Kenan Tekin Dissertation Approved for Deposit
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Reforming Categories of Science and Religion in the Late Ottoman Empire Kenan Tekin Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2016 © 2016 Kenan Tekin All rights reserved ABSTRACT Reforming Categories of Science and Religion in the Late Ottoman Empire Kenan Tekin This dissertation shows that ideas of science and religion are not transhistorical by presenting a longue durée study of conceptions of science and religion in the Ottoman Empire. I demonstrate that the idea of science(s) was subject to a tectonic change over the course of a few centuries, namely between the early modern and modern period. Even within a specific epoch, conception of science and religion were in no way monolithic, as evidenced by the diversity of approaches to these categories in the early modern period. To point out continuity and change in the ideas of science and religion, I study classifications of sciences in the early modern Ottoman Empire, by comparing two works; one by Yahya Nev‘î and the other by Saçaklızâde Muhammed el-Mar‘aşî. Nev‘î wrote from the context of the court in Istanbul, while Saçaklızâde represented the madrasa environment in an Anatolian province, thus providing a contrast in their orders of knowledge. In addition, the dissertation includes a study of the concept of "jihat al- waḥda" (aspect of unity) of science, as discussed by commentators from the early modern period. After first providing a textual genealogy, I argue that this concept reveals the dominant paradigm of scientific thinking during this period. The last two chapters of the dissertation deal with modern Ottoman history. The third chapter analyzes Ahmed Cevdet Pasha's (d. 1895) translation of Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah into the Ottoman Turkish in order to show the shift in the conception of science in the mid-nineteenth century. I demonstrate both continuity and a break between the thought of Ibn Khaldun and Ahmed Cevdet Pasha. In the fourth chapter, I draw upon archival documents, a scientific journal, and a correspondence between two intellectuals namely Fatma Aliye and Ahmed Midhat, to point out that science, religion, and politics were separated as a consequence of state regulations over publications and civil societies together with other institutional reforms and educational policies. The dissertation raises questions about the historiography of science in the modern period, which takes the modern idea of science for granted and projects it back on to the earlier periods. Noting the anachronistic and presentist approach to the early modern period, the dissertation calls for a new kind of historiography that not only goes beyond our modern biases but learns from past experiences by seriously engaging them. Table of Contents Acknowledgement iii Dedication vi INTRODUCTION 1 Nationalist and Orientalist Historiography of Science 8 Critique of Nationalist Historiography 15 Rewriting the History of the Early Modern Period 17 Rethinking Ottoman Modernity 22 Sources: Manuscripts, Archival Documents, and Printed Material 27 Outline of Chapters 29 CHAPTER I: Ordering Sciences in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire 33 Classifications of Sciences in pre-Ottoman Islamic Thought 38 Saçaklızâde’s Tartīb al-‘Ulūm as a Pedagogic Intervention 41 Yahya Nev‘î’s Netâyicü’l-Fünûn ve Mehâsinü’l-Mütûn 67 Context, Genealogies and the Production of Knowledge: Nev‘î Efendi and Saçaklızâde 73 CHAPTER II: Out of Many, One: Unity of Science in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire 84 Fenârî and his Useful Notes on al-Abharī’s Isagoge 90 Glosses on multiplicity: Burhâneddin and Kul Ahmed 112 Glosses on Aspect of Unity: Abdurrahim, M. Emin Şirvânî, and Kara Halil 117 Fenârî's Contemporaries and Predecessors on the Unity of Science 125 CHAPTER III: Updating Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah: Cevdet’s Turkish Translation 131 Pre-Tanzimat Engagement with Ibn Khaldun: Pîrîzâde’s translation of the Muqaddimah 133 !i Cevdet’s translation in context 144 Ibn Khaldun and Cevdet on humankind and human thought 148 History of Rational Sciences 159 CHAPTER IV: Reconfiguring Science and Religion in the Late Ottoman Empire 174 Periodicals and Scientific Societies 180 A Journal of Science without boundaries: Ali Suavi’s Ulûm Gazettes 195 Authority to Define “Science”, “Scientist”, and “Philosopher” 220 CONCLUSION 232 BIBLIOGRAPHY 246 Archival and Manuscript Sources 246 Printed Primary Sources 248 Secondary Sources 252 !ii Acknowledgement This dissertation would not have been possible without the intellectual, financial, and emotional support that I have received from a number of people and institutions over the years as a graduate student. Intellectually, I would first of all like to thank my mentor, Professor George Saliba, the best advisor a graduate student could wish for. I will never forget the fact that he has always responded to my emails and inquiries promptly and made himself available to meet whenever I needed. Saliba also gave me ample feedback on various drafts of my dissertation, thus encouraged me to complete my studies in a timely manner. Without Saliba’s constant support and gracious personality I would not have been able to accomplish this work. In addition to Professor Saliba, several professors at Columbia played a key role in my intellectual formation. Among them, I would like to express my deepest thanks to Marwa Elshakry, Katharina Ivanyi, Brinkley Messick, Timothy Mitchell, Muhsin Musawi, and Christine Philliou. I would like to especially thank Marwa for providing crucial feedback at different stages of my project, and for her kind and generous support throughout. I am grateful to my dissertation committee for reading my dissertation, and providing constructive feedback. I have tried my best to incorporate the committee’s and my advisor’s suggestions. However, all the remaining mistakes and infelicities are solely mine. The chairs, directors of graduate studies, administrators, staff, and fellow graduate students of the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) created an intellectually vibrant environment. I am grateful to the department for departmental and graduate student colloquia, and graduate student conferences all of which created venues for me to present my work and to engage colleagues and professors. I would like to especially thank !iii Alisson Busch for her support on a number of issues, and Sheldon Pollock for his feedback on parts of my dissertation during the Post-M.Phil. colloquium. Thanks also to the administrative staff, Jessica, Michael, and Irys, who were all kind and helpful. Many thanks to friends and especially cohorts who gave me feedback or provided company during the program including Ahmed, Yannick, Sahar, Andrew, and Nathanael. Special thanks to Sahar Ullah and Adnan, who became family friends along the way. I also would like to thank organizers and the audience of a number of graduate and professional conferences, and workshops, which gave me a chance to present my work. These include the British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS), Middle East History and Theory Conference (MEHAT) at the University of Chicago, Institute of Islamic Studies Conference at McGill University, and the wonderful Duke-UNC Chapel Hill Islamic studies workshop. Thanks also to Angela Giordani, organizer of the Siyagh workshop at Columbia, and to organizers and participants of the ISAR International workshop at Maryland, for the opportunity to present my work and receive feedback. I am grateful to the staff at Columbia University’s Writing Center and to Damian Harris-Hernandez for their help in editing the dissertation. I received financial support from Turkish Ministry of National Education throughout my graduate studies. I am truly thankful to the Ministry for this support without which I would not have been able to come to study. I should also note my heartfelt thanks to a few people for their surety, which was required to receive the funding from the Ministry. These include my brothers Vedat and Nihat, and friends Metin and Hasan. The Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the MESAAS Department provided partial support throughout. I am also grateful to them making my summer research trips possible. !iv Last but not least, I am thankful to my family for their support and encouragement throughout my education. My parents were keen on my education, instilling in me the love of reading early on. I must also thank my brother Vedat, who was my guardian next to my dad. I am also thankful to my in-laws for their support. Most of all, I am ever grateful to my wife Ayşe Betül. She has been a perfect companion in life, an interlocutor, and most recently a wonderful mother to our precious baby, Ahmed Kerem. They deserve the utmost thanks for making my life more cheerful and exciting. !v Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to my family: to my mom and dad, to my beloved wife Ayşe Betül, and to our son Ahmed Kerem. !vi !1 INTRODUCTION On April 3, 1919 the Şeyhülislam (Grand Mufti) of the Ottoman Empire wrote to the Sadrazam (Prime Minister) complaining that the number of hours allocated for the religious sciences (ulûm-ı diniye) in the curriculum of public schools (mekâtib-i umûmiye) were insufficient. He added that the teachers of these classes were not adequately trained, and that some of the instructors of natural and mathematical sciences (fünûn-ı tabiiye ve riyâziye) went out of their way during lectures to either explicitly or implicitly