(10.2)
Chapter 16 Turkey, Secularist Reform.
Reform efforts in the Ottoman Empire; secular state
under Atatürk and successors; partial return to
religion.
Map of Turkey
Population of Turkey in millions
1927
13.6
1980
44.7
1990
56.5
2008
73.9
Ottoman Empire: From “Terrible Turk” to “Sick man of Europe”
1683
Ottoman siege of Vienna
1699
Treaty of Carlowitz, Hungary Iost
1718
Major defeat by Austria
1774
Loss of Crimea to Russia, Treaty of Kücük Kaynarca
1821-30 Greek war of independence
1840
European powers force Muhammad Ali to retreat from Syria
1875
Default on foreign loans (debt administered from 1882)
1878
Rumania, Serbia Montenegro independent with Russian
support, Bulgaria
autonomous; Austrians occupy Bosnia
1908-13 Almost all the rest of the Balkans lost
1912
Italy takes Libya
1914-18 WW1, Arab revolt, war lost
1919
Greeks invade
1920
British & French Mandates of Arab territory; Treaty of Sevres
Reforms (Westernizing)
1718-30
“Tulip Age”, superficial, abortive
1792-1807
Nizam-i Jedid (New Order), abortive
1826
Janissaries destroyed, reforms, including
free trade, fez
1839-77
Tanzimat: major reforms
1876
Constitution
1876-1909
Sultan Abdul Hamid; Constitution
suspended; Din u Devlet; Pan-Islam and
claim to caliphate.
1908
Revolution by CUP; “Turkification”
Tanzimat reforms
 Equality before the law for religious minorities (1839, 1856).
 Penal law codified (1840-58, from Qanun) and
 Family laws codified (1869-76, Hanafi fiqh), put under new
Ministry of Justice
 Commercial code based on French law (1850, outside
Shari‘a).
 Civil courts (1868, alongside Shari‘a courts)
 Ministry of Education, state secondary schools begun (by
1850)
 Land reform (1858)
 Introduction of postal system (1834), telegraph (1855),
railroads (from 1866)
Tanzimat, ctd
Effects
 Introduce some Western ideas and practices.
 Strengthen power of central government, vis-à-vis other
forces, including ‘ulama’.
 Set up dual systems, religious and secular in education and
courts.
 Affected the elite, mainly.
Turkish resurgence and turn to secularism:
1920 Treaty of Sevres
1920 Grand National Assembly formed in Ankara under Mustafa
Kemal
1921 Defeat of Greeks, GNA gives Mustafa Kemal title of ghazi
1921 Constitution giving sovereignty to the nation
1922 Sultanate abolished
1923 Treaty of Lausanne
1923 Republic declared, Mustafa Kemal elected president
1924 Caliphate abolished
1924 Population exchange between Greece and Turkey
1924-37 Secularizing reforms in many areas.
Major secularist reforms
 1921 Constitution states "Sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the
nation."
 1928 Islam ceases to be the religion of state. Laicism (laiklik) explicitly
affirmed in 1937.
 Shari‘a law replaced by civil code adapted from Swiss code (1926)
 Madreses closed (1924),
 Government Department of Religious affairs replaced office of Shaykh
al-Islam
 Sufi tariqas disbanded (1925)
 Adhan to be given in Turkish rather than Arabic (1932).
 Western garb to be worn, the fez forbidden (1925), veiling by women
discouraged.
 Polygyny outlawed.
 Equal rights for men and women in education, employment, voting,
divorce.
 Roman script replaces Arabic script.
Some statements of Atatürk
“How happy is the one who can say, ‘I am a Turk.’”
“In life the truest guide (mürsit) is science.”
"Our aim is to establish a modern, therefore a Western state in Turkey."
(Binnaz, 144)
“It was necessary to abolish the fez, which sat on our heads as a sign of
ignorance, of fanaticism, of hatred to progress and civilization . . .”
(McNeill & Waldman 446)
"The straightest, truest tariqa is the way (tariqa) of civilization. To be a
man, it is enough to do what civilization requires." (Mortimer 141)
A different viewpoint:
“Fear not; how can this faith of a people be smothered by that monster
called “Civilization” which has but one tooth left in its jaw.” Mehmet
Akif (Mortimer 134)
Kemalism a secular religion?
 State deified? “Eternal Turkish nation”, “sacred Turkish state”
(Constitution)
 State = "that incorporeal but holy entity that is the center of
Turkey's consciousness" (Kinzer 127)
 Atatürk deified ?: a “virtual deity” (Kinzer).
 military and political elite “clergy” (Kinzer)
 Atatürk’s Mausoleum as its “Mecca”. (Kinzer)
 But: Islam as part of Turkish national identity
Tomb of Atatürk
Politics since 1950:
1950
RPP defeated. Religion becomes
“political football” in 1950s
1960-1 Military government.
1969
First Islamist party formed
1971-3 Military government.
1973-80
Political violence involving Islamists,
leftists etc.
1980-3 Military government.
1983-93
Özal government; less state intervention in
society
1996
Erbakan becomes prime minister
1997
Military intervention.
2002
AKP elected to government
Partial retreat from Secularism:
 Military chaplains (1941)
 Adhan in Arabic (1950)
 Foreign exchange for Hajj (1948)
 Religion in primary schools (1949)
 Religious radio programs aired (1950)
 School for imams and preachers
 Faculties of Theology established
 Turkey a founding member of OIC (1969)
 Politicians begin to mention God publicly
Sufis:
 Tariqas are officially banned but their activities and networks
continue and function more or less openly
 Some saints’ tombs, e.g. that of Mevlana Rumi have been
reopened as “museums”
 Naqshbandis in particular are close to politics.
Mevlana Rumi’s mausoleum, outside
Mevlana Rumi’s tomb, inside the mausoleum
Tomb of Shihab al-Din (Şehabeddin) Sivasi (d. 1378) and mosque, Salçuk, Turkey. The plaque describes
him as a scholar but he also must have been a Sufi, in view of the practices prohibited by the sign
beside the door (see next frame).
The sign beside the door of Shihab al-Din’s tomb reads roughly as
follows:
Attention, visitors. According to Islam, your religion, at tombs
and graves:
1. Votive offerings are not to be presented.
2. Animals are not to be slaughtered as sacrifices.
3. Candles are not to be lit.
4. Strips of cloth are not to be fastened.
5. Coins not to be placed.
6. One is not to bow as one enters.
7. Money is not to be thrown on or in.
The sign beside the door of Shihab al-Din’s tomb ctd
8. People are not to leave food around.
9. One should not rub one's hand and face.
10. Miraculous cures should not be expected from tombs and
graves.
11. One should not circumambulate tombs or graves.
12. One should not lie down or sleep inside a tomb.
These and similar things are heresies and superstitions.
They have been definitively forbidden.
Department of Religious Affairs.
Islamism:
Ideology: Milli görüş (=National vision or National perspective)
Leader: Necmettin Erbakan: industrial engineer trained in Germany
Party names: National Order Party (Milli Nizam 1970-71), National
Salvation Party (Milli Selamet 1972-80), Welfare Party (Refah 1987-97),
Virtue Party (Fazilet, 1998-2001), Felicity Party (Saadet 2001-)
 Nationalist as well as Islamist (some say “neo-Ottomanist”)
 Connections with Naqshbandi tariqa
 Calls for a “just order” (could not call openly for Shari‘a)
 Appeals to educated people and business people in provinces, (as
opposed to secular elite of Istanbul, etc.)
 Has polled 10-20 percent of votes
 Participated in government in 1974, prime minister in coalition, 19967; forced out by military.
Post-Islamism
Justice and Development Party (AKP)
Split from Milli görüş movement c 2001
Elected to power 2002
Muslim ethos; supports secularism defined as “the state’s
impartiality toward every form of religious belief and
philosophical conviction”
Headquarters of Fazilet Party in Konya.
Alevis
 c 15-25% of Turkish population
 Shi‘i, strong veneration of Ali and Imams,esoteric teachings
passed on orally, followers of Hajji Bektash
 Traditionally persecuted by Sunnis, practice taqiya
 Supported Atatürk, whom they saw as a “mahdi”.
 Kemalism ended the persecution but pressured Alevis toward
assimilation to (implicitly Sunni) nationalism and discouraged
their religion
 Popular prejudice continued
 Alevis became secularised with leftwing orientation in politics in
1970s
 Communal revival and reform from mid-1980s in the face of
Sunni revival and continuing pressure
Bektashi sama‘ (sema) at museum complex of Hajji Bektash