Ziya Gökalp on National Education

Abstract

l references in this paper are indicated after the following edition: Ziya Gokalp, Tirkfgili his training included Islam (ilm-i kelam) and Sufism (tasavvuf), while the lessons of Arabic and Persian were taught to him by his uncle. Subsequently he continued his studies at the higher veterinary school (Baytar Mekteb-i Alisi), to be arrested upon graduation for illegal political activities. He studied French first from Ismail Hakkl, then by himself. the future, he wrote in the article Babamin Vasiyeti (My Father's Testament) about the story of his self-education. One year prior to his father's death an acquaintance in Diyarbaklr proposed to send him, Ziya, to Europe to study, whereupon father answered: The young men going to Europe to study can only learn the European sciences, while our national knowledge will remain misplaced. medrese entrants, if they find a good teacher, can to some extent master our religious and national knowledge. However, they will remain devoid of the European sciences. Our young men have to learn French on the one hand, and on the other learn Arabic. They will thus master the Western science and the Eastern knowledge to perfection. It is through their combination that revelations are going to be made of the great truths of our nation (see Kifiik Mecmua, birinci cilt, says: 18, 2 Ekim 1922; see also Ziya Gokalp, Terbyenin Sosyal ve Kiiltiirel Temellei, Istambul, 1992: 9). One of the biographers of Ziya Gokalp remembers another detail of the same story. Seeing the young Ziya's zeal to study, friends and relatives advised to send him to Europe, however his father used to say: If he goes to Europe, he will become a gadvur (infidel), but staying will make a donkey out of him. Gokalp used to say: In order not to become a g&vur, I stayed out of Europe, but to avoid becoming a