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Islam and modern civilization have been a targeted subject of great interest by authors in history and precisely in the Turkish Nationalism and Western ideologies. Ziya Gokalp is a renowned author who through his numerous efforts tried to adopt new sciences from the modern idealism in the Islam religion. The author points out that the Islam religion unlike the traditional Christian religion was well-suited to the Western idealism from because it flourished independently without the being politically influenced and also never conflicted with sociology in its history. This essay therefore provides a detailed discussion on Islam and Modern Civilization by focusing on the author, the substance and the historical context under which the book is written.
About the Author
The book is written by Mehmed Ziya Gokalp, a leader whose prominence shone in the early 20th century. He was the founder of Turkish nationalism. He was also an adamant poet, activist and writer. In 1908, the Young Turk Revolution reinstated the constitution and he derived his name Gokalp, which means a sky hero. Mehmed Ziya was also a sociologist who was remembered for his influence in pan-Islamism and Islamism. Ziyas’s reign was however not smooth as he attempted to end his life in 1894.
However, the mission was unsuccessful causing him to live with a dispatched bullet in his brain until his demise. He was also incarcerated for being a participant of the Young Turks Opposition. Mehmed Ziya first championed the idea of Pan-Turkism but later changed his ideology to embrace the Turks of the Ottoman Empire online. He was also concerned with the westernization and modernization that the Turkish state was experiencing. Gokalp was later exiled in 1918 but was later freed in 1921 after the nationalist victory. He then established himself in Ankara where he worked in a translation agency. Gokalp was then elected in the New Turkish parliament as a member of parliament in 1923 but died soon after the election.
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About the Book
Years after Ziya Gokalp’s death, there still remains the most original works by a Turkish writer to ever be written. Most of the writings were written between 1911 and 1918 and also between 1922 and 1924. The book is a discussion of the fight for the liberation of turkey accruing from the restoration of the constitutional regime. The book follows Gokalp’s views and his idea on the regime under Ataturk. The main theme in the book is the question on why the Turks should embrace western civilization and how to navigate the change to concur with the Turkish traditions and the Islamic backgrounds. In other words, the book aimed at discussing what Turks as a nation, with Islam as the predominant religion would merge under the contemporary civilization conditions.
In the book, Gokalp’s distinctively lays the facts in a coherent manner and analysis the ramifications of his decision as guidelines for embracing the new cultural policy. His writings cut across the declining Ottoman Empire to the era of the new nationalist regime . He discusses the two regimes in his book in terms of their merits and shortcomings. With the downfall of the Ottoman Empire after the World War 1, Gokalp’s ideas were given an opportunity to materialize. Despite his death in the early phases of Ataturk’s reforms, his writings clearly provided the blueprint behind the tremendous reforms.
Historical Context of the Source
The book is an account of Mehmed accounts during the repressive years of Sultan Abd al Hamid. Understanding the context that shaped his intellectual contribution is imperative in understanding the book. Mehmed lived through the decline of the Ottoman Empire to the new Republic of Turkey. The 19th and 20th centuries were aimed at preventing the collapse of the empire from the independent movements that were gaining momentum in Turkey. In the end, all the independent movements aimed at modernizing the country.
However, Islamism being the predominant religion in the era thrived self-reliantly with no influence from any political force such as the Roman Empire which was the force behind the Christianity religion. Henceforth, Islamism was attuned with the new sciences as its history never conflicted with science . In an attempt to modernize the country, such efforts as sending students abroad to learn about scientific developments and extending the rights and liberties of minorities emerged and were fully supported by the positivists of the modern ideologies from the Western world. Various ideological directions were followed to maintain the unity of the empire.
First, Ottomanism endeavored to unite all subjects under the Ottoman identity while the Islamism attempted to unite the Muslim population in the empire under the leadership of the Ottoman caliph. At the same time, the Turkism culture aimed at the unity of all ethnic Turks. All these efforts were rendered fruitless at the end of the First World War. The Sèvres Treaty between the Empire of Ottoman and the Allies imposed a sharing out of significant segments of the territory belonging to Ottoman with the Allies as well as Kurdish and Armenian minorities.
This was negated shortly after the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1923) brought about by the Lausanne agreement of 1923, which demarcated the geographical borders of the Republic of Turkey. The Sèvres agreement meant brought to an end of the empire and produced a long-standing trauma in Turkish politics, called the Sèvres syndrome, about an existential threat posed by foreign powers and local minorities. In contrast, Gökalp’s intellectual endeavour was characterized by his vision of a sociological model for Turkey that would hold people together. Initially, he attempted to evade the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire through minority movements, and then, he theorized about the Turkish nation and proposed a comprehensive synthesis of Turkification, Islamization and modernization.
In the centre of this synthesis, we can find the culture and civilization duality. Through his modernist efforts, Gokalp created a project model referred to as ‘Social Legal Theory’ that is integral in the combination of both the traditional Islamic law and the modern sociology. Of importance to note is that ‘fih’ despite being regarded as Islamic law in most ancient studies, it bears a wider scope of economic, social as well as ethical issues. Furthermore, spiritual beliefs originate from sacred texts referred to as “nass” and customary practices called “orf”. The sacred texts based on the revelation and the norms of the fortune-teller while orf depended on the practices of the Muslim civilization.
