilerde yayımlanan makaleler kitap formatında bir araya getirilirken birkaçının yeniden yazılması söz konusu oldu. Bazı ekleme ve çıkarmalar yapıldı. Üç tane makale de ilk defa burada yayımlanıyor. Makalelerin tasnifinde elbette başka ölçütler de kullanılabilirdi ancak kronolojik bir tanzimin okumada kolaylık sağlayacağı ümidiyle bu tarzı tercih ettim. Bu meyanda kitap dört ana başlıktan teşekkül etti: Eğitim ve modernleşme ilişkisine değinen ve içeriği itibariyle diğer makaleleri de doğrudan ilgilendiren çalışmalar birinci kısımda yer aldı. Sonra Tanzimat, II. Abdülhamid Dönemi, ardından II. Meşrutiyet ve Cumhuriyet döneminin eğitimle ilgili farklı konularını muhtevi yazılar biraraya getirildi. Makaleleri yeniden yayına hazırlarken ana ve alt başlıklarda farklı tasnifler, ekler ve çıkarmalar da yapıldı. Ancak bu tasarruflar yazıların mahiyetine halel getirici nitelikte değil. Makalelerin giriş ve literatür kısımlarında bazı konuların tekrar edilmesi teknik zorunluluklardan biriydi. Bu konuda hoşgörünüze sığınıyorum. Bir not da kaynakça ile ilgili: Modernleşme tarihimizin ve eğitim meselelerinin en iyi kaynak ve izleklerinden biri şüphesiz süreli yayınlar. Makalelerin büyük kesiminin verileri dergi ve gazetelerdi. Gazete haberlerinin ve dergi makalelerinin tamamını kaynakçada zikretmek hacmi hayli arttırdığından, burada sadece basılmış kitap, ansiklopedi vb. türlere yer verebildim. Süreli yayınlara ilişkin bütün referanslar en açık künyesiyle dipnotlarda görülebiliyor. Gene bu konuyla ilgili olarak, referans göstermede her makale kendi içinde bir bütünlük arz edecek şekilde düzenlendi. Bu sebeple bazı kaynaklar farklı makalelerde yeniden tam künye olarak yer aldı. Bu kitabı akademik hayatımın on yıllık birikimi ve kırk yaşın bereketi olarak görüyorum. Elbette içindeki her türlü nakısa ve hata şahsıma aittir. İyi niyetle, yapıcı, katkı verici tenkit ve eleştirilere, kurak bir iklim yaşayan akademik dünyamızda ne kadar ihtiyaç duyduğumu belirtmeme gerek bile yok. Ümidim, okuyuculardan gelecek ikaz ve ihtarlarla hatalarımı asgariye indirmektir. Bu derlemeyle eğitim, bilim ve kültür dünyamıza bir miktar katkı sunabildiysem kendimi bahtiyar addederim.

Durante i travagliati anni del Risorgimento, dalla penisola italiana furono in molti a volgere lo sguardo verso la capitale ottomana nota oggi come Istanbul, scossa a quei tempi da uno straordinario processo di rinnovamento politico e culturale.
Sulla base di una pluriennale ricerca bibliografica e di archivio in molteplici lingue e paesi, Antenati a Costantinopoli ci restituisce l’affresco di due società in transizione (quella italiana e quella ottomana) legate da un’eccezionale rete di affinità, cospirazioni, scambi di idee e speranze riformiste e rivoluzionarie, all’ombra delle trame ordite da Inghilterra, Francia e Russia per rafforzare il loro dominio nel "grande gioco" del nascente capitalismo internazionale.

Osmanlı entelektüeli, 19. Yüzyılın ikinci yarısında özellikle Fransız Felsefesi’nden
yapılan çeviriler neticesinde Batı Felsefesi ile ilgilenmeye başlamıştır. 1850’lerde çevirilerle
başlayan Batı Felsefesi yayınları, sadece kitap olarak değil dergi, gazete gibi neşriyatlar
olarak da yayınlanmıştır. Bu makalede kendi dönemlerinde önemli bir yer edinen ve
Osmanlı düşünce hayatına katkıda bulunan iki önemli dergi olan, Ahmet Mithat Efendi’nin
kurmuş olduğu Dağarcık (1871-1872) ve Baha Tevfik’in kurmuş olduğu Felsefe Mecmuası’na
1913 değinilecektir. İncelememize konu olan iki derginin de materyalist neşriyatlar olarak
adlandırılması pek yanlış olmaz. Bu makalede yayınlanma tarihleri arasında 40 yıl olan bu
iki materyalist derginin önemli felsefi ve bilimsel yazıları incelenecek, genel hatlarıyla bu
dergilerin felsefe, bilim, materyalizm ve evrim düşüncelerine yaklaşımlarına ve beslendikleri
kaynaklara değinilecektir. Ayrıca, etkilendikleri ve dergilerinde yer verdikleri bu düşünceleri
yorumlama ve kendi fikirleri ile özellikle de bunları topluma sunma, sunarken de bazı
kritik konuları toplumun hassas olduğu, din gibi konulara göre yorumlama biçimlerine
değinilecektir. Makalenin amacı ise geçen 40 yılda değişen entelektüel çevre ve fikir dünyası
neticesinde Osmanlı materyalist neşriyatındaki yukarıda bahsedilen dört başlığın söyleniş
biçimini okuyucuya sunmak olacaktır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Ahmed Midhat, Baha Tevfik, Materyalizm, Felsefe, Evrim.

Bu araştırmada Einstein’ın “Inside Constantinople: A Diplomatist's Diary during the Dardanelles Expedition, April-September, 1915” isimli eseri bütün halde değerlendirilmiştir. Araştırmada literatür taraması yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Çalışmada ilk olarak Einstein’ın biyografisi ele alınmış, bu biyografide yazarın kısa yaşam öyküsüne, öğrenimine, görev bölgeleri ve yazdığı eserlere yer verilmiştir. İkinci bölümde adı geçen eser tematik başlıklar halinde incelenmiş ve analiz edilmiştir. Toplam 291 sayfadan oluşan günlük Einstein tarafından bazı bölümlere ayrılmıştır. Kitabın bölümleri “önsöz”, “Çanakkale’ye çıkış”, “İtalya’nın savaşa girişi, savaş ve umutlar”, “Ermeni tehciri haberleri”, “Bulgaristan kararları” ve “hayal kırıklıkları” olarak yazılmıştır. Eser incelendiğinde başlıklarla içeriklerin aslında birbiriyle örtüşmediği görülmüştür. Bu nedenle bu çalışmada benzer konular tematik bir yaklaşımla ele alınıp değerlendirilmiştir. Sözkonusu temalar “Osmanlı Devleti: İttihat ve Terakki yönetimi ve yöneticileri”, “Çanakkale Cephesi”, “İstanbul: Güvenlik, yangınlar ve gündelik hayat”,“Ermeni meselesi”, “gayri-Müslimlere yapılan muameleler”, “hastanelerin durumu” ve “sarayda saltanat mücadelesi” olarak belirlenmiştir. Einstein kendi deyimiyle özel görevli olarak geldiği İstanbul’da ABD Büyükelçisi Henry Morgenthau’ya bağlı olarak çalışmıştır. Bununla birlikte Einstein’ın günlüğünde yazdıklarına bakıldığında Morgenthau kadar Osmanlı’yı, Türk insanını ve yönetimleri suçlayan bir yönelim içinde olmadığı görülmüştür.

In this study, the Einstein “Inside Constantinople: diplomatist S Diary during the Dardanelles Expedition, April-September 1915” was discussed. The method of literature screening was used in the study. In the study, Einstein’s biography was dealt with firstly and author’s brief life story, education, places of assignment and the works by him was included in that biography. In the second part, mentioned works were examined and analyzed as thematic topics. The diary which comprises of total 291 pages were divided into some sections by Einstein. These sections "preface", "Çanakkale exit", "Italy's war inputs, fight and hope", "Armenian deportations news", "Bulgaria decisions" and "frustration" was written. When the work is examined, it was found that the headings and contents do not match with each other indeed. Therefore, similar subjects were assessed by addressing with a thematic approach in this study. The said themes were determined as follows: “Ottoman Empire: Management and managers of Committee of Union and Progress”, “Gallipoli Front”, “Istanbul: Safety, fires and daily life”, “Armenian question”, “Behaviors towards non-Muslims”, “Condition of the hospitals” and “Struggle for reign in the palace”. Einstein worked under Henry Morgenthau, the US Ambassador, in Istanbul where he came as emissary as he expressed. Besides, when we take a look at what is written in Einstein’s diary, it is understood that he did not have an attitude towards Ottoman Empire, Turkish people and managements as blaming as Morgenthau.

The dawn of the 20th century changed the world irreversibly. In those days, the two sick men of the East, the Ottoman Empire and Chinas Qing Dynasty, were each facing a major crisis. Kang Youwei, a prominent Chinese philosopher and reformer, arrived in the Ottoman capital in 1908. His work reflects how the Ottoman Empire was viewed from a Chinese philosophers inimitable perspective. This book comprises a full translation of Kang Youweis unique travelogue of the Ottoman Empire during the Young Turk Revolution of 1908.

The reaction of the Greek press of Istanbul - more specifically the newspapers, Neologos, Constantinoupolis and Anatolikos Astir [Eastern Star]- to the news concerning Paris Commune are analyzed in multiple levels of interpretation. The commentators discerned in the Paris Commune the triumph of the “rabble” over the “respectable citizens” -the “people”- the triumph of immorality over morality, of madness over reason, and of femininity over masculinity. They obviously feared the eventuality of a new Commune in their own social space. Therefore, the Parisian events were perceived as a threat to the Greek-orthodox elite and its ideals: social control, respectability - rationalism, time and work discipline and decorum- supremacy of Greek culture. Through these principles the Greek-Orthodox elite attempted to gain a cultural hegemony in the Ottoman Empire, in the course of westernization.

The members of the Young Turk movement, although made up of different fractions, came together to struggle for a common cause that is the restoration of the Constitution of 1876 and to ensure the abdication of Abdülhamid II. However after the Congress of Ottoman Liberals held in 1902 in Paris there appeared two competing fractions. First one was led by so-called ‘liberal’ Prince Sabahattin and bore the name ‘majority’. Second one was called ‘minority’ and led by the experienced leader of the movement before the split, Ahmet Rıza Bey. Starting from 1902 these two rival groups tried to prevail one and other until the outbreak of 31 March Incident and the advent of the Army of Deliverance in 1909.

This article aims to demonstrate the social, political and philosophical ideas of Baha Tevfik who was one of the most important Ottoman intellectuals of the 19th century. The first part of the article analyses Baha Tevfik’s political ideas about the importance of the individual and of individual freedom; government effectiveness on the individual; status of civil servants; the goal of nationalization; the functioning of the administrative system and the essential characteristics of the Turkish nation. The second part presents the various social and philosophical ideas of the thinker (the moral perspective, the philosophy of Nietzsche and Kant, the relationship between feminism and Islam). Thirdly, the paper focuses on the comparison of socialism with anarchism by Tevfik; the political ideas of the Ottoman Socialist Party; of the Turkish socialist journal İştirak; Tevfik’s contribution to the party and to the journal. The objective of this part is to question the conceptual ambiguity observed in the writings of Tevfik, all this being inseparable from the terminological confusion in the minds of the intellectuals of the late Ottoman period.

With the widespread use of the printing press and the rise of periodical publications in the second half of the nineteenth century, the Ottoman government became increasingly wary of the impact they had among its diverse communities. Hence, gradually the state imposed regulations on the press and publications in order to contain the spread of knowledge that it deemed hazardous to the fabric of its society. While many publishers, in line with the concerns of the state, indicated and limited the subject matter of their periodicals in order to receive necessary permissions for publication by excluding sensitive issues related to religion and politics, others had sought alternative venues to continue their work. Among the latter were a number of Young Ottomans who escaped to Europe where they established new periodicals that, relatively, escaped governmental control. In this chapter, I discuss Ali Suavi’s activities as a journalist and his periodical Ulûm Gazettes (Journal of Sciences), published in Paris in 1869–1870. Providing an analysis of the structure, purpose, and content of the Ulûm, I argue that the context of its publication had both advantages and disadvantages.

This research examines the Late Ottoman debate on educational reform by exploring journals, scholarly treaties and administrative documents published in Istanbul from 1908 to 1924. It seeks to complement the existing literature on Late Ottoman education and the wider scholarship on the question of Islamic reform. The research particularly highlights the contribution of ulema to the debate through analyzing their participation in the discussions on madrasa reform. The analysis illustrates how ulema responded to the critiques of madarasas by offering their own diagnoses and reform agendas. The thesis also studies the administrative, curricular and pedagogical aspects of Dârü'l-Hilâfeti'l-Aliyye madrasa project (1914) in dialogue with the questions from the existing literature on Islamic educational reform. It identifies the new role of teachers and assessment of knowledge as the major two shifts from the madrasa tradition brought by the project. The last part of the research provides an account of discussions on the Law of Unification of Education which eventually resulted with the abolition of madrasas.