The Politicization of Islam: Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, and Community in the Late Ottoman State Kemal H. Karpat OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS The Politicization of Islam STUDIES IN MIDDLE EASTERN HISTORY General Editors Bernard Lewis Itamar Rabinovich Roger Savory The Turban for the Crown Preparation for a Revolution The Islamic Revolution in Iran The Young Turks, 1902–1908 Said Amir Arjomand M. 1ükrü Hanio4lu The Arab Press in the Middle East Cross-Cultural Encounters and Conflicts A History Charles Issawi Ami Ayalon The Fertile Crescent, 1800–1914 Iran’s First Revolution A Documentary Economic History Shi�ism and the Constitutional Edited by Charles Issawi Revolution of 1905–1909 Mangol Bayat The Politicization of Islam Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, Saddam’s World and Community in the Late Ottoman Political Discourse in Iraq State Ofra Bengio Kemal H. Karpat Islamic Reform The Making of Saudi Arabia, 1916–1936 Politics and Social Change in Late From Chieftaincy to Monarchical State Ottoman Syria Joseph Kostiner David Dean Commins Eunuchs and Sacred Boundaries King Hussein and the Challenge of in Islamic Society Arab Radicalism Shaun Marmon Jordan, 1955–1967 Uriel Dann The Imperial Harem Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Nasser’s “Blessed Movement” Empire Egypt’s Free Officers and the July Leslie Peirce Revolution Joel Gordon From Abdullah to Hussein Jordan in Transition The Young Turks in Opposition Robert B. Satloff M. 1ükrü Hanio4lu THE POLITICIZATION OF ISLAM Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, and Community in the Late Ottoman State Kemal H. Karpat 1 2001 1 Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris São Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 2001 by Kemal H. Karpat Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Karpat, Kemal H. The politicization of Islam : reconstructing identity, state, faith, and community in the late Ottoman state / Kemal H. Karpat. p. cm. — (Studies in Middle Eastern history) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-513618-7 1. Turkey—History—1878–1909. 2. Turkey—History—Mehmed V, 1909–1918. 3. Islam and state—Turkey. 4. Panislamism. I. Title. II. Studies in Middle Eastern history (New York, N.Y.) DR572.K28 2000 320.54'09561'09034—dc21 99-053429 1 35 798642 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Preface The idea of this book has been in my mind since the start of my academic career. I would have written it sooner if I had accumulated all the necessary information and devised the proper approach and methodology. I felt that much of what has been written and said about the transformation of the Ottoman state and the rise of mod­ ern Turkey (and other Muslim nation-states) ignores some key factors of change or relates them to each other in an incomplete and erroneous fashion. In particular, I thought it faulty to regard modernity and Islam as engaged in a deadly struggle. To do so ignores the impact of the economic, social, cultural, and international factors that created modernity and changed the social political environment in which Islam operated. In other words, Islam and Islamic society need to be considered separately, and the change in society should not be seen as equivalent to the transformation of the faith. Consequently, I have viewed the Ottoman transformation as caused by concrete, tangible factors, both internal and external, and have regarded Islam as an instrument of legitimacy, mediation, balance, psychological support, mobilization, defense, and so on, during the transformation of the community into a new unit of organization, the territory-based nation and state. Islam became the instrument of change and adaptation as much as it was politicized as the ideology of cultural self- preservation and opposition to colonial rule. The approach and methodology of this work were devised to take into account every major domestic and international factor that affected the transformation of the Ottoman society and state as well as to reconsider the true role of Islam and of the sultan-caliph in this process. The involvement, via Islam, of the lower classes in the transformation of the social structure; the changes in the traditional concepts of state, community, faith, and authority; and a series of other topics have been given proper consideration. The book deals with Islamic revivalism as part of the general process of socioeconomic and cultural transformation; it is not meant as a calcu­ lated effort to join the current heated discussion about Muslim fundamentalism. The work is also an effort to present as complete as possible a holistic picture of the Ottoman state—with all its political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions so that the course of Ottoman-Turkish Islamic modernization may be properly understood. vi Preface A substantial part of the work deals with Sultan Abdulhamid II (r. 1876–1909), who is seen as an absolutist ruler and the main force behind the Ottoman modern­ ization and, also as caliph, its legitimizer and the architect of its Islamization. He also successfully maintained the territorial integrity of the Ottoman state during a thirty- year period that was crucial to the modernization process, and he prepared the ground for the rise of modern Turkey. The modern identities that emerged during this trans­ formation were nurtured by grassroots folk religion and culture as much as by the ethnonational models imposed from above by the ruling elites. I commenced work on this book some twenty years ago, when access to Ottoman archives was exceptionally difficult. Since 1989 the use of the archives has been greatly liberalized, and consequently a dozen or more scholars, mostly Turks, have published dissertations and books on the Hamidian period, based in part on the materials used in this work. To the extent possible all these works are indicated in the references. The length of the manuscript forced me to leave out much factual information and elaborating on the meanings behind the facts (although such meaning and implica­ tions may be self-evident to the reader). I would like to thank a few people for their help in preparing this work. The late Hayri Mutluça4’s knowledge of the archives, sources, and documents, as well as his insights into the Young Turks and early Republican eras proved to be of vital impor­ tance. Deniz Balgami3 provided dedicated research assistance and typed various drafts and revisions as did Steve Hahn, whose help was enhanced by his computer exper­ tise. Barbara Husseini provided editorial assistance and advice. I would like to thank the Graduate School at the University of Wisconsin–Madison for its financial help, which made possible several research trips and stays in Turkey. Last but not least, as a person who has paid dearly in his life for his critical and inquisitive mind, I take special pleasure to thank the United States of America for providing me the oppor­ tunity, security, and the environment to work, think, and express myself in full free­ dom. I have used the Turkish spelling of titles and names except for some well- established English usages. A key to Turkish pronunciation has been provided. All translations are mine unless otherwise indicated. Madison, Wisconsin K.H.K. April 2000 See Running Head Copy vii Contents Note on Pronunciation ix Introduction 3 1 Islamic Revivalism: Popular Roots of Islamism (Pan-Islamism) 20 2 The Precursors of Pan-Islamism: Peripheral Islam and the Caliphal Center 48 3 Russia, Islam, and Modernism: The Legacy of the Past 68 4 The New Middle Classes and the Nak3bandia 89 5 Knowledge, Press, and the Popularization of Islamism 117 6 The War of 1877–1878 and Diverging Perceptions of Islam and Europe 136 7 The Making of a Modern Muslim Ruler: Abdulhamid II 155 8 The Sultan’s Advisers and the Integration of Arabs and Immigrants 183 9 Ottoman-European Relations and Islamism 208 10 Continuity of Form, Change in Substance: Dynasty, State, and Islamism 223 11 The Harameyin, the Caliphate, and the British Search for an Arab Caliph 241 viii Contents 12 The Caliphate and Ottoman Foreign Policy in Africa 258 13 Formation of Modern Nationhood: Turkism and Pan-Islamism in Russia and the Ottoman Empire 276 14 The Reconstruction of State, Community-Nation, and Identity 308 15 Ottomanism, Fatherland, and the “Turkishness” of the State 328 16 Turkishness of the Community: From Religious to Ethnic-National Identity 353 17 The Turkist Thinkers: Ziya Gökalp, Yusuf Akçura, Fuat Köprülü 374 Conclusion 408 Notes 423 Select Bibliography 481 Index 509 Note on Pronunciation The following Turkish letters are pronounced approximately as follows: 3 sh as in “sharp” ç ch as in “cherry” c g as in “George” ö e as in “erring” ü ew as in “few” 4 silent g as in “higher” â a as in “palm” All capital and lowercase i’s are set roman. ix This page intentionally left blank The Politicization of Islam This page intentionally left blank Introduction General Theme This work deals with the social, cultural, and political modernization and ethnic trans­ formation of the Ottoman state, and the role of Islam and Sultan Abdulhamid II (r. 1876–1909)—referred to here simply as Abdulhamid—in conditioning and di- recting that transformation and modernization.