A view of modern Istanbul (Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a fourth portion of 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
In partial reaction, the Ottoman government attempted to establish \u201cOttomanism\u201d as the legal basis of the empire\u2014as reflected, for example, in the law of nationality and citizenship promulgated in 1869 and the Constitution of 1876.\u00a0 The related concept of hubb \u00fcl-vatan<\/i>, \u201clove of country\u201d or patriotism, had already appeared in Turkish by 1841; thinkers connected with the Young Ottoman movement (formed in 1865) were promoting the \u201cfatherland\u201d (vatan<\/i>; Arabic watan<\/i>) and the Ottoman \u201cnation.\u201d\u00a0 Ottomanism, however, was somewhat ambivalent with regard to the weight to be placed upon Islamic faith as a component in individual, societal, and political identity.\u00a0 The new constitution also included a formal declaration that the \u201chigh Islamic caliphate\u201d belonged to the Ottoman ruling house, thus staking a claim to universal Muslim authority.\u00a0 And the writings of Namik Kemal, the Young Ottomans\u2019 intellectual leader, show interest neither in the history of Anatolia prior to the arrival of the Muslim Turks nor in the history of the Turks before their conversion.\u00a0 In fact, he seldom uses the word Turk<\/i> at all.\u00a0 Instead, he emphasizes the term Ottoman<\/i>, which, although it sometimes designates all of the sultan\u2019s subjects, of whatever religion, often denotes only the sultan\u2019s Muslim subjects.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nOttomanism was, in fact, incoherent, torn between particularistic loyalty to the multiethnic, multifaith empire as it was and a dream of Muslim unity similar to that which motivated the famous pan-Islamic activist Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (d. 1897).\u00a0 Of course, despite his own public piety, al-Afghani himself seems to have been a natural-law deist and rationalist, and to have valued Islam primarily as a civilization rather than a religious faith.\u00a0 Clearly indicating that he recognized its power as a political force, however, he insisted on orthodox Islam for the masses.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nOttomanist ambivalence did not escape the non-Muslim minorities.\u00a0 Understanding that they were not, and could not be, incorporated into the empire as full equals, sharing a common culture, they could not truly be Ottoman patriots in the same sense that English, Spanish, or French patriots were loyal to a country and a unified nation-state.\u00a0 On the other hand, the separatist ethnic nationalism that had already arisen in the polyglot empires and small principalities of eastern and central Europe was fully available to them.\u00a0 Thus, when, in 1875, the Ottoman treasury declared insolvency, nationalist revolts broke out among the Christians of the Balkans, leading to bloody ethnic and religious confrontations. Responding, the European powers pressured Ottoman leadership to grant autonomy to Christians.\u00a0 And, in fact, the short-lived legislative assembly established by the Constitution of 1876 included deputies from all the peoples of the empire.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Ucluelet, British Columbia<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Here\u2019s a fourth portion of 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 In partial reaction, the Ottoman government attempted to establish \u201cOttomanism\u201d as the legal basis of […]<\/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-63322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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