Young Ottomans Research Articles

Dinamika Reformasi Dan Westernisasi Yang Terjadi Pada Masa Pemerintahan Kerajaan Turki Usmani

Since the 17th century the Ottoman Empire began to collapse due to defeat from the West. As a result, the caliphs wanted to reconstruct the government with a Westernized model. Thus, the caliphs wanted to reform and westernize between Turkish culture and Western civilization which culminated in the time of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. so, what was the dynamic of reform and westernization in the Ottoman Tukri government. This article uses the Normative type of research. Normative research is a type of research whose data is taken from literature studies in the form of books, journals, and so on as well as research results related to the topic of discussion in this study. Then, this article uses he Historical Approach approach, the result and discussion is the development of reforms during the reign of Ottoman Turkey pioneered by Sultan Mahmud II who is famous for the Tanzimat period. then, the flow of leadership was continued by Sultan Abdul Majid thus inaugurating the Gulhane and Humayun Charter. In addition to the Tanzimat era, the renewal of Turkey was carried out by the Young Ottomans and culminated in the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. then The implementation of westernization is carried out by three groups, namely Islamism, Westernism,

The Sentimental Education of the Young Ottoman Man: Âşıkane

The Sentimental Education of the Young Ottoman Man: Âşıkane

Tokoh-Tokoh Utsmani Muda dan Ide-Ide Modern dalam Islam

This article aims to find out a brief history of the birth of the Ottoman Empire, young Ottoman figures and modern ideas in the Islamic world. This research method is a literature review using a qualitative approach. Data is obtained from articles published through google scholar. Data from selected articles were then analyzed using a descriptive approach to describe key findings, identify patterns and trends, and summarize key conclusions from the reviewed literature. The data analysis technique uses qualitative data analysis consisting of data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The main finding of this article is that the Ottoman Empire was founded by the Oghuz Turkish tribe, with Ertugrul as its original founder, and then continued and strengthened by his son, Uthman bin Ertugrul, who is considered the main founder of the Ottoman Empire. The ideas put forward by the Young Ottoman leaders were influential in the period of renewal after the Tanzimat period. The Young Ottomans were originally a secret group founded in 1865 with the aim of overthrowing the absolute rule of the Ottoman Empire and pushing for a constitutional government. The Young Ottoman figures were active in carrying out secret movements. Their interactions with liberal thinkers from France and England exerted a significant influence on the Young Ottoman movement. Therefore, some of the changes they propose tend to be liberal in nature

From Silvio Pellico to Selahattin Demirtaş: Prison Literature and Literary Polemics in Turkey

ABSTRACT Selahattin Demirtaş’s fiction has led to some fierce discussions in the literary world in Turkey. The polemics were a reminder that prison literature, broadly defined, always was a hotly debated genre in the literary sphere of the late Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey. Indeed, the publication of a Turkish translation of a classic example of the genre—namely Silvio Pellico’s Le mie prigioni, translated by Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem in 1874—caused a vivid reaction by the Young Ottoman reformer Namık Kemal. This article looks at how the debate on the partial Turkish translation of Pellico’s memoirs that combined both aesthetic concerns and political sensitivities is not without similarities with debates about Demirtaş’s literary work. After a first part outlining varied responses to Demirtaş’s short stories and novels, the article analyses Namık Kemal’s “Mes prisons Muahazanamesi” (A Criticism of Mes prisons) and brings to the fore those aspects that were to become characteristic for future literary polemics. That Pellico’s first Ottoman Turkish critic should have been himself an author and activist who was repressed, incarcerated, and exiled for his political views and engagement, shows how essential prison literature was in the development of modern literature in Turkish.

Early Socialism and the Impact of the Paris Commune on the Ottoman Political Imagination in the Nineteenth Century

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to re-examine the thinking, motivation and causes for the development of early socialism and its transformation in the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century. The first part of the paper will engage with the socialistic aspirations and political language of the radical branch of the Young Ottomans, in the writings of Mehmed, Reşad and Nuri Beys. The second part will reconstruct the debate between the detractors and defenders of the Paris Commune of 1871 regarding the meanings, effects, and possible threats or benefits of socialism, to rediscover what the Ottomans meant by socialism and what the Commune and socialism meant to them. The article will demonstrate that socialism did not meet with a delayed response in Turkey, contrary to what conventional historiography claims. In fact, the Ottomans were aware of these developments. Just as elsewhere, 1848 and, more importantly, 1871 were important turning points in the Leftist discourse within the Ottoman Empire. This early development of Ottoman socialist perspectives means that Ottoman Empire is more accurately considered as an active participant in the global intellectual trends of the nineteenth century, rather than as a passive observer.

Reductionist attitudes towards theatre and women as tools of modernity in the Ottoman Empire’s Tanzimat period

The study is explored from two perspectives to show that women's relationship with the theatre was an important element and tool in the modernisation process that took place in the Ottoman Empire, starting with the Tanzimat reforms initiated by the Gülhane Rescript of 1839. The first is women's restricted freedom of going to the theatre, and the other is how women were portrayed in plays. Although women living in the palace can regularly attend performances at the Palace Theatre, the public did not approve of Muslim women going to the theatre. Reformist writers and Young Ottomans saw the theatre as a school for educating people. It was believed that men going to the theatre could be trained there, and then women, in turn, would be trained by their husbands or fathers. In the plays, women were portrayed as good and bad types, using a propaganda tool like the theatre. It is claimed that there is a reductionist attitude towards theatre and women as tools of modernity.

An Explanation of the Intellectual Depths of Young Ottomans and Young Turks in the Context of Şerif Mardin's Texts

Osmanlı siyasî düşüncesinin modern dönemini konu alan metinler arasında Şerif Mardin imzası taşıyan çalışmaların ayrıcalıklı bir yeri bulunmaktadır. Mardin’in bahse konu alana ilişkin metinlerinde en dikkat çekici iddialarından biri Jön Türklerin siyasî fikirlerinin, kendilerinden önceki kuşak olan Yeni Osmanlılara oranla çok daha az spekülatif-teorik içerik barındırdığı tezidir. Bu çalışma, Mardin’in Yeni Osmanlılar ile Jön Türkler arasında yaptığı ve bugüne değin üzerinde hiç çalışılmamış karşılaştırmayı yeni bir akademik sorgulama için uygun bir çıkış noktası olarak değerlendirmekte ve bu bağlamda siyasî düşünce tarih yazıcılığına hâkim bir perspektif olan Avrupa-merkezci bakışa yönelik bir eleştiride bulunmaktadır. Çalışmada Yeni Osmanlılar ve Jön Türkler arasındaki fikrî karşılaştırma üzerinden Batı düşüncesi hakkında daha fazla malumat ve bu düşüncenin sahip olduğu perspektife daha güçlü vukufiyetin sanılanın aksine daha derin fikir üretmek anlamına gelmeyebileceği, düşünsel derinliğin, yapılan fikrî tekliflerin terkibi ile aiti olunan topluma söz söyleme kapasitesinde aranması gerektiği ifade edilmiştir.

Muḥammad Bahjat al-Bīṭār and the Decline of Modernist Salafism in Twentieth-Century Syria

Abstract The Salafī version of the Islamic Modernist trend emerged in the late nineteenth century among middle-ranked ulema-cum-intellectuals in the major Arab urban centres of the Ottoman Empire. Modernist Salafīs strove to strike a balance between modernization along Western lines and an authenticity based on the model of the pious ancestors (al-salaf al-ṣāliḥ). They differed from other early modernists such as the Young Ottomans and the celebrated Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī and Muḥammad ʿAbduh by drawing their inspiration from the teachings of the medieval theologian Aḥmad Ibn Taymiyya and his early modern successors, the Wahhābīs and the Indian Ahl-i Ḥadīth. The major components of the quasi-liberal and open religious reform they professed were adherence to the Qurʾān and Sunna, denunciation of saint worship, reasoned ijtihād, selective adoption of Western innovations, revival of the Arab-Islamic civilization, and opposition to autocratic rule.

Türk Basın Tarihinde İbret Gazetesi ve Kapatılmasına Neden Olan Yazılar (1872-1873)

In this article, a brief information has been presented about the first press and publication activities in Ottoman Empire, and the publication of Ibret newspaper and reasons for the penalties that it receives, has been discussed. The Ottoman press life started with the Takvim-i Vekāyi, which was issued in 1831, and continued with Ceride-i Havâdis in 1840. With Tercuman-i Ahvâl, which was published in 1860, journalism and the press came out of the state monopoly, and it became stronger with Tasvir-i Efkâr newspaper in 1862 and Muhbir newspaper published in 1867. When the criticisms of the government started to appear in the newspapers published by the Young Ottomans in the 1860s, the press was tried to be silenced with the Press Regulation in 1864 and the Âli Kararname in 1867. However, the press was never silenced, and these journalists continued their struggle abroad. With the return of the Young Ottomans to their homeland, the most powerful media organ of the Tanzimat, Ibret, was published. Ibret, who approached the events with his identity as an Fikir newspaper, was subjected to various punishments throughout his publication life due to his brave attitude. The Ibret newspaper, which had an important place in Turkish press history with the master pen of Namik Kemal, was closed in 1873.

The reading processes of a Scottish Ottomanist: E. J. W. Gibb and his young Ottoman sources

ABSTRACTI shed light on the writing processes of the Ottoman literary narrative that the Scottish Ottomanist Elias John Wilkinson Gibb (1857–1901) created from 1882 until his early death in 1901. I discuss the Young Ottoman reformist Namık Kemal’s (1840–1888) influence on Gibb and the extent to which Namık Kemal’s criticism of Ottoman poetry is reflected in Gibb’s work. Gibb was familiar with Namık Kemal’s works through various channels and was profoundly affected by his views and criticism of Ottoman literature. Through some of the primary sources found in the Gibb Collection and the E. G. Browne Papers at the Cambridge University Library, I reveal the writing processes of the literary narrative that Gibb put forward in “Ottoman Literature,” Ottoman Poems, and A History of Ottoman Poetry. Furthermore, I elucidate Gibb’s understanding of Ottoman poetry by analyzing his marginalia, translations, and his personal communications. Based on my research, I argue that Gibb’s critical attitude was shaped by the literary culture nurtured by Young Ottoman intellectuals as well as their criticism of classical Ottoman literature.

Contested Modernities: ‘Diverse Voices’ of the Pioneering Journalists in the Ottoman Empire

The history of journalism in Turkey, had moved in parallel to the history of modernization/Westernization which displays a top-down character. The first journalists (and novelists) after the Tanzimat of 1839 were state bureaucrats of the Ottoman administration. These “Young Ottomans”, or “Jenue Turks” as they were known, were in the vanguard of promoting a range of western ideas and concepts including : “journalism”, “public opinion”, “liberalism”, “constitutional monarchy”, “parliment”, “nation”, “nation-state”, and “modern family”. Most members of a group had tried to combine Western liberalism and Islam. This paper reviews the avaliable analysis and commentary on the Young Ottomans in order to re-assess their role in the process of Turkish Modernization/Westernization. A close reading of the work and careers of these key figures reveals the contested nature of negotiations around the relations between modernity (and its secular impetus) and understanding of the Islam of that time. The tensions between these two World views-which is still an ongoing problematic issue.

THE EARLY TRANSLATIONS OF J.J. ROUSSEAU’S SOCIAL CONTRACT INTO OTTOMAN TURKISH

<p class="ql-align-justify">From the Tanzimat era to the establishment of the Turkish Republic, reading and translating the works of French Enlightenment philosophers, especially those of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, had been a practice passed down from one generation to another. However, even before the Tanzimat era, several studies had already referred to the works of Rousseau, who was called an atheist and whose ideas paved the way for the French Revolution in 1789. The extant samples, which provide insights into the first translation of Rousseau’s Social Contract, include a few pages of an article published in a journal named Ictihad in 1911, an unfinished translation of “Book I” published in Paris in 1904, and other translations published in Istanbul in 1911. Considering the translations of Rousseau’s works during the period from the Young Ottomans to the Young Turks, we distinguish the clear disproportion between the translation of his political works and the Ottoman intelligentsia’s admiration for him.

Ulûm Gazetesi Verilerine Göre 1869 Senesinde Mısır'ın Vaziyeti (Ali Suavi'nin Gözünden)

The Constitutionalism Period, arose with the undeniable effects of a new group called “The Young Ottomans” (Young Turks) which is known as the first serious opposition to the Ottoman State structure. That group included important intellectuals and statesmen of the period. The press was the most effective way of telling and spreading their ideas for the aim of rescuing the Ottoman State. Right in that period, Ulûm Journal was a press organization which Ali Suavi, who was an opponent character, published in Paris and mostly dealt with cultural, and economic issues. In that period in which Egypt issue gained exactly an international dimension, Ali Suavi was giving important data and telling his ideas in Ulûm Journal.

The Rise of Muslim Collective Emotions in the Ottoman Empire during the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century : 1850s through 1880s

This paper aims at describing the ascent of Muslim collective emotions in the Ottoman Empire between 1850s and 1880s mostly based on secondary literature and thereby giving Korean academic audience general information regarding why the Ottoman reforms and the domestic and international situations of the time led to hostilities and violence, while reflecting the rapidly changing research trends of the Ottoman Studies field. Ottoman Muslims who felt they were becoming second-class citizens in their Muslim Empire by the promulgation of the reform edict (Islahat Fermani) of 1856, economic advancement of Christians, activities of Protestant missionaries and European powers’ increasing hostility, found expression of their sense of deprivation and identity crisis in the slogan of “unification of Islam” (Ittihad-i Islam) suggested by the Young Ottomans, such as Namik Kemal. Such collective emotions became more and more hostile toward Christians home and abroad through many unfortunate events such as ill-explained reform measures, coup attempts, violent riots and suppressions during the Tanzimat period (1839-1876). The Ottoman Muslims’ anger and frustration built up so much so that during the reign of Abdulhamid II, the sultan could promote his policy lines and political propaganda appealing to such Muslim sentiments. The Ottoman and Turkish self-consciousness as Muslims shaped under Abdulhamid II lasted long time, through the Young Turk Era and even in the Turkish Republic. This self-definition as Muslim nation tacitly supposed the enemy as “Christian,” based on the fact that the foreign enemies of the empire were all Christians and there were communications and resonance between them and Ottoman Christians. Although conflicts between Muslims and Christians in real life were not necessarily based on religious hostilities but were often provoked by local, economic, and diplomatic issues, but the problem was that with each new conflict and incident the mutual negative perception between Muslims and Christians accumulated and congealed. Such escalation of collective emotions resulted in repeated violence and tragedy, the culmination of which was the Armenian “Genocide” in Eastern Anatolia in 1915 in the middle of World War I. Although historical trauma cannot ever justify violence or massacre, it would be impossible to understand the inner structure of enormous tragic events of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century unless the context of historical experience that Ottoman Muslims underwent gets considered.

Defending Turkey on Global Stages: The Young Turk Reşit Saffet’s Internationalist Strategy in 1919

AbstractThe article investigates the internationalist activities of a Turkish nationalist during his Swiss exile at the outset of the postwar settlements in early 1919. Reşit Saffet, a devoted Young Turk and Ottoman diplomat on leave, moved in the internationalist milieus in Berne while his agenda remained utterly nationalist. Drawing on pan-Turkic, pan-Islamic, anti-imperialist, socialist, and Wilsonian ideas, he adapted his rhetoric to the internationalist conferences he attended; he thus sought to disguise and to defend his otherwise discredited nationalist cause on these global stages. The article traces Reşit Saffet’s internationalist activities as a strategy to engage with the ‘Paris moment’ and the Ottoman question beyond official politics and governmental discourse. In a time when Ottoman diplomacy was in deadlock as a result of the Empire’s exclusion from the peace conference and Reşit Saffet’s career faced an unknown future in the face of the Ottoman collapse, internationalism seemed a promising option. The case illustrates the increasingly blurred border between state diplomacy and non-governmental influence, and thus questions exclusively state-centered approaches. It reveals the appeal and potential held by civil society internationalism, not only for Western pacifists and socialists, but also for anti-imperialist nationalists confronted with the disappointment of the ‘Wilsonian moment’.

“United by Enthusiasm” or “Young Turkey”: Glimpses of Ottoman Sociopolitical Thought in the Second Half of the 19th Century

The article is centered around the activities of the first political club in the history of the Ottoman realm - the so-called “Young Ottomans” (originally - Ittifak-i hamiyyet, “The League of Enthusiasm”). The evolution in the world outlook of its foremost representatives, namely Ibrahim Sinasi (1826-1871), Namik Kemal (1840-1888), Abdulhamit Ziya (1829-1880) and Ali Suavi (1839-1878), is put under scrutiny. Special attention is paid to the societal context for the rise of the “Young Ottoman” movement: competition among courtly cliques, uneven modernization of the bureaucracy, gradual emergence of “proto-national” conscience under the impact of modern ideologies. Questioning the conceptualization of the “Young Ottoman” circle as a consolidated and organized community with a clear-cut program of action, we stress the differences in concrete attitudes and ambitions which account for the absence of a common platform and the individualism of political behavior, typical for the movement’s leaders. An attempt is also made at analyzing the individual careers of the circle’s members against their social background, education, informal links, participation in client-patron networks of the Sublime Porte and personal relationships with the imperial elite of the Tanzimat period (1839-1876) and Abdulhamit II’s reign (1876-1909). Modes of interaction are traced between Western and Islamicate elements in “Young Ottoman” concepts of “Motherland”, “freedom”, “nation” and others, which were rapidly imbibed by the political language of the Islamic world in the second half of the 19th century. Special accent is made on the innovative features of the “Young Ottoman” press (Tercuman-i ahval, Tasvir-i efkar, Muhbir, Hurriyet journals) in the context of the history of Middle Eastern media. Specific points of their intellectual attitude towards the issues of cultural transformation faced by the Ottoman society in 1830-1860-s are discussed, in particular, a consideration is made of the contribution of their literary and journalistic legacy to the Turkish nation-building success of the 20th century based on the consolidation of Turkic-speaking populations in Asia Minor and the Balkans.

Nazan Çiçek, The Young Ottomans: Turkish Critics of the Eastern Question in the Late Nineteenth Century

Nazan Çiçek, <i>The Young Ottomans: Turkish Critics of the Eastern Question in the Late Nineteenth Century</i>

A Distinguıshed and Loyal Ottoman Civil Servant: Hüseyin Nâzım Pasha

The nineteenth century represented an important period in the attempts of Ottoman Turkey to bring all its institutions, civil and military, up to date so as to be able to prevent disintegration of the empire. The Ottoman civil service bureaucracy became an efficient part of this modernizing process. Hüseyin Nâzım Pasha, who served both as minister and governor of major provinces, provides an important example of Young Ottoman thought, loyal but forward-looking, steeped in tradition but not blindly bound by it, industrious and well able to represent the changing face of Turkey in both the private and the public spheres. His life represents the zeitgeist of the times with great accuracy.

The Young Ottomans: Turkish Critics of the Eastern Question in the Late Nineteenth Century – By Nazan Çiçek

The Young Ottomans: Turkish Critics of the Eastern Question in the Late Nineteenth Century – By Nazan Çiçek

AK Party Between Post-Islamism and Non-Islamism: A Critical Analysis of the Turkish Islamism’s Transformation

With the increased international prominence of Turkey and its successful and internationally respected AK Party government, the Academia’s attention has focused on the Turkish Islamist experience. Turkey had already been seen as an almost unique case as far Islam-state-secularism-democracy relations were concerned but the recent transformation of Turkish Islamism coupled with the global turmoil in the post-9/11 world has made the Turkish case much more important. While Turkish Islamists’ recent transformation that has brought about their rise to the power has been applauded at home and abroad, there are relatively very few studies that analyze their transformation by taking into account the unique experience of Turkish Islamism starting from the 18th & 19th centuries’ Ottoman secularization, Young Ottomans of the 1860s and the Ottoman constitutionalism and democracy. Moreover, structural materialist analyses of Islamism and post-Islamism take globalization and Westernization as independent variables and try to analyze how they have influenced Islamists’ behavior. Although academics have drawn our attention to the globalization, international opportunity structures and failure of Islamist government experiences both in Turkey and abroad as the factors that have influenced the Islamists’ transformation, the socio-cultural variable needs to be taken into account as well. Dynamics that affected the change in the Turkish Islamists’ Islamic normative framework have not been analyzed in detail. Thus, this study endeavors to analyze the main factors behind the newly emerged tolerant normative framework of the AK Party leaders who were formerly Islamist. This paper attempts to show that Islamic groups’ physical and discursive interaction has been a crucial factor in the Turkish Islamism’s transformation.