LATE OTTOMAN MODERNIST/RATIONALIST DISCOURSES ON ISLAM: SUPERSTITION, SUFISM AND ŞEMSEDDİN GÜNALTAY by HAKAN FEYZULLAH KARPUZCU Submitted to the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Sabancı University December 2008 LATE OTTOMAN MODERNIST/RATIONALIST DISCOURSES ON ISLAM: SUPERSTITION, SUFISM AND ŞEMSEDDİN GÜNALTAY APPROVED BY: Asst. Prof. Dr. Selçuk Akşin Somel …..……….…………. (Thesis Supervisor) Assoc. Prof. Dr. İzak Atiyas ..…..………….……… Asst. Prof. Dr. Yusuf Hakan Erdem ………………..……… DATE OF APPROVAL: 11.12.2008 2 © Hakan Feyzullah Karpuzcu, 2008 All Rights Reserved 3 ABSTRACT LATE OTTOMAN MODERNIST/RATIONALIST DISCOURSES ON ISLAM: SUPERSTITION, SUFISM AND ŞEMSEDDİN GÜNALTAY Hakan Feyzullah Karpuzcu History, MA Thesis,2008 Thesis Supervisor: Assistant Prof. Dr. Selçuk Akşin Somel Keywords: Şemseddin Günaltay, superstition, Sufi orders, true Islam, Islamism This study attempts to sketch a general picture of the late Ottoman conceptualizations of Islam through the preliminary observation of the ideas of M. Şemseddin (Günaltay), an important intellectual and political figure of the Ottoman Second Constitutional Period (1908-1918). More specifically this thesis deals with why and how Şemseddin Günaltay devised an exclusionary rhetoric on Sufi orders and superstitions. In Şemseddin Günaltay‟s understanding of Islam, superstitions, folk beliefs and Sufi practices were represented as the “other” of the imagined “true Islam” as an essentialized and homogenized category. While the idea of “true Islam” was thereby identified by Şemseddin Günaltay with the notion of “natural religion” which was a product of the Western Enlightenment thought, it was streamlined as a rationalized, scientific and “privatized” religion. In this regard, this study argues that Şemseddin Günaltay‟s conception of Islam was in some ways emblematic of the late Ottoman patterns to understand and define religion. Therefore studying Şemseddin Günaltay‟s discourse on true Islam is on the one hand useful to analyze how Islam was undertaken as an ambiguous and functional entity for various social ends like adjusting Islam to the necessities of the time or devising some Islamic reform projects. On the other hand this might contribute to draw at least a partial picture of the underlying transformations in cognitive codes of the late Ottoman intellectual life as well as the new meanings Islam acquired. In order to fulfill these goals, this thesis focuses on Şemseddin Günaltay‟s intellectual production during the Second Constitutional Period. 4 ÖZET OSMANLI SON DONEMİNDE İSLAM‟A DAİR MODERNİST/RASYONALİST SÖYLEMLER: HURAFE, TASAVVUF VE ŞEMSEDDİN GÜNALTAY Hakan Feyzullah Karpuzcu Tarih, Yüksek Lisans, 2008 Tez Danışmanı: Yrd. Doç. Dr. Selçuk Akşin Somel Anahtar Kelimeler: Şemseddin Günaltay, hurafe, tarikatlar, gerçek İslam, İslamcılık Bu araştırma Osmanlı İkinci Meşrutiyet Döneminin (1908-1918) önemli entelektüel ve politik simalarından olan M. Şemseddin (Günaltay)‟ın fikirlerinin bir ilk incelemesi yoluyla geç Osmanlı dönemindeki İslam‟ı kavramsallaştırma çabalarının genel bir resmini çizmeye çalışmaktadır. Daha özelde ise bu tez çalışması Şemseddin Günaltay‟in niçin ve nasıl tarikatları ve hurafeleri dışlayıcı bir söylem geliştirdiğiyle ilgilenmektedir. Şemseddin Günaltay‟ın İslam anlayışında, hurafeler, halk inanışları ve belirli tasavvuf pratikleri özselleştirilmiş ve homojenleştirilmiş bir kategori olan mütehayyel “hakiki İslam” kavramının “ötekisi” olarak resmedilmektedir. Böylece hakiki İslam fikri Şemseddin Günaltay tarafından Batı Aydınlanma düşüncesinin bir ürünü olan “tabii din” nosyonu ile eşleştirilirken, aklileştirilmiş, bilimsel ve “özelleştirilmiş” bir din olarak kurgulanmaktadır. Bu çalışma Şemseddin Günaltay‟ın İslam kavramlaştırmasının belli yönlerden Osmanlı son döneminde İslam‟ı anlama ve tanımlama biçimlerine emsal teşkil ettiğini iddia etmektedir. Bu nedenle, bu çalışmanın amaçlarından birini oluşturan Şemseddin Günaltay‟ın “hakiki İslam” söyleminin incelenmesi bir yandan İslam‟ın nasıl muğlâk ve işlevsel bir hususiyet olarak, İslam‟ı zamanın gerekliliklerine uydurmak veya bazı İslami sosyal reform projelerini hayata geçirmek gibi muhtelif sosyal amaçlar için deruhte edildiğini analiz edebilmek adına faydalı olacaktır. Öte yandan, Osmanlı son döneminde İslam‟ın edindiği yeni anlamları ve entelektüel yaşantıda temelden gelişen birtakım bilişsel dönüşümleri kısmen de olsa resmetmeye katkı sağlayacaktır. Bu amaçlar doğrultusunda bu tez çalışması temel olarak Şemseddin Günaltay‟ın İkinci Meşrutiyet Dönemi‟ndeki entelektüel üretimine yoğunlaşmaktadır. 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is beyond my ability to express my thankfulness to my thesis advisor Akşin Somel for his limitless understanding, support and instructions during my thesis work and my graduate education in Sabanci University. I should also express my genuine thanks to Yusuf Hakan Erdem for his invaluable comments and feedback as well as his support for my work. I am also grateful to Izak Atiyas for his useful recommendations. I have to pay special homage to Şerif Mardin and Şükrü Hanioğlu since it was an invaluable chance to be a student of them and to enjoy their ideas and vision while making my way within social sciences. I would also like to thank to Hülya Canbakal whose support and belief I have always felt, and whom I learned a lot during my undergraduate and graduate years. I owe thanks to Halil Berktay and Metin Kunt for their invaluable teaching during my graduate years at Sabancı University. I owe my debt of gratitude to my father and mother for their support and encouragement for my studies from my childhood. I should also express my gratitude for my sister and her husband for their countenance and endless tolerance during my stay in their house. I can never thank Hayal Akarsu enough for her unceasing personal and scholarly support, encouragement and advises during my research. I also have to thank İbrahim Kuran, Göktuğ Taner, Gültekin Göllü and Vahdi Kanatsiz for their friendly backing and İlhan Sezer and Fethi Ramazanoğlu for tolerating and helping me during my thesis writing process as my home mates. Also I feel indebted to my aunt Nihal Büyükçam and my cousin Göker Büyükçam for opening their house for months during my MA thesis work and for their unlimited understanding. I should also express my thankfulness to TÜBİTAK, Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) Bilim İnsanı Destekleme Daire Başkanlığı for their generous scholarship support during my MA studies and thesis research. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract………………….………………………………….…………………....……..iv Özet...................................................................................................................................v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………….……………………..…………...….......vi TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………….………..…………..….….vii INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………...…………..……...1 CHAPTER I – The New Ottoman Weltanschauung in the Early 20th Century…...…..18 I.1. The Intellectual Changes in the Tanzimat Period (1839-1876).………......19 I.1.b. Emergence of a New Intellectual Coterie: Young Ottomans.…...26 I.2. Intellectual Developments during the Hamidian Years (1876-1908)…......28 I.2.b. The Positivist and Materialist Views of Young Turks ……...….33 I.3. Second Constitutional Period…………………………………………...…36 I.4. Analysis: Late Ottoman Weltanschauung………………………….…...…38 CHAPTER II – Emergence of “New Islam”: The Religious Transformations in 19th Century Ottoman Empire……….………………….…….….…42 II.1. What was Classical Ottoman Islam like? ...................................................44 II.2. Ottoman Ulema Challenged…………………………………….……...…50 II.3. Islamic Thought of Young Ottomans……………………………………..55 II.4. Sufism and Movement of Re-Islamization……………………………….58 II.5.HamidianIslamic Policies………………………………………………....61 II.6. Analysis: Change in the Conception and Social Operation of Islam….…65 CHAPTER III – Islamic Revival in the Second Constitutional Period (1908-1918).....68 III.1. Views of Young Turks on Islam………………………………..………..68 III.2. How to Understand Islamism (Islamcilik)……………………………….73 III.3. Islamist Mobilization in the Second Constitutional Period………….…..82 III.4. Influences of Salafi/Modernist Islamist Thought………………………..87 III.5. Basic Pillars of Ottoman Islamist Thought……………………………....93 III.6. Views on Sufism and Superstitions in the Late Ottoman Period…….…..97 CHAPTER IV - Semsettin Gunaltay‟s Ideas on Superstitions, Sufism and Conception of “True Islam”…………….…………….............108 IV.1. Basic Features of Gunaltay‟s Superstition and Sufism Discourse….….109 IV.1.a. Islam and Decline: Saving the nation by saving Islam……….109 7 IV.1.b. Superstitions as the other of “True Islam”……………...……114 IV.1.b.i. Ignorance and superstitions…………………...…….119 IV.1.b.ii. Passivity as a sin…………………...……………….122 IV.1.c. Rhetoric on Sufi Orders: Under the garment of a sheikh, in the corner of a tekke…………...…………..……...……....126 IV.2. Semsettin Gunaltay‟s Attempts to Design a Modern Islam……………130 IV.2.a. How to Determine Superstitions: Problem of Sources and Methodology ……………………….………..…………..131 IV.2.b. What is True Islam?..................................................................134 IV.2.c. True Islam as “Natural Religion”….…………………….…...137 IV.2.d. Where to Locate True Islam?...................................................143 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………….……………146 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………….……………155 8 INTRODUCTION