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M o d e r n i t y HAKAN YAVUZ Being Modern in

One of the defining conflicts of modern Turkish life is the great tension between society and the state. This tension has been articulated in terms of the conflict between Islamic social movements and the state ide- the Nurcu Way ology, Kemalism. Alberto Melucci argues that social movements constitute an active resistance that the Kadiri order. He was heavily influenced seeks to free everyday life from colonization by cen- by the writings of Nak¸sibendi leaders, such as tral government so that individuals may realize their Ahmed Sirhindi of India and Ahmed Ziyaed- unique potential and assert their collective identity.1 din Gümü¸s h a n e l i . This aptly describes the Nurcu movement, an Islamic After identifying the enemies of Islam as ig- faith movement based on the writings of Said Nursi norance, fragmentation, and poverty, Nursi (1876-1960). Nursi suffered persecution at the hands presented education, hard work, and con- of the Kemalist elite and was eventually exiled. Even sensus as a solution. Nursi's Islam is personal his dead body posed a 'security threat'. After his Islam. Even his understanding of sharia r e- death, his body was exhumed by military coup lead- flected this personal commitment. In I s a r a t - ers in 1960 and reburied at an unknown location. ül Icaz, Nursi defines sharia as way of deter- mining right from wrong, good from bad, and licit from illicit through consciousness Why did Said Nursi and his followers repre- rather than force. In other words, a just soci- sent a threat to the Kemalist State? What are ety is not built by force, but by righteous men the major characteristics of the Nurcu move- and women. ment? How has the Nurcu movement re- mained the most powerful faith movement D e r s h a n e s: sites of Islamic in Turkey? The following seeks to answer modernities these questions. The Nurcu movement represents a dynam- ic conceptualization of the interaction be- A challenge to Kemalism tween modernity and religion. The move- In order to understand the perceived ment can be considered modern in that it es- threat of Nursi to the state, it must be under- pouses a worldview centred around the self- stood that in Turkey, Kemalism is as powerful reflective and politically active individual's as Islam; it is Turkey's official ideology, func- ability to realize personal goals while adher- tioning as a state religion. Therefore, a move- ing to a collective identity. It seeks to shape ment that strengthens Islamic identity is a local networks and institutions in relation to challenge to state ideology. Said Nursi, the global discourses of democracy, human founder of the Nurcu movement, stressed rights, and the market economy. In this the significance of reading and writing. His sense, we may say that Nursi is the founder of works, known as the Risale-i Nur Kulliyati ( T h e modern religious discourse in Turkey. The Epistles of Light), were believed by him and Nurcu movement has responded effectively his followers to be bestowed by God and to the search for identity that has been a were thus considered semi-sacred. The writ- salient characteristic of Turkish politics since ings of Nursi have three interrelated goals: to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Through raise the consciousness of Muslims; to refute religiously rooted and socially shaped net- the dominant intellectual discourses of ma- works, the Nurcus (participants of the Nurcu terialism and positivism; and to recover col- movement) have sought to establish a sense lective memory by revising the shared gram- of community within a laic state. The Nurcu mar of society, Islam. Responding to the pen- reading circles, or d e r s h a n e s, have become Said Nursi etrating impact of positivism in the Ottoman the institutions that integrate the individual in 1952. educational system and the total collapse of into society and polity. They can be analysed the Islamic educational system, Nursi tried to as textual communities formed around demonstrate the compatibility of science verse'. He used the laws of nature to explain liness and alienation by becoming conscious Nursi's Risale-i Nur K u l l i y a t i .3 and religion, freedom and faith, modernity the power of a creator. By replacing the text of God. The word d e r s h a n e in modern Turkish can and tradition. He updated the idioms of Islam with ulema (or sheikh), Nursi tried to respond Nursi, as a native Kurd and pan-Islamist, refer to a special apartment floor or a one- in terms of the dominant universal discours- to the fragmentation of religious authority in witnessed the collapse of the multicultural floor building and a congregation of people es of science, human rights, and the rule of Islam. In response to the prevailing tendency Ottoman Empire, the formation of the Kemal- who meet there to read and discuss the writ- law. In sum, the Risale-i Nur constitutes an al- toward scepticism and the discursive shift ist republic, and a decade-long experiment ings of Nursi. This process of discussion is ternative basis upon which Muslims can from a religious to a secular worldview, Nursi of democracy. A discussion of Said Nursi is, in called s o h b e t (conversation) and generally build their personality, and redraw the attempted to develop a new conceptual ter- effect, a discussion of the modern history of takes place after work or on Friday evenings. boundary between the state and society. minology that would bring religion and sci- Turkish society. Nursi embodied the varying Although almost all conversations start with ence together. According to John Voll, Nursi strategies – whether engagement, withdraw- the writings of Nursi, they take different di- The writings of Said Nursi tried 'to see connections between science al or opposition – employed by an Islamic rections and most likely end with political or There is no clearly articulated political de- and religion', rather than refuting the laws of movement in response to oppressive Kemal- business exchanges. The Risale-i Nur b e- sign in the writings of Said Nursi; the purpose science. Nursi stressed the multi-layered ist policies that sought to wipe out the col- comes a basis for conversation and provides is rather to protect Islam from the fanaticism meanings of the Qur'an and taught that na- lective memory of Anatolian Muslims. Nursi, a shared vocabulary to discuss socio-political of traditionalist religiosity, and modern ture had no meaning in itself but rather signi- by abridging a shared Sufi tradition and con- events in and outside Turkey. Conversation is knowledge from unbelief. His writings con- f i e d mana-yı harfi, the existence of order and temporizing Islamic concepts for the Anato- an important aspect of Turkish socio-political stantly try to build a Muslim personality that the presence of God. He always supported lian Muslims, sought not only to preserve but culture, and the d e r s h a n e s are central to is pious and modern; tolerant but firm about freedom of speech and considered it the nec- also to update Turkish memory in new public Nurcu identity as they facilitate the forma- the core virtues of Islam. Nursi's books were essary framework for genuine faith. He tried s p a c e s . tion of close relationships among followers, his refuge and have become the avenue to to protect secular education from unbelief Nursi's teachings have helped to create a who form bonds of trust and civility. As infor- fulfilment for soul-searching Turks. Mehmet and religious education from fanaticism by neo-Sufism in Turkey. His books have freed mal networks of people, ideas and capital, Kırkıncı, a prominent second generation reconciling faith and science. Islamic knowledge from the hegemony of d e r s h a n e s help to institutionalize a pattern of Nurcu, has referred to Said Nursi's works as Although Said Nursi was reacting to an the ulema and have thus democratized this conduct in society. the 'light' which helps to overcome the dark- originally European materialist philosophy knowledge. He popularized science by re- Before the 1983 economic liberalization in- ness of Anatolia. Nursi's books are the 'home' and atheism, he was very careful not to reject framing it within Islamic idioms. Nursi repre- stituted by Turgut Özal, Nurcus met in pri- in which many Muslims find their self-identi- Europe i nt o t o. He differentiated between the sents the seismic shift from the t e k k e ( S u f i vate homes. With the help of newly accumu- ty. As Kırkıncı claims, 'I free my loneliness good and bad institutions and practices of lodge) to text, and from oral Islam to print lated capital, the Nurcus began to buy sepa- through these books. I examine myself and Western civilization. Nursi expected to trans- Islam. Although his ideas evolved within rate buildings where they could assemble my history within and between the lines of form society by raising Muslim conscious- N a k¸sibendi and Kadiri Sufi t e k k e s, his thought and discuss social issues from the perspec- Risale-i Nur. '2 In a way, these books have be- ness. He had always felt himself in g u r b e t ( e s- transcended the traditional framework of tive of the Risale-i Nur. These d e r s h a n e s led to come the architects of the Anatolian Mus- trangement) and explained how he over- questions and answers. His writings reach the emergence of a new Nurcu elite and gave lims' heart and soul. came this sense of isolation through dynam- the most dynamic and refined level of Anato- greater visibility to the new Anatolian bour- According to his writings, there are three ic belief, trust, and patience. Belief, for Nursi, lian and Ottoman Sufi Islam. Most of Said g e o i s i e . ways of acquiring Islamic knowledge: the was the guide that shapes the individual life. Nursi's teachers belonged to the Khalidi Qur'an, the Prophet, and the universe which His struggle in life offers a powerful model for N a k¸sibendi order, but he also read the writ- he usually refers to as the 'Grand Book of Uni- other Muslims to follow in overcoming lone- ings of Abdul Kadir Geylani, the founder of Continued on page 14 Continued from page 7: Being Modern in the Nurcu Way / by Hakan Yavuz

The proliferation of dershanes coincided with People meet to discuss business issues and Being Muslim in the Nurcu way which either excludes religion from the state the fragmentation of the Nurcu movement disseminate new information to other mem- Being a Muslim in the 'Nurcu way' means structure or seeks to control it through inclu- along class, gender, ethnic and regional lines. bers. In other words, dershanes provide av- becoming a conscious Muslim in good deeds sion, the only method of gaining legitimacy The dershanes, formed as textual-communi- enues for the realization of individual inter- and knowledgeable in science, culture, and and support from the state is nationalism. In ties, create new public spaces which are able ests as well as the preservation of a collective business. Recognizing that modernity does other words, religious groups seek to main- to empower Turkish civil society. They have identity. Dershanes are connected to a specif- not acknowledge God, the Nurcus want to tain their relevance and legitimacy before played a crucial role inthe evolution and plu- ic group of people and represent religiously overcome this by calling Muslims to rational- the state by stressing their contribution to ralization of Islamic movements in Turkey shaped new public spaces that quickly be- ize the Qur'an and take science seriously. nationalism and national culture. and have also been instrumental in the for- come integrated into the surrounding com- The Nurcus have been trying to institution- The Nurcu movement, with its 5 million fol- mation of a counter-elite in Turkey. It is sig- munity. Dershanes help to create social ener- alize new ethics and 'pious activism' through lowers, is undergoing a transformation: a nificant, for example, that dershanes have gy – the willingness of human beings to act a worldly asceticism. Religious salvation, for process of ethnicization along Turkish and been used as dormitories for university stu- from their ideals. Nursi, assumes contemplative action and Kurdish lines; seeing the European Union as dents. Dershanes, as urban networks of Sunni In Germany and Holland, I have visited sev- hard work. The Nurcu way reconciles reli- the hope for shaping a democratic Turkey; Islam, do not separate religion from everyday eral dershanes run by the community of gious contemplation and activism as mutual- and 'going global' through expanding their life; rather, they seek to shape everyday life Fethullah Gülen.4 They fulfill multiple func- ly constitutive. Nursi defines Islam in terms of networks and internalizing global discourses through Islamic idiom and practice. Köprü, tions and aim to attract Muslim university tolerance, love and reason. of human rights. The modernity of the Nurcu the most serious journal devoted to the students. They are successful among the After Nursi's death in 1960, due to varying movement is also a testimony to the cata- Risale-i Nur, has a circulation of 5,000 – some Turks and some Turkified Kurds. Dershanes in regional, class, and ethnic identities, the Nur- strophic success of the Kemalist project of 3,500 copies of which go to the dershanes. Europe function as kervan saray where Turks cus fragmented into several sub-communi- creating a European nation. ◆ Print Islam and the emergence of commu- may enjoy coffee and socialize. They have ties with different interpretations and posi- nities around the text are very much an the multiple function of disseminating infor- tions on political issues: ranging from a toler- Notes urban phenomenon. Increased literacy, an mation, finding jobs, facilitating new friend- ant Fethullah Gülen (b.1938) to radical Acz- 1. For an understanding of modern social expanded market economy, and the prolifer- ships, and allowing access to diverse social mendi groups. Since 1983, the movement movements, I recommend Alberto Melucci (1989), ation of information technology have not networks. Personal trust and communal con- has undergone a division along ethnic Turk- Nomads ofthe Present, Social Movements and lead to the secularization of society, but have trol are brought together. These dershanes, ish and Kurdish lines. The Kurdish Nurcus Individual Needs in Contemporary Society, London: rather facilitated the emergence of Islamic spread across Europe, help Nurcus locate tend to treat Said Nursi as a Kurdish national- Hutchinson Radius. movements. Due to greater access to avail- each other. In some dershanes, maps can be ist, whereas the Turks stress his pan-Is- 2. Interview with Mehmet Kırkıncı, 25 September able resources and the flexibility of Islamic seen on which dershanes in other European lamism. Many Kurdish nationalists interpret 1995. terminology, the Nurcu movement is rooted cities are identified with green stickers. By Nursi's exile and persecution as the example 3. Yavuz, M. Hakan (1995), 'Print-Based Islamic in urban centres. Its main goal is not to return marking the map of Europe with dershanes, of the persecution of the Kurdish identity. Discourse and Modernity: The Nur Movement', to an Islamic past but to Islamicize the pre- Nurcus start to see Europe as a familiar terri- However, the court cases show that his per- Third International Symposium on Bediüzzaman sent by reinterpreting the shared language tory – even a second homeland. Being orga- secution was the result of his struggle to Said Nursi, pp. 324-350. of Islam. Nursi helped to create and nurture nized horizontally, not hierarchically, der- renew Islam against the social engineering of 4. Yavuz, M. Hakan (1999), 'Towards an Islamic an oppositional and insurgent consciousness shanes stress solidarity, participation, and in- Kemalist reforms. Moreover, some Turkish Liberalism?: The Nurcu Movement and Fethullah within the limited public sphere under the tegrity. In a way, they help to build sustain- Nurcus,such as Yeni Asyaof Mehmet Kutlular Gülen', Middle East Journal 53 (4), pp. 584-605. domination of the Kemalist state. able communities. These networks facilitate and the Fethullah Gülen community, reimag- The strengthening of market forces in Turk- coordination and amplify information about ined the movement as a 'Turkish Islam' and M. Hakan Yavuz is assistant professor of Political ish societyhas turnedthe dershanes into cen- the trustworthiness of other Nurcus. nationalized it. When a religious movement Science atthe University of Utah, USA. tres of economic as well as social activity. seeks legitimacy in the eyes of laic state, E-mail: [email protected]