Evening on the Bosphorus in Istanbul \u00a0\u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a third selection from an article that I wrote for\u00a0Richard C. Martin, et al., eds., \u00a0Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World<\/em>, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004), on the subject of \u201cMuslim Identity\u201d:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Ottoman Empire and Its Immediate Aftermath<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nIn its classic Ottoman form, the millet system dates from the reign of Mehmed II (r. 1451-1481), and endured until the nineteenth century.\u00a0 By the end of Mehmed\u2019s reign, Orthodox Christian, Armenian Christian, Jewish, and Muslim millets had been organized.\u00a0 Each was headed by its own highest-ranking religious dignitary (respectively, the Orthodox patriarch, the chief rabbi, the Armenian patriarch, and, for Muslims, the seyh\u00fclislam<\/i>.\u00a0 These and other officials were chosen by their respective communities and confirmed in office (or, occasionally, rejected) by the Ottoman government.\u00a0 Millets decided on issues related to religious doctrine and practice and questions of personal status (e.g., marriage, divorce, and inheritance).<\/span><\/p>\nHowever, Ottoman sultans understood themselves, first and foremost, as Muslim emperors ruling an Islamic empire.\u00a0 Subsequent Ottoman monarchs accordingly sought to transcend their dynasty\u2019s origin as a line of successful war lords and border skirmishers\u2014so frankly expressed in the title sultan<\/i> itself, derived from the Arabic word sulta<\/i>, \u201cpower\u201d\u2014and to claim religious sanction for their rule.\u00a0 This is evident in the treaty of K\u00fcc\u00fck-Kaynarca (1774), in which, for the first time, the sultanate asserted extraterritorial religious jurisdiction over non-Ottoman Muslims.\u00a0 A few years later, the story appeared that the last Abbasid caliph had transferred the caliphate\u2014the right to universal Islamic rule as legal heir of the Prophet Muhammad\u2014to Selim I upon the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517.\u00a0 While the claim had relatively little practical impact beyond the effective borders of Ottoman political power, it reinforced the sultan\u2019s claim to authority based on the religious identity\u00a0 and self-understanding of the majority of his subjects.<\/span><\/p>\nVocal claims to Islamic authority, however, carried no weight with the sultan\u2019s non-Muslim subjects, and, indeed, probably tended to alienate them.\u00a0 Thus, as the empire weakened and Western influences (including legal and commercial privileges granted to European powers) increased in Ottoman lands, nationalist sentiments arose among its Christian minorities, who had a natural kinship to the Christian West and were understandably more susceptible to its influence.\u00a0 These new nationalist ideas were introduced to populations lacking any prior experience of secularism, or of a separation between religion and politics.\u00a0 So minority nationalisms expressed themselves religiously, within the context of the already existing millet system.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
To be continued.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Victoria, British Columbia<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Here\u2019s a third selection from an article that I wrote for\u00a0Richard C. Martin, et al., eds., \u00a0Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004), on the subject of \u201cMuslim Identity\u201d: \u00a0 The Ottoman Empire and Its Immediate Aftermath In its classic Ottoman form, the millet system […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Evening](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/06\/Evening_in_Istanbul_15852868549.jpg\")
<\/a>